Kung Fu Panda 3

After the fantastic first movie where Po is a classic hero after being a loser, where the villain has his own story and where the others play a role making Po the character he is, came a second movie with a dark, deep and personal story greatly told, and now we have just an excuse to make Po even more bada** fighting a villain nobody cares for and who came out of nowhere. This makes me sad because it was getting more "mature". But I understand it is a kids movie, so it's still entertaining and pleasant to watch, and I'm pretty sure the kids love this movie.

The Good Stuff (in order of awesomeness)

1. Superb animation and various art styles used. Hits are emphasized well with excellent sound design and voice acting. Good action.

2. Jokes are (mostly) good, made me laugh out loud multiple times.

3. The plot and pacing is pretty good and character development is adequate.

The Bad Stuff (in order of amplitude)

1. Antagonist is not really memorable with vanilla personality and motivation.

2. Film is obviously meant for a young-ish audience and contains some irritating slapstick and bad jokes.

3. 99% of Panda characters are completely forgettable.

Should you watch it: Probably, yes. I can't stress enough how good some of the visuals are.

Time to go back into the world of DreamWorks animation. I had read more information about the company's corporate shakeup that not only involved several people replace and relocated, but it also involved the closing of the Northern California studios and the reduction of the output of feature films. It seemed like a formidable movie fiscally, until the release of last year's Home, which I mentioned that I didn't care for. I guess I wasn't the only one as the critical reviews were tepid, and the box office numbers were low (not a failure, but not even close to a hit). Has DreamWorks truly learned?

If the new original features aren't doing well, then the next strategy would be to take advantage of some of their past hits. Shrek, Madagascar, and How to Train Your Dragon seem to be the franchises that they like push and make more sequels and television programs. I like those movies (except Madagascar), though my favorite is the Kung Fu Panda films. This is the ultimate "don't judge by its cover" story as it's dumb title is really a silly martial arts story that teaches a lot about Chinese philosophy. Po's training is taken the next step in Kung Fu Panda 3.

Master Shifu (played by Dustin Hoffman) has announced that's he's stepping down as the teacher of the Furious Five: Master Tigress (played by Angelina Jolie), Master Crane (played by David Cross), Master Mantis (played by Seth Rogan), Master Viper (played by Lucy Liu) and Master Monkey (played by Jackie Chan). Shifu says that the only one who can teach them is the dragon warrior, Po (played by Jack Black). Po is still his silly self and doesn't feel like he can be a good teacher. It's evident on the his first day when the masters are unimpressed.

While visiting his adoptive father Mr. Ping, a large panda named Li Shan (played by Bryan Cranston) comes looking for his long lost son. Po is excited to finally meet his father let alone another panda, who were thought to have been gone. Shifu knows that the Panda's were masters of controlling chi, so he tells Po to go with his real father to discover chi. Within the hidden Panda village, Po learns more about being one of his own and learning more about his family.

Meanwhile, Kai (played by J.K. Simmons), a powerful spirit that can take away one's chi has entered the mortal world in order to gain chi from all the Masters. Tigress shows up at Po's village to reveal that all the masters have been taken by Kai and it's up to Po to fight him and teach Kung- Fu to all the pandas.

I really appreciate DreamWorks for not only taking Chinese martial arts and philosophy seriously, but for taking the story of a Kung-Fu fighting panda just as seriously. Not only is Po really learning more about what his skills can do, but really seems to be growing as a person…or a bear.

Kung Fu Panda 3 still boasts some of the most beautiful computer animation I've seen from DreamWorks. It is so atmospheric, that this is one of the few movie worlds I'd love to live in.

The characters from the previous movies are all back and play up their parts just fine. The newcomers Bryan Cranston and J.K. Simmons both bring in their own spark, fitting in just fine. Without giving anything away, I only have two gripes. While J.K. Simmons does well as Kai, he's not as intimidating as Gary Oldman from Kung Fu Panda 2. Also, when Po's father Li Shan make a big discovery about himself, it's a little rushed.

I'll give this eight Chinese scrolls out of ten. This is a part of a series that is just so funny and beautiful, that I find it hard to find much to nitpick. Kung Fu Panda 3 is a great piece of family entertainment that should get both the parents and children engaged. I hope these characters continue Kung Fu fighting for a while!

I went with my 14-year old son to watch Kung Fu Panda 3. We both loved it. It's definitely a feel-good movie. We've watched every Kung Fu Panda movie, and we are definitely fans. The cast is incredible! Jack Black is awesome as Po, as usual. We particularly enjoyed the music score (which nicely emphasized the emotional parts) and the artwork. I appreciated that there were morals woven into this movie, especially with regard to finding your true self, appreciation of what it means to be a family and the importance of family, and Po's learning about chi, the life force in all living things. This all added depth to Po's character. There were, of course, many funny moments in the movie that made us both laugh. At the end of the movie (and we always stay to the very end, reading all the credits), the artwork was particularly beautiful, where they took images from the movie and made it look like an ancient, Chinese watercolor. We left feeling very good about having spent time together at this movie!

The third chapter in DreamWorks Animation's Kung Fu Panda series may have the effervescent wit, lighthearted flavour & exciting kung fu action of the earlier chapters but it lacks a compelling story, weighty character evolution & the awareness of where to draw the line for this latest entry fails to find the near-perfect balance between its genre elements, something its predecessors excelled at with relative ease.

The story of Kung Fu Panda 3 continues the awesome journey of the Dragon Warrior as we find Po reuniting with his biological father in addition to being bestowed with the role of teacher, following Master Shifu's retirement. But when an ancient spirit warrior with the ability to steal other warriors' chi returns to the mortal world & hunts the Dragon Warrior, Po travels with his father to their secret panda village to master ways of defeating the enemy.

Co-directed by Jennifer Yuh & Alessandro Carloni, the issue I have with this feature is that its story lacks a coherent structure, it is difficult to connect with any of the characters for their arcs needed a lot more refinement, and there are plenty of moments that add nothing to the story. The previous chapters were able to find outrageous moments of hilarity in a well-timed & clever fashion but here its attempt at humour feels a bit too forced, needlessly silly & uneven for the most part.

Comedy when done right can amuse both the kids & grown-ups but the filmmakers have chosen to target the younger audience more this time. There are still plenty of laugh-out-loud moments that are done well but for the most part, it neither enriches the overall experience nor moves the story forward. The computer animation is still worthy of praise and retains the rich, colourful textures of past two instalments. Editing is a letdown for the narrative lacks a smooth, uniform flow. And Hans Zimmer's score isn't striking either.

On an overall scale, Kung Fu Panda 3 is an overkill for its emphasis on desperately finding ways to make its audience laugh ultimately backfires and while it works as a quite relaxing, enjoyable & amusing flick, it fails to duplicate the high scores that the previous chapters garnered in all departments of filmmaking. Certainly not worth the five year wait, exhibiting signs of weariness & marred by lazy writing, Kung Fu Panda 3 fails to properly implement the formula that turned the first two films of the franchise into instant classics right away.