Kung Fu Panda 3
He eats shoots, he scores.
DreamWorks’ chop-socky saga has always been a bit of an odd one. Plus-size panda Po ( Jack Black) is a superhero slacker who can dropkick an entire army of ninja rhinos but still has trouble walking up the stairs. He’s been raised by a goose, trained by Dustin Hoffman and is in a gang with five A-list animal Avengers who never really do very much. Luckily, three films in, the franchise is still hilarious, still slickly animated and still able to kick furry butt.
Mixing the training montages of the first film (2008) with the soul searching of the second (2011), part three is pure Star Wars. Po must learn to master the Force-like power of Ch’i and find out who his father really is before the new dark side baddie sucks him into the spirit realm with an army of jade zombies. Along the way, our hero takes a detour to his longlost homeland (a cute mountaintop panda sanctuary that steals jokes from every YouTube video ever shared) and patches things up with his adoptive goose dad before facing an epic final set-piece that feels every inch the trilogy-closer.
Some of the newbies are grossly underused (Kate Hudson’s sassy panda-ess Mei Mei gets a cracking introduction and then disappears from the film altogether), but J.K. Simmons’ gravelvoiced demon bull Kai and, most notably, Bryan Cranston’s bumbling Li both threaten to steal the film. It’s still Black’s show, though. Keeping up the knockout quips and making Po seem as huggable as possible amid all the flying feet and fists, he helps the series feel ever more heartfelt with age.
Animated with exceptional depth and beauty by co-directors Jennifer Yuh and Alessandro Carloni (and given epic new heft by Hans Zimmer in the orchestra pit), it’s a rare ’toon franchise that can grow up so quickly and still giggle at its own butt jokes.
THE VERDICT DreamWorks’ follow-up ratchets up the awesomeness again – with more heart, more fun and at least two new characters you’d happily welcome back for a four-quel.
› Certificate PG Directors Alessandro Carloni, Jennifer Yuh Starring Jack Black, Bryan Cranston, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, J.K. Simmons Screenplay Jonathan Aibel, Glenn Berger Distributor 20th Century Fox Running time 95 mins