The movie, directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson and Alessandro Carloni, also promotes the ideas of cooperation and stepping outside your comfort zone.
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In Kung Fu Panda 3, the now-confident Dragon Warrior known as Po (Jack Black) is content in protecting the Valley of Peace alongside his friends and fellow kung fu masters, the Furious Five.
The actress was in the Sichuan province last week (ends22Jan16) as part of the press tour for her new animated film Kung Fu Panda 3, in which she voices dancing panda Mei Mei, and she was granted the rare opportunity to cuddle with a baby bear during a visit to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. Even if it recycles numerous plot and thematic elements of its predecessors, KFP3 is still reasonably entertaining for kids and other fans of the series, with lush animation and fun, likable characters. In more routine terms, there’s another supervillain – an evil spirit voiced indiscriminately by J.K. Simmons – who has emerged from the “spirit realm” and is set on imprisoning all kung fu masters and absorbing their powers in yet another bid for world domination. Each step along the path of the “Kung Fu Panda” saga has been a big one for Po, and in this latest chapter, he faces two: a supernatural enemy, Kai (voiced by J.K. Simmons) for battles of a physical nature; and Li (Bryan Cranston), whose physical presence leads to internal struggles within his heart and mind.
This is also probably the most stylized Kung Fu Panda we’ve seen.
If that weren’t enough drama, Po’s biological father, Li, has turned up, causing consternation for Po’s adoptive father, Mr. Ping (the very amusing James Hong). The thing is, nobody actually knows who Kai is until he mentions his past with Oogway, which adds a humorous element to him. Po remains a charming bumbler – excited to learn, for example, that other pandas don’t eat with chopsticks.
The fate of everyone and everything he holds dear ultimately rests in Po’s paws, and he must find a way to defeat Kai using his special skills. Po also loses the support of some of the characters he has always depended on when their chi is stolen by Kai.
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Who hasn’t fallen in love with the adorable Po, as he continues on his legendary adventures of awesomeness? The animators had already grabbed our attention with the mystical jade energy Kai commands, and those visuals really explode here, riotously swirled with the sunset-colored glow marking Po’s ascent to next-level bodaciousness. Po embraces this lifestyle wholeheartedly, but realizes that it’s the individual aspects of who he is that make him, him. Master Tigress (Angelina Jolie) does appear mid-way to help Po, but the relative importance of this scene is minimal. Shifu, for instance, tells Po, “If you only do what you can do, you will never be more than you are now”. The first Kung Fu Panda grossed $26 million in China in 2008, a massive performance at a time when annual box office was roughly one-tenth of what it is today.
