Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016) Movie Review

Director: Jennifer Yuh Nelson and Alessandro Carloni

Actor Voices: Jack Black (Po), Dustin Hoffman (Shifu), J K Simmons (Kai), and others being James Hong, Bryan Cranston, Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu, David Cross, Kate Hudson

Genre: Animation Action

Po, “Woah! Are you really giving this to me?”; Oogway, “Well I have a bigger one!”. This sequel, of one of the most entertaining movie series of Kung Fu Panda, has lived up to our expectations. Just like its prequels, it is action packed, absolutely humorous, touching and is family-friendly.

The movie’s storyline connects well with the previous two movies and solves the mystery of Po’s adoption. While, the existence of a secret panda village adds to the thrill, but the movie is a bit predictable.

Shifu (Hoffman) is looking for some spiritual time, and tells Po (Jack Black) to take upon his teaching duties. However, even before Po could think about it, a panda reaches the valley and beats Po’s long standing dumpling eating record. Apparently, they are the only pandas left in the entire world and it takes them a few seconds to realize that they are father and son. Meanwhile, an old enemy of Master Oogway, Kai (JK Simmons) comes back from the spirit world and starts capturing the “chi”, the spiritual energy that exists in all living beings; of all the Kung Fu masters of China and becomes powerful. It is once again up to Po to save the world.

The animation is excellent, and the colors are bright and vivid. The animation is stunning throughout the movie as the story moves from the valley to the secret panda village to the yellowish-golden hue of the spirit’s realm. The fast paced soundtrack with traditional instruments is both suspenseful and exuberant. However, you might want to view it in 2-D rather than 3-D as the glasses can impair the beauty of the animation. The editing is crisp ensuring that the movie doesn’t drag. The voice casting is spot on.  However, there are possibly, a larger number of characters than necessary.

The storyline is thrilling and has numerous plot twists, it is quite short and crisp at a duration of 95 minutes. Po’s extremely hilarious character compliments to the storyline. The excellent voice casting and superb animation ensures that the characters look lively. In all, this movie is a fine and well-crafted story that is highly enjoyable.