After the enormous box office success of Kung Fu Panda and Kung Fu Panda 2, it’s such a given that audiences are presented a Kung Fu Panda 3 this weekend. Where the first film introduced us to Jack Black’s Po, the animated-overweight Panda who showed inklings of a gift of martial arts and learned to use said skills to become a hero, the second continued his journey while he learned valuable lessons about being adopted and now the third has a whole dumpling full of messages that families and audiences of all ages should cherish.
By putting the stakes of the third film in its opening moments, filmmakers Alessandro Carloni and Jennifer Yuh put the story’s urgency front and center. The evil Kai (a Yak voiced by J.K. Simmons) is determined to take the chi of all the great and powerful martial arts masters and he is coming from the spirit world to earth in search of the last great threat to his ruling the world… Po!
The entire gang is back, including Angelina Jolie’s Tigress, Seth Rogen’s Mantis, Lucy Liu’s Viper, David Cross’ Crane, Jackie Chan’s Monkey and Dustin Hoffman’s Shifu. James Hong returns as Po’s adoptive father, Mr. Ping, and in this film he is given a much wider role as he and Po have the challenge of figuring out how to go forward now that Po’s father Li (Bryan Cranston) has wandered back into his life.
Kai is coming for Po and his team of Kung Fu Fighters are slowly but surely being targeted for their chi extractions. Meanwhile, Po is trying to sort out his feelings about finally finding his dad, how his “old” dad will deal with the change and that provides Kung Fu Panda 3 its finest lesson, one that continues from the previous two movies – that family is where you make it. There is not such a thing as “too” much love and that Po can be loved both by his real and adoptive father.
Now, if it seems like there is a whole lot of emotion in Kung Fu Panda 3, think again. This is an action packed animated treat with Po demonstrating a slew of new moves and a few old tricks that will keep fans of the series wondering how this entire battle of good versus evil will play out. In terms of a villain, the series has never had one as menacing as Kai. Simmons gets so lots in his role, the audience will surely forget they’re listening to the voice performance of the Oscar winner from Whiplash. And Cranston, Oscar nominee for Trumbo, is beyond brilliant as Po’s biological father, bringing nuances and subtlety to a performance that could have honestly been quite cartoonish.
It should also be noted that one of the largest surprises in Kung Fu Panda 3 is the vocal talents of Kate Hudson. She voices a panda Mei Mei, who could be a love interest for Po, that he meets when he heads “home” with his father to meet an entire village full of his kind.
The star here, clearly, is Black. He was born to voice Po and in many ways it’s easy to see that the animators use his body movements and reflection to bring the Kung Fu loving panda to life. It’s hard to imagine anyone else providing the voice for the lovable and heroic panda.
If it seems that Kung Fu Panda 3 has set up the franchise to move triumphantly forward, that is probably on purpose. Our hero has never been more ready to tackle his future, and so too will the audience after witnessing the latest from DreamWorks Animation.
Grade: B