The first 'Kung Fu Panda' film is a solid film, colourful and fun with thrilling action and engaging characters. The second film is even better, darker and more emotional while never forgetting to be entertaining, with the best villain in the series.
'Kung Fu Panda 3' is not as good as the previous two films but there is plenty to make it well worth watching. It does contain three big flaws. As funny as the film is and how often hilarious the gags and dialogue are, 'Kung Fu Panda 3' does go overboard with the silliness and it does feel like it takes over everything else. Even in moments that are meant to be tense, like the confrontation between Po and Kai, they don't quite have the impact due to the humour getting in the way and it does jar.
The film's villain Kai is the least interesting and least developed of the 'Kung Fu Panda' franchise, a huge disappointment after the previous film did such a wonderful job with Shen, one of those villains where you can understand why he's a threat but also to some extent understand his point of view. Kai certainly had potential. His first appearance was cool, suspenseful and wonderfully animated, the music in this scene fitted perfectly with the scene and a contender for the highlight of the soundtrack and JK Simmons clearly has a ball, booms ominously and demonstrates that he was born to play villains. However Kai compared to the previous two villains is rather one-dimensional, the Oogway conflict is forced and not enough is done with it and his motivations are not interesting or clear enough (not to mention clichéd).
Lastly, the secondary characters and Po's friends are rather sidelined at the expense of the relationship between Po and his father, which admittedly is very nicely done, with their personalities somewhat bland. Tigress is the least wasted, showing some personality, but Shifu and Viper are especially wronged and criminally underused.
However, the animation is really superb and some of the best and most inventive of the franchise. It is so vibrantly coloured, the backgrounds are fluid and very meticulously detailed, the editing has much finesse and the characters are well designed and modelled. The jombies, the nickname of the jade zombies, are splendidly realised in animation and personality. The soundtrack is incredibly dynamic, but also provides some tension and emotional depth, Kai's first entrance music is my personal favourite.
Dialogue is zany and hilarious, loved the rapport between Po and his father, and the gags are cleverly animated and mostly are incredibly funny, apart from a few going on for too long and a bit too silly. The action is thrilling and filled with so much energy and the repartee is sharp. The story is admittedly predictable, but is efficiently paced, a lot of fun and provides plenty of thrills and emotional depth (the latter especially applies to the relationship between Po and his father). The life-lessons are well incorporated and never feel shoe-forced, I just wish that the humour despite being very entertaining was toned down. Loved the homage to 'Seven Samurai' too.
While the characters and their developments are among the weakest assets of the film, they do engage enough. Po is still likable and Li Shan is a welcome addition. Mei Mei avoids being too annoying while not necessarily adding to the plot. The voice acting is terrific, Po has always been one of Jack Black's most tolerable and likable roles and he still delivers, Bryan Cranston shies away from his usual persona and entertains hugely and as aforementioned JK Simmons really impresses as Kai. The others, with Angelina Jolie being the standout, are solid though their material could have been much better.
Overall, while the weakest of the 'Kung Fu Panda' films, 'Kung Fu Panda 3' is good solid fun, the 'Kung Fu Panda' films being one of those rare film franchises where all the films so far are good. 7/10 Bethany Cox
