Review of Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016) by Helio V — 27 May 2016

Kung Fu Panda 3 is directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson and Alessandro Carloni. It is written by Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger, and features the voices of Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, J. K. Simmons, Jackie Chan, Lucy Liu, Seth Rogen, David Cross, Bryan Cranston, Kate Hudson, and James Hong.

I really liked Kung Fu Panda 1 and 2 and I was super excited to see where they're going with the third one. If you've seen the the last two movies on this franchise, you pretty much know what you're getting into, very well animated action set pieces, character moments and a prophecy.

In this movie, Po, the legendary dragon warrior, reunites with his long lost biological father. When a new threat arises from the spiritual realms, he then has two challenges in front of him, one supernatural and another very different, but much closer to his heart.

Just like the last two, I really liked this movie from start to finish. The animation is glorious but what makes these movies as good as they are, is the character moments that make us feel for them. When they're fighting, you get thrilled at the amazing sequences filled with epic moments and great fighters, when they're not fighting, you're usually either laughing a lot, or feeling a lot. It knows when to be funny and when to get serious, and this is very important in such a movie. Sure, all three Kung Fu Panda movies are pretty similar in themes and emotion, but they're all great and build upon one another nonetheless.

The villain Kai, voiced by the great J. K. Simmons, is truly a threat to the world of Kung Fu. He makes his presence known by doing great fights, and doing damage that no previous villain could do. Even though personally I like the second movie the most, and the villain Lord Shen (voiced by Gary Oldman) is still overall the best in my opinion, Kai is also very memorable and a strong villain in general. The score, composed by Hans Zimmer is unforgettable and really good, especially the Kai theme that helps him be even more mesmerizing and threatening.

I loved this movie, not as much as the second one, but on par with the first one. Overall they're all just really entertaining and memorable animated movies, that are well directed and beautifully written.