IT TAKES A VILLAGE TO MAKE A SEQUEL

Po finds his people — and a potential love interest — amid all the martial artistry

For two Kung Fu Panda animated movies, portly Po has believed all his bear kin were in panda heaven. That he was the lone survivor.

But Kung Fu Panda 3 proves Po wrong. The new film (opening Jan. 29) is Panda-palooza.

“There is great joy,” says Jack Black, the voice of Po. “Lo and behold, there’s a secret panda village. There’s intense rejoicing as I am reunited with my people.”

Po has a chance run-in with his long-lost father, Li (Bryan Cranston), who brings Po to an enclave where the pandas have been living since a fierce attack alluded to in Dream-Works Animation’s

Kung Fu Panda 2 in 2011. “There are even cute baby pandas,” Black says. “Those guys are going to be the life of the party.”

Also found in the village: an overeager, amorous young female panda named Mei Mei (Rebel Wilson), a wannabe ribbon dancer. This does not turn out to be a panda love story.

“Po’s a little freaked out, since he’s never been around a female of his own species,” Black says. “I don’t think he has game in that realm yet.”

But directors Jennifer Yuh Nelson and Alessandro Carloni will be able to feature pandas frolicking, swimming in streams, rolling down hills. Nelson even visited the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Sichuan, China, to study playful panda behavior.

“That is the most shockingly adorable place — there are nurseries filled with gaggles of baby pandas,” Nelson says. “A lot of how the pandas play was inspiration for the movie.”

It’s not all fun. There’s a menacing supernatural villain called Kai who poses a threat to the village and the world. Po has to train his fellow pandas in martial arts to fight back.

Kung Fu Panda 3 enlists the original characters from past films, with all Furious Five warriors returning: Angelina Jolie (as Tigress), Jackie Chan (Monkey), Seth Rogen (Mantis), David Cross (Crane) and Lucy Liu ( Viper). Warrior trainer Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) returns as well.

Meanwhile, the new voices are bringing their own talents in the recording studio. Wilson even wrote a love poem dedicated to Po and pulled out pink nunchuks during her first meeting with directors to demonstrate how much she was thinking about her animated character.

Her martial-arts talents were appreciated.

“We were blown away, she does play a nunchuk-wielding panda,” Carloni says. “But I wanted to point out (to her) that this is an animated film.”

“Po’s a little freaked out, since he’s never been around a female of his own species. I don’t think he has game in that realm yet.” Jack Black