Too bad, just when you think you can retire and lead a peaceful afterlife, there's a villain you defeated half a millennium ago asking for a rematch, even Kung Fu Masters can't get a break!
Poor Master Oogway is quietly meditating when he's interrupted by Kai (JK Simmons) a Master (buffalo?) previously banished to the Spirit Realm (a nice euphemism for killed). Kai found a way to get back to the Real World, by using the chi, a sort of 'life essence' loading you with the skills and power of your opponents, and turning them in the process into jade charms or eventually "jombies". "it It ain't over till it's over", I know it's a sport, but Kung Fu sure moves in mysterious ways. Still, can we blame the writers for trying hard to justify a sequel?
Let's just admit that Po is so likable and irresistible that there was no way his series would escape from the magic three even though "Kung Fu Panda 2" was such a fantastic experience that I didn't think another sequel could outshine it and the third one confirmed my doubts. It was quite a signal when the only part I didn't like from the second was the concluding revelation of Po's father being alive. I thought the story of Po's origins added to the tragic dimension of this character as he ceased to be this jovial and leading comic relief and became a three-dimensional character whose personality was profoundly shaped by the past. And to a certain extent, the revelation that not only his father but also the whole village was alive turned the big scar into a rather benign scratch.
Now I understand it was the only possible path the writers could take to justify any continuation to Po's existential journey and to come full circle with it. This is not unusual with DreamWorks films since many first sequels dealt with family reunions like "Shrek" with Princess Fiona and "Madagascar" with the trip to Africa, but "Kung Fu Panda 2" managed to explore the origins without relying on the obvious, it brought up a new, fresh and evil villain, and it only gave a slight glimpse on Po's past but even the tiny bit we had was emotionally overwhelming. But "Kung Fu Panda 3" takes the easy, predictable way, and while the film is enjoyable on many levels, it doesn't bring any particular surprise.
The first encounter with the father (Bryan Cranston) was promising but as soon as they got to the Panda's village, their relationship kind of diluted in that huge population who overcrowded the film and even the story. I liked the pandas and the way they actually had more in common with Po and he stopped being an outcast, but in the meantime, I felt we were just watching Po trying to become the one he was in the beginning of "Kung Fu Panda". It was like a 180° turn in his character's arc. The story tries to wrap this Panda's "back to sources" up with the whole quest for the chi's technique, but the chi thing is just a MacGuffin and doesn't even have that emotional resonance the "inner peace" had in the second. Actually, it even diminishes the impact of inner peace, as if each new film would come with a new device outshining the former.
Well I have nothing against the jombies or the chi, and damn, I loved that "skadoosh" device, but I don't know, there was something just so routinely about the film, nothing transcending. There wasn't a particular scene that stood out as an original moment: Po encountering the other pandas exuded the same vibes than the animals in "Madagascar 2", especially Marty with the zebras, except that the zebras were funnier. The "find yourself" thing had too much in common from Alex defeating the bad guy with dancing, the only thing he knew. And the afterlife looked like something from outer space that really derailed the story, and the writers kept making new rules each time, so even within the film's logic, some things didn't make sense.
To list a few: why the Skadoosh would also take Kai to the Spirit Realm? Why wouldn't the team be angry for the mess Po and his father caused in the museum? And why oh why, didn't Po meet his mother in the afterlife? Now, that was the emotional moment the film was begging for, apart from the father, there was no panda sympathetic enough so you could handle them for more than ten seconds, they even looked too overweight and not as cute as cuddly as they generally are. Seriously, could they have drawn them any uglier? But not meeting his mother was the biggest miss of the film, the emotional pinnacle.
I guess they were in a rush to conclude the film with the obvious "Kung Fu Fighting" and that's how the whole experience felt, something made in a rush. Definitely more "skadoosh" than "inner peace" material.
Poor Master Oogway is quietly meditating when he's interrupted by Kai (JK Simmons) a Master (buffalo?) previously banished to the Spirit Realm (a nice euphemism for killed). Kai found a way to get back to the Real World, by using the chi, a sort of 'life essence' loading you with the skills and power of your opponents, and turning them in the process into jade charms or eventually "jombies". "it It ain't over till it's over", I know it's a sport, but Kung Fu sure moves in mysterious ways. Still, can we blame the writers for trying hard to justify a sequel?
Let's just admit that Po is so likable and irresistible that there was no way his series would escape from the magic three even though "Kung Fu Panda 2" was such a fantastic experience that I didn't think another sequel could outshine it and the third one confirmed my doubts. It was quite a signal when the only part I didn't like from the second was the concluding revelation of Po's father being alive. I thought the story of Po's origins added to the tragic dimension of this character as he ceased to be this jovial and leading comic relief and became a three-dimensional character whose personality was profoundly shaped by the past. And to a certain extent, the revelation that not only his father but also the whole village was alive turned the big scar into a rather benign scratch.
Now I understand it was the only possible path the writers could take to justify any continuation to Po's existential journey and to come full circle with it. This is not unusual with DreamWorks films since many first sequels dealt with family reunions like "Shrek" with Princess Fiona and "Madagascar" with the trip to Africa, but "Kung Fu Panda 2" managed to explore the origins without relying on the obvious, it brought up a new, fresh and evil villain, and it only gave a slight glimpse on Po's past but even the tiny bit we had was emotionally overwhelming. But "Kung Fu Panda 3" takes the easy, predictable way, and while the film is enjoyable on many levels, it doesn't bring any particular surprise.
The first encounter with the father (Bryan Cranston) was promising but as soon as they got to the Panda's village, their relationship kind of diluted in that huge population who overcrowded the film and even the story. I liked the pandas and the way they actually had more in common with Po and he stopped being an outcast, but in the meantime, I felt we were just watching Po trying to become the one he was in the beginning of "Kung Fu Panda". It was like a 180° turn in his character's arc. The story tries to wrap this Panda's "back to sources" up with the whole quest for the chi's technique, but the chi thing is just a MacGuffin and doesn't even have that emotional resonance the "inner peace" had in the second. Actually, it even diminishes the impact of inner peace, as if each new film would come with a new device outshining the former.
Well I have nothing against the jombies or the chi, and damn, I loved that "skadoosh" device, but I don't know, there was something just so routinely about the film, nothing transcending. There wasn't a particular scene that stood out as an original moment: Po encountering the other pandas exuded the same vibes than the animals in "Madagascar 2", especially Marty with the zebras, except that the zebras were funnier. The "find yourself" thing had too much in common from Alex defeating the bad guy with dancing, the only thing he knew. And the afterlife looked like something from outer space that really derailed the story, and the writers kept making new rules each time, so even within the film's logic, some things didn't make sense.
To list a few: why the Skadoosh would also take Kai to the Spirit Realm? Why wouldn't the team be angry for the mess Po and his father caused in the museum? And why oh why, didn't Po meet his mother in the afterlife? Now, that was the emotional moment the film was begging for, apart from the father, there was no panda sympathetic enough so you could handle them for more than ten seconds, they even looked too overweight and not as cute as cuddly as they generally are. Seriously, could they have drawn them any uglier? But not meeting his mother was the biggest miss of the film, the emotional pinnacle.
I guess they were in a rush to conclude the film with the obvious "Kung Fu Fighting" and that's how the whole experience felt, something made in a rush. Definitely more "skadoosh" than "inner peace" material.