Kung Fu Panda 3 meets the minimum requirements in what fans of the first two films would expect: jokes about weight, Po's still struggling with handling Kung Fu (even though he became the "dragon warrior" at the end of the first film) and questions of how to determine what true family is. Sadly, the film itself lazily meets these expectations without providing much else for its fan base.
We start with an uninteresting villain played by J.K. Simmons. He is an associate of Master Oogway, and that is how he is known (this joke gets really old really fast within the film itself). He manages to escape the spirit realm (this universe's equivalent of the afterlife) and is determined to take over the spirits of kung fu masters because.... well who cares? The film simply establishes he is a bad guy who wants revenge and to have control over the real world - you know, your typical one-dimensional children's movie villain.
Po's father, played by Bryan Cranston, finds him at the start of the film, which is really convenient because pandas are supposed to know about something called "chi" which is what the villain is after. Pandas were known to heal Oogway with this power in the past, and it is of course the only way to stop Simmons' character. This subplot eventually clears up what we did not know about the pandas in this universe, and of course the film goes to great lengths to make comedy out of how lazy pandas turn out to be.
The jokes used in this film are just rehashed jokes from the first two films, not providing great comedy as its predecessors since it proves to be unoriginal. Kung Fu Panda 3 is still enjoyable, but its strength lies on the theme of questionable identity posed by the two competing fathers of the film: Mr. Ping and Li. This is only touched on a few times throughout the film, but when it is touched on it brings up interesting questions about whether Po would need nature or nurture: that is, does he need his biological father or the one who raised him. These moments are the only ones of great intrigue within the film.
There is also a return to a cop-out fighting technique from the first film that makes the conflict of the story less difficult for Po to get through. While the film has the same spirit of its predecessors, Kung Fu Panda 3 is not a very fun film, but it is not terrible.
2.5/4.0
We start with an uninteresting villain played by J.K. Simmons. He is an associate of Master Oogway, and that is how he is known (this joke gets really old really fast within the film itself). He manages to escape the spirit realm (this universe's equivalent of the afterlife) and is determined to take over the spirits of kung fu masters because.... well who cares? The film simply establishes he is a bad guy who wants revenge and to have control over the real world - you know, your typical one-dimensional children's movie villain.
Po's father, played by Bryan Cranston, finds him at the start of the film, which is really convenient because pandas are supposed to know about something called "chi" which is what the villain is after. Pandas were known to heal Oogway with this power in the past, and it is of course the only way to stop Simmons' character. This subplot eventually clears up what we did not know about the pandas in this universe, and of course the film goes to great lengths to make comedy out of how lazy pandas turn out to be.
The jokes used in this film are just rehashed jokes from the first two films, not providing great comedy as its predecessors since it proves to be unoriginal. Kung Fu Panda 3 is still enjoyable, but its strength lies on the theme of questionable identity posed by the two competing fathers of the film: Mr. Ping and Li. This is only touched on a few times throughout the film, but when it is touched on it brings up interesting questions about whether Po would need nature or nurture: that is, does he need his biological father or the one who raised him. These moments are the only ones of great intrigue within the film.
There is also a return to a cop-out fighting technique from the first film that makes the conflict of the story less difficult for Po to get through. While the film has the same spirit of its predecessors, Kung Fu Panda 3 is not a very fun film, but it is not terrible.
2.5/4.0