As much as this can be seen as making a mountain out of a molehill to most people, but the performance of Kung Fu Panda 2 against The Hangover Part II this last weekend was a dispiriting moment for a film and animation lover as myself.

I hate it when an artistic production gets such a success it does not deserve if the Hangover's Tomatometer of only 35% on Rotten Tomatoes is any indication while KFP2 has 80%. Whether it is inadequate marketing (how can a campaign that includes a kick ass Super Bowl commercial be considered "inadequate"?) or the public turning against 3D presentation is to blame, I fear that DreamWorks may draw the wrong lessons from this incident and not strive to make as good a film as they can for the next sequel, provided there is one.

I know I shouldn't be so hasty; the film got an A with CinemaScore's audience survey, which indicates it's connecting with audiences and thus has a good potential for good legs as word of mouth gets around. Furthermore, the film is going like gangbusters internationally, especially in China, with the promise of much more when the film is fully opened up in other countries. That alone is proving a big factor for big moneymaking films and hopefully DW might feel the upcoming Kung Fu Panda TV series may go a long way to further develop the audience for Part 3. As it is, I try to remember what John Grant said, "Quality always pays off in the end"

Alas for the short term, a film starting out slow in the summer movie season has a much greater challenge to make it big than in other seasons. After all, How to Train Your Dragon had a clear field in spring 2010 with more than a month of no major animated or family films as competition to become such a sustained hit. KFP2 on the other hand has to withstand the premieres of X-Men: First Class, Super 8 and Green Lantern as big family friendly headliners in each of the following weeks to contend with until Pixar's comes out with their own sell out sequel, Cars 2, to close the window.

As I said above, I know this is trivial, but I deeply enjoy the KFP series and I would like it get the full accolades deserves. After all, I was volunteering for my national political party in the last federal election and having done my bit in something really important, I was hoping for a little more substantial good news in some other area.