Review #1,052: 'Kung Fu Panda 3' (2016)

It seems that whenever an animated film is a hit nowadays, a sequel is a given and the idea of a franchise gets the studio heads salivating. The quality tends to decline as the movies go on, with the exception of the Toy Story films, yet as long as the money piles up they'll just continue to churn them out - the increasingly unbearable Ice Age franchise being the worst offender. It was never in doubt that the hugely successful Kung Fu Panda (2008) would get a sequel, and when it came it was surprisingly good; a feast for the eyes backed by Gary Oldman's fantastic vocal performance and a serious undertone of genocide. It's taken 5 years for number 3 to finally arrive, so was a third instalment truly justified?

Well yes and no, with a lot more emphasis on the yes. The series' strongest suit has always been the visuals, and the explosive, exciting action sequences here are some of the best in animation history. But the ideas running through the first two films were more or less 'stay true to yourself' and 'follow your dreams', and here it seems to be highlighting the importance of family, themes which are interchangeable and simplistic. So more of the same then, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Picking up the story not long after the events of Kung Fu Panda 2, Po (Jack Black) is still juggling his time between his adoptive father Mr. Ping (James Hong) and his noodle stand, and training with Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) and the Furious Five.

While Po is viewed as a hero and seems to be enjoying his celebrity status a bit too much, Shifu reminds him of his position as the Dragon Warrior, and feels it is time that the chubby panda takes on more responsibility by training his friends Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Monkey (Jackie Chan), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Viper (Lucy Liu) and Crane (David Cross) in the art of kung fu. Meanwhile, ancient warrior Kai (J.K. Simmons) battles his former friend Master Oogway (Randall Duk Kim) in the Spirit Realm and steals enough of his chi to return to the Mortal Realm. Using the chi of defeated masters in the form of jade warrior soldiers, Kai hopes to seek out Po and defeat the famed Dragon Warrior. However, Po is somewhat distracted by the return of his actual father Li (Bryan Cranston), a jolly panda who hopes teach his son the delights of being a panda.

Despite Alessandro Carloni and Jennifer Yuh's third instalment sharing a lot in common with the two that came before both thematically and story-wise - despite the introduction of the ingenious jade warriors and equipping Kai with a sense of humour, the film is again about Po tapping into unknown powers to defeat an evil baddie - it retains the series' effortless charm. Black is again on form as, well, Jack Black, and his distinctly American brand of humour at odds with the more straight-faced bad-asses surrounding him is one of the key aspects to these movies' success. But the real plaudits must go to the visual effects department, who have stepped up their game no end to create a truly wonderfully realised world. Dreamworks apparently have plans to make six Kung Fu Panda films, and although I'll certainly watch them if they're made, this trilogy-capper seems to be a fitting closure.


Directed by: Alessandro Carloni, Jennifer Yuh
Voices: Jack Black, Bryan Cranston, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, J.K. Simmons, Jackie Chan, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu
Country: USA/China

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie