Maybe . . . Nah

The climactic battle scene in “Kung Fu Panda 2” begins with an armada of ships armed with super-fireball-shooting cannons sailing out the harbor of fictional Gongmen City to confront Po, the furry action hero of the title. I imagine (like Claudius daydreaming of the fall of Rome) a ghostly flotilla far out ahead, made up of all the hundreds of animated movie sequels that have come before, and another one in its wake made up of the thousands yet to be born. They just keep on coming, the untold, faceless hordes out of Hollywood’s moneymaking machine. I mean, what else is there to say about “KFP2” that hasn’t been said countless times before about similar franchise-extending movies, and won’t be said about countless more? It’s not even a bad movie. “KFP2,” which I saw with my daughters in 3D at the Cinerom, is pleasing to look at, satisfying in the most basic of ways, and has a top-drawer voice cast. Above all, it was received with expressions of delight by its target audience, the 5- to 12-year-old demographic, which was quick to proclaim it the best movie of the year. Until the next one comes along, I’m sure. In the manner of a second-grade primer, “KFP2” is nominally about the journey of self-discovery. Po the Kung Fu Panda (Jack Black) sets out to challenge the evil peacock Shen (Gary Oldman), and, at the same time, to learn the secret of his birth, which eventually brings him face to face with Voldemort. Oops, sorry, with Shen, again. Po has his trusty sidekicks, the “Furious Five,” an odd assortment of creatures evidently escaped from the Bronx Zoo. They are Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Monkey (Jackie Chan), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Viper (Lucy Liu) and Crane (David Cross). Fortunately, they all know how to kick some, uh, peacock tail. How is it that a movie, whose lesson is “you are who you choose to be,” can be, at the end of the day, utterly lacking in personality, indistinguishable from a galaxy of other movies? Such are the mysteries of the focus-group-driven marketing world. An exception could be made, I suppose, for Black, whose wisecracking, slacker-style vocal mannerisms turn Po into a black-and-white version of … Jack Black. Were he a more compelling personality, rather than the person who starred in the execrable “Shallow Hal,” I might cut him some slack. (Now that it’s been 10 years since “Hal,” I’ll consider a pardon.)Continued from page 7 An exception can definitely be made for production designer Raymond Zibach, whose dazzling computerized recreations and elaborations of Chinese landscapes and chiaroscuro palette are a cut above the ordinary. Nevertheless, even these will fade from memory in a heartbeat. What would it take to make a game-changer? Where is the next “Nemo” or “Avatar”? Perhaps it all comes down to a kind of evolutionary numbers game. If enough animated action films are turned out at a fast enough rate, one of them will mutate into something new and different. Or, Hollywood could slow down and actually bring together creative people to work on something truly groundbreaking, an “Apocalypse Now” for our time. They might, like Po, even find “inner peace.” Nah. “Kung Fu Panda 2” is rated PG for mild violence. It is playing at the Moviehouse in Millerton and in 3D at the Cinerom in Torrington.