Kung Fu Panda 3

Kung Fu Panda 3 is about what you would expect. A roller coaster ride of gags, goof ups and outrageous martial art outbursts. Po is himself, clumsy, naïve, martial arts master and funny. As usual he is accompanied by his friends from the previous movies including the somewhat reluctant Shifu. The wise turtle Oogway from the first Kung Fu Panda is back as well, kind of. Naturally there is a big bad villain, General Kai, who it turns out have some past relations to Oogway. General Kai is pretty good as a villain with a suitable maniacal expression on his face. Then of course, a bull in itself is already projecting bad temper and violence so it is a good start. The main story is of course about defeating General Kai but Po’s reunification with his (real) father and the rest of the, funny and very clumsy, inhabitants in the Panda village is taking up a large part of the movie. In general the story is quite nice with some nice twists. It should come as no surprise that Po, as usual, saves the day in a cataclysmic showdown with General Kai. There are some great animation effects in the final battle. At the end of the day this is a quite recommendable family movie.

"Po" just wants a peaceable life but Master "Chifu" has other plans. He wants to go spend some more time with his chi, so asks his dragon lord to take over the training regime of his pals. The now fairly accomplished panda thinks that's a daft idea, but who is he to argue? In the village one afternoon he meets another, paunchier, giant panda that is looking for his log lost son? The briefest moment of confusion follows before hugs and tears and now "Po" has two dads! Just as well because we quickly learn that the long imprisoned bull "General Kai" has escaped from his inter-dimensional prison bent on destroying everything connected with his former mentor "Oogway" - and that includes just about all of them! Team "Po" has to get it's act together in the face of such a mighty foe - and that takes them to the hitherto secret land of the pandas and to an ultimate confrontation with their chain-swirling nemesis. Can "Po" believe in himself? Can his new-found family and his old one join together to help him? No, I don't suppose there is heaps of jeopardy here, but the characters are engaging and I like this creature that has a modesty about his skills that's quite refreshing. Team work? Yes. Family baggage? Yes. Loads of action scenes? Yes. Indeed, it's just a fun rehash of the others in the franchise that uses some characterful animation to tell an adventure story that anyone can watch and enjoy. It doesn't pontificate, which is another element to this strand that I rather like, and it mixes up just enough mythology to keep it a bit special. Not as good as the first one, but the strong ensemble of beasties and acrobatics works well for a quickly paced family adventure.

I enjoyed the movie, funny good story but after watching them in a row 1, 2 and 3 the story is looking very familiar. That was disappointing. But having the rest right certainly makes up for it and enough of a change to make it worth watching. Great actors supporting the movie with their voices also makes this a fantastic movie.