Kung Fu Panda 3

DIRECTOR:  Jennifer Yuh Nelson, Alessandro Carloni STARRING: Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, J. K. Simmons, James Hong, Jackie Chan, Lucy Liu, Seth Rogen, David Cross, Bryan Cranston, Kate Hudson  PRODUCER: Melissa Cobb  WRITERS: Jonathan Aibel, Glenn Berger  BASED ON: Characters created by Ethan Reiff, Cyrus Voris  FILM EDITOR: Clare Knight  MUSIC: Hans Zimmer  ART DIRECTION: Max Boas  GENRE: Computer-animated Action Comedy  PRODUCTION DESIGN: Raymond Zibath  PRODUCTION COMPANIES: DreamWorks Animation, Oriental DreamWorks, China Media Capital, Shanghai Media Group  DISTRIBUTORS: 20^th Century Fox  LOCATION: United States, China  LANGUAGE: English, Mandarin  RUNNING TIME: 95 minutes

Technical assessment:  4

Moral assessment:  4

CINEMA rating:  VA (Viewers of All Ages)
In the spirit realm, Kai (JK Simmons) has been stealing the chi of past Masters to be able to return to the mortal world. His final combat is with his fomer brother-in-arms Master Oogway (Randall Duk Kim).  Oogway willingly gives his chi with a warning to Kai that the Dragon Warrior will ultimately defeat him. Kai returns to the mortal world and uses the stolen chi of Masters to control his jade warriors. He is able to take more chi of living Masters including Master Shifu and four of the Furious Five. In the meantime, Po (Jack Black) has returned with biological father, Li (Cranston) to the secret Panda village to learn and master chi so he can defeat Kai. Unfortunately, the pandas have forgotten their true selves and how they held the secret of mastering chi. Po assumes the role of a mentor to the pandas after Li and his adoptive father Ping (Hong) convinces him to be his true self. At the end, Po defeats Kai, frees the stolen spirits and understands that being a master teacher is learning to master your true self.

Kung Fu Panda 3 is a lot of fun both for children and adults. Needless to say the animation and technical design are superb. Since most of its audience has followed Po and friends’ story from the two previous films and ongoing TV series, the personalities of each of the characters are well established, making it easy to build subplots and new storylines. The beauty of the film is that it ia able to create fresh conflicts that do not feel over stretched. And even with an all-star casting, the narrative remains focused and fluid. The film is one of the few animation sequels that can stand on its own and be remembered long after it has ended its theatrical run.

Several messages have been touched in he film but the most resounding one is that of learning, trusting and mastering one’s true self. To become a great teacher, Po did not need to learn fancy and sophisticated techniques. To relearn chi, the pandas just needed to do what they did best in their everyday lives. To defeat a strong adversary, the warriors just had to look into their hearts. For every single ordinary person, the same lessons apply. We need not have fancy degrees or learn something someone else is doing… we just have to look into ourselves and discover who we are… who we are meant to be.  And as God’s children, we are meant to be good.  Kung Fu Panda 3 is indeed a film for all ages, with its formative material for the young, and for the old—a stress buster.  A must-see.