Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Kung-Fu Panda 3

What plagues most action movies, superhero, spy, or otherwise, is how to escalate threats with each segment. Say for example, in your first film, you have an arrogant warrior trained by the man who trained you. Then the next film should have a fairly competent kung-fu practitioner who not only committed genocide but also mastered the power of industrialization and firearms. So now, with the third installment, the most logical choice would be...an airbending master water buffalo who wants pictures of Spiderman and has the same schtick as Mewtwo from the first Pokemon movie.
...
Sounds right to me.


"Kung-fu Panda 3" manages to be almost the opposite of the 2nd installment with all the dark themes overturned by a greater emphasis on the comedy and the focus being on side characters that aren't the Furious Five. With the great Dragon Warrior getting complacent in his role, he learns that he must step up and be a teacher to others. On top of this challenge, an ancient evil is awoken with power to capture his opponents in little jade trinkets, and then being able to call them back as mindless jade statue minions. And furthermore, our hero has to unlearn his lessons from last time about being ok with his adopted status when his real father comes back, and introduces him to his real extended family. When all three obstacles come to a head though, Po has to train his nonthreatening bear-kin in the ways of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts (sorry, but Po's officially a better in training helpless villagers than Ip Man.)

The continuing quest of Jack Black achieving kung-fu master status gives us the most character development for him in this film, with surprisingly more given to James Hong as his adoptive duck father, playing him at the supreme level of Asian parenting and adoptive parent worries. And while we spend almost no time with the kung fu masters we've been hanging around with the past two movies, we get to experience the antics of the pandas, who are literally in the culture of creative time-wasting. Further props to newcomers Bryan Cranston, having a joyful energy to his voice coupled with the sadness of losing his family (So no Heisenberg here guys. Sorry), and JK Simmons, being an absolute ferocious beast while still being good for a laugh.And then they cap it off with a big dance party number, like they used to do with the Shrek movies. Overall, not as good, but not too shabby either.


Creative folks who know how to trailer without giving away anything at all.

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