Directed by Alessandro Carloni and Jennifer Yuh
Starring Jack Black, Bryan Cranston, Dustin Hoffman, and JK Simmons
Dreamworks Animation has always been hit and miss with their films. For a while back there, frankly the only good films they were putting out were Shrek and stuff they were distributing for Aardman Animation. Then in 2008 came the first Kung Fu Panda, and it sort of ushered in a new era of quality for the studio.
Six years later, and the quality of their output is still all over the spectrum. Blame it on financial troubles of the studio, poor creative decisions or some combination of both. Along side the How To Train Your Dragon's , the Kung Fu Panda film series remains their best work. Five years after the stellar Kung Fu Panda 2, comes the next installment, Kung Fu Panda 3. While the film only enforces my previous statement, I still found it to be the weakest of the three Kung Fu Panda's.
The film opens in the Spirit Realm, which apparently is where Master Oogway (Randall Duk Kim) went in the middle of the first film. Oogway is confronted by his old friend-turned-nemesis Kai (Simmons), who has stolen the chi from all the kung fu masters in the Spirit Realm. After stealing Oogway's chi, Kai gains the power to return to the mortal realm, where he plans to steal...even more kung fu masters' chi! Of course before he leaves, Oogway foretells of another warrior destined to defeat Kai. (Guess who it is?!?)
Back in the mortal realm, Master Shifu (Hoffman) tells his students he is ready to retire, and has chosen Dragon Warrior Po (Black) as his replacement. Po proves to be a horrible teacher. Shifu tells him if he wants to be a good teacher, he has to come to understand what it means to be him, to be the Dragon Warrior. Po's plate only gets heavier when his biological father (Cranston) returns and offers to take him back to a secret panda village, and teach him what it really means to be a panda. Then on top of that, Po must prepare to face Kai.
So while I do think this is a good story, I do wish they had taken one or two more passes at the script. The theme of Po discovering who he is, it's a bit of a rehash of his character arc in the previous film. I can see both sides of it though. While Kung Fu Panda 2 was Po discovering who he is, Kung Fu Panda 3 is more about what it means to be him. The former deals with more with the Po side of things, while the latter deals with the Dragon Warrior side. That's all well and good, I just wish the script in 3 did more to set it apart from 2.
The animation in this series has always been spectacular, and this film does not disappoint. The animators really craft a beyond beautiful Spirit Realm, which are the visual highlights of the film, and the Ancient China setting looks as good as ever. The fight scenes in the Spirit Realm look awesome, but ones taking place in other parts of the film never manage to match the grand scale of those in the previous films. The music is once again epic, particularly the theme for our villain, Kai.
The returning voice cast are more than comfortable in their roles by now, and all do great work, so let's focus on the new additions. Bryan Cranston as Po's father Li Shan…I mean it's Bryan Cranston. Has the man ever turned in a bad performance? JK Simmons is hard to recognize as Kai, except for a few moments, but sadly he's the worst of the series' three villains. His motivation and backstory sadly do not reach the compelling, emotional heights of Tai Lung or Lord Shen. Then there's Kate Hudson, playing like, kind of a new love interest for Po? Which is fine but she's just kinda there.
So while probably not worth the five year wait, Kung Fu Panda 3 is still a well-crafted film, and manages to still be one of Dreamworks Animation's best films in recent years. Never reaching the epic-ness of the first or the emotional gravitas of the second, it still retains the fun (If I could borrow from the film's dialogue) awesomeness of its predecessors. It provides a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy, if this does prove to be the last film in the series. Fans of Kung Fu Panda and animation alike will not be disappointed, and I think will agree that this will go down in history as one of the best animated film series of our time.
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