Kung Fu Panda 3
"You must rediscover what it is like to be a panda!" -Li
Kung Fu Panda 3 is the third (and final?) installment in the Dreamworks Animation family-action packed series. It's directed by Alessandro Carloni (Kung Fu Panda, How to Train Your Dragon) and Jennifer Yuh (Kung Fu Panda, Kung Fu Panda 2). It stars Jack Black as Po, Bryan Cranston as Li, J.K. Simmons as Kai, Dustin Hoffman as Shifu, Angelina Jolie as Tigress, Seth Rogen as Mantis, Jackie Chan as Monkey, David Cross as Crane, Lucy Liu as Viper, James Hong as Mr. Ping, Kate Hudson as Mei Mei, and Randall Duk Kim as Oogway.
Fun fact: Most of these actors/actresses didn't meet each other while working on the project because everyone's voice was recorded separately from each other.
Kung Fu Panda 3 is the next adventure in Po's (panda) ever so similar struggle to find out what his true potential and identity is. Shifu (red panda), Master of the Jade Palace, is now passing the torch of "teacher" of Kung Fu to Po. Po dismisses this promotion because he doesn't believe that he has the ability to instruct others on how to learn Kung Fu. While this journey of self discovery happens, Po's biological father, Li (a panda) comes back into his life, which poses a real big dilemma for Po's adoptive father, Mr. Ping (a duck). All the while Po deals with his family struggles, Master Oogway's (a tortoise) old brother-in-arms Kai (a bull) comes back from the spirit world to take every Kung Fu master's chi and turn them into his slaves. Po learns, through one of Oogway's scrolls, that there is a secret panda village with pandas who know the power of controlling chi. Li takes Po to the Panda village to learn the power of chi so that he can stop the villainous Kai. Along the way, he learns more about himself, his family, and what it's like to be a panda.
The cuddly and silly Panda continues his journey to Kung Fu mastery!
Sequels, in general, tend to have the notoriety for killing the franchise it set out to be. It's just been like that for a long time. There are a handful of sequels that make it an exception. Sometimes they are as good, if not better, than the original. With animated sequels, the contenders are really just the Toy Story franchise and the How to Train Your Dragon franchise. I can now say that the Kung Fu Panda franchise is a solid animated franchise, maybe not as emotional or story driven as the other two franchises, but it's sure as fun as they are. Kung Fu Panda 3 is a great conclusion (?) to Po the Panda's action-packed adventures.
Yes, Po! Be the proud Panda you deserve to be!
I'm not going to sugarcoat what I thought when I first saw the trailer to Kung Fu Panda 3: I was really against it. The reason was that it was an animated movie coming out in January. That is just a blatant red light for me right there. I saw it anyways and I was pleasantly surprised by the results. I was laughing, shaking, and even moving around my chair a little because of some of the action scenes. I feel like it's common that we judge the humor in animated comedies based on if it appeals to both kids and adults. Even if we do, it's still a good way to view it's appeal. In Kung Fu Panda 3, there are jokes that go over the heads of kids and applies to adults, jokes that are specifically aimed towards kids, and jokes that suit both kids and adults. I don't think there was anybody in the theater that I was at that did not laugh at least once. Since it was both animated, comedy, and action, expect a lot of the humor to be slapstick. The thing is, the Kung Fu Panda franchise has some of the best slapstick humor I have seen in any animated film. It works perfectly here.
For some reason, this guy on the left made me laugh the hardest out of every character in the movie (though he had only like two scenes).
Going off the slapstick humor, the action scenes were beautifully put together. Both 2D and 3D animation were incorporated for these scenes. I really enjoy the application of both dimensions purely on how amazing it looks on screen. Besides the amazing animation during and off the action scenes, the fighting was also creative. At times the hand-to-hand combat looked so fantastical, such as the scenes in the spirit realm, and at other times, the fighting was abnormal fighting, such as using dumplings to attack enemies. Both types of fighting styles fit the film well though. It's ridiculous, yet effective.
This panda, Mei Mei, used her ribbon for fighting. She also used nunchucks, but those aren't as interesting as a ribbon!
Kung Fu Panda 3 deserves all of the praise I'm giving it, however the story does falter a little on how it's presented. The plot is very familiar to its predecessors. Po is being himself, but he is given the task to do something even greater. He says he can't do it. With a little help from the people around him, he is able to figure out a little more about himself and what his true potential is. This is the staple of each of the Kung Fu Panda stories. It works in the way that every movie in the franchise is like a step to being the Kung Fu master. It's just kind of repetitive. Hey, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
C'mon! You can't hate on this guy! He's so awesome!
Even if the plot does feel like you've seen this in the previous two Kung Fu Panda films, it's still a fun, energetic, family friendly, and totally entertaining movie for literally all ages. After I saw this movie, I read that it was originally supposed to come out in December of last year, but due to the studios not wanting to compete with Star Wars they decided to release it in January. So even though it is technically a January release, December is when Dreamworks wanted to release it. No wonder I found Kung Fu Panda 3 so entertaining! Skadoosh!
4.6/5
PRO
- Jokes were far more funny than the other comedies this January
- Animation was beautiful
- Fitting addition to it's great franchise
- Fighting scenes were clever and action-packed
- Po's story is all too familiar to his previous two films
Kung Fu Panda 3 is rated PG for martial arts action and some mild rude humor
Click here to watch the trailer
Kung Fu Panda 3 is in theaters everywhere now
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