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Directors: Alessandro Carloni, Jennifer Yuh

Writers: Jonathan Aibel, Glenn Berger

Runtime: 95 min

Main Cast:

• Jack Black as Po (voice)
• Angelina Jolie as Tigress (voice)
• Dustin Hoffman as Shifu (voice)
• Jackie Chan as Monkey (voice)
• Seth Rogen as Mantis (voice)
• Lucy Liu as Viper (voice)
• David Cross as Crane (voice)

Review: by Kenny

Alright, so I’ve been a fan of Kung Fu Panda, since its original inception in 2008 and a fan of Jack Black since School of Rock (2003). So naturally I am going to see the third installment in the Kung Fu Panda trilogy. Viewed as a “children's” movie for lack of vulgar phrases and blood splattering scenes, my excitement to see this movie was not diminished a bit. Like myself, if you saw the ending of Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011) then you already knew what the third movie would be about. Now finally after waiting nearly five grueling years, we can figure out what happened to the entire Panda population in the world of Dreamworks.

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Now initially, five years ago the plot of Kung Fu Panda 3 was set for us in the last two minutes of Kung Fu Panda 2. With a scene seeming to travel across China ending with a Panda saying, “My son is alive” while looking around at other pandas. Now this tells us a few things. Number one, Dreamworks you knew what you were doing. Leaving me on the edge of my seat like that, buying yourself five additional years. I had no clue I would be able to graduate undergrad and establish a career before I found out what happened to these pandas.

Do you know how many times I said, “Hey we need to start a petition, Po needs to find his dad and I need to be able to sleep at night.” Number two, there is seemingly a secret village of pandas that Lord Shen (evil peacock) knew nothing about. Which is where we find ourselves picking up in the most recent film. The entire movie is based on this panda village and Po’s journey on becoming a real panda, while also reconnecting with his panda father. There is one new villain Kai “the maker of widows”, who has a deep past with Oogway thus connecting him to the Furious Five.

What I Liked:

So if it’s not apparent by now, I liked that we finally find out what happened to all the pandas. Per usual Dreamworks does an amazing job with graphics and the overall rendition of the movie.   Directors Alessandro Carloni and Jennifer Yuh do an excellent job of capturing the action aspect of kung fu while also introducing a comedic feel. In my opinion, some of the comedy was thoughtfully directed at the adults and I found the children were only laughing because the adults were.

What I Didn’t Like:

If there was any doubt in your mind that Po (Jack Black) was not the cornerstone and star of this movie you’ll be 101% positive by the end. There is a panda overload (which is expected). Since it is made clear in the second movie that Lord Shen has eradicated all of our little black and white friends off the face of China. This village is the last hope for panda kind everywhere. There were pandas of all age’s elderly, babies, teenagers, and adults. I felt like at one point Sarah McLachlan was going to cue some sad music and say “For only $20/month you can…”. But on a serious note, it was an excessive amount of pandas. This isn’t a real negative, but if you have a phobia of; pandas, the colors black and/or white together and/or in unison please avoid this movie.

Images Courtesy of IMDB