Kung Fu Panda 2

There is a strong adoption story here, and while it is overall a very positive one, some of it is told in a way that will be hard for some kids. Basically Po finds out that he is adopted (his father struggles to even say the word when he tells him) and is having a hard time trying to understand "who he is" and where he came from. At one point he tells another character that he just found out "his dad is not his real dad" and at another time the villain tells Po that his parents deserted him because they didn't love him. Po also has a dream where he sees his Panda parents and they ask what he is doing there, that they have replaced him with a radish that is quite, polite and even does Kung Fu better than he does. Also - part of the story line is that when the villain was younger he did something bad (really bad) and so his parents banished him from the kingdom forever. This is something my 6 year old has struggled with all night since coming home (what do you have to do to get sent away? Do any parents send their kids away?) and my daughter has never had abandonment issues. In the end, Po finds out what happened to his Panda parents and realizes that even though he had a hard start to life it is who he makes himself into that counts. The overall adoption message is very positive but some of the story getting there will be uncomfortable for some kids. Basically my kids liked the movie but the older one was definately affected by the way some of the adoption/abandonment story was told. We have seen several movies with adoption in them and this is the first to affect her in this way. Be prepared to have some serious conversations if you take adopted kids to the movie and I absolutely wouldn't recommend it for kids struggling with adoption or abandonment.

When kids are little they cannot put the overall of the movie into a culminating point. I don’t mean piecing the events together, but the emotion of it. If a child is under the maturity level of a 9-10yr old I think this movie could be damaging for a younger adopted child. I think they would just remember the emotion of scenes themselves and not the overall context. The scenes were horrifying for a young adopted child to see. For example, being told your parents did not want you, Panda having a vision of his birth parents telling him they replaced him with a radish because that veggie is better at Kung Fu than he is.. Stuff like that. But if the child is really mature enough to piece a 90 minute movie together in terms of emotion (not just events), then the movie has a positive theme for an adopted child. Panda walks through some of the thought that can be common while processing adoption.. but common to an much older child, teen or young adult. It is intense, not light hearted at all. He comes full circle to accept it all in the end. As for the movie outside of that aspect, I thought it was dark. I think an average movie gives the villain about 25% of screen time. This movie had the evil villain being evil on screen for more than half the movie. Maybe I don’t have it down to math, but if felt like double or triple the screen time was given to the villain compared to your average cartoon. There was hardly any jokes, it was not overall a funny movie. It was not light hearted. There was no character building of the good guys. Also very little relationship between the good guy in the story. There was non stop fighting and it got boring because it took away from the story. Also there was a lot of things of a fortune telling nature. NOT for a 6 year old.

This is not for your kids, at least not the same age for the first movie. KFP2 is dark with a true evil villain. He is mentally messed up and is seen killing multiple characters. There really is no comedy in this one, just a few jokes or 'doh'. KFP1 was funny and kept us laughing the whole movie. I wish I didn't bring my kids. But this really is a good adult movie. Good characters, plot and hero-villian story.There is fighting beginning to end.