Kung Fu Panda 3 Review- Average Movie in Above-Average Series.
Written by Rei Caldombra 3/10/2024 Video Version: https://youtu.be/Ugu7tlCw0D0
I finally watched Kung Fu Panda 3. I watched the first two movies when they originally came out but did not get around to the 3rd until recently. I loved this franchise, so I want to give my thoughts on 3 and then 4 once I see it. There will be direct spoilers.
The first Kung Fu Panda is one of my favorite American animated movies. It does pretty much everything right. Amazing visuals, very funny, great action, and has genuine heart and emotion to it. The movie flows very well. Tai Lung is a great villain. The scene between him and Shifu is the best scene of the entire franchise, revealing a story that carries so much dramatic weight despite its short focus. This scene also showcases the movie’s fantastic animation even outside of the wonderfully choreographed fight scenes. I cannot gush enough about how amazing the fight between Tai Lung and Shifu is, and how much emotion is displayed in the seconds where Tai Lung genuinely considers letting his anger go. This movie was such a surprise gem, the fat jokes you’d think would get grating never did. And these jokes get executed on very well, even playing into his fighting style and motivation.
Then 2 followed up on the 1st with another excellent movie that succeeds for most of the same reasons while also feeling like a nearly perfect sequel. It has a much more mature tone throughout the movie that felt like it aged with its audience and Po himself. Shen is another fantastic villain, having a chilling and dramatic backstory that resonates with his actions and the characters. With the first two movies Po genuinely comes out a developed and layered character. It felt like a perfect continuation of the series. I still like the first one the best, but this is another fantastic movie.
Sadly 3 does not reach the same heights as its predecessors. The movie feels more direct and on the nose with what it goes for, lacking the subtlety and richness of the first two. The tone is one area where 3 suffers a lot. This movie has some emotions it attempts to get at. But I don’t feel like any of them really hit me very much. I think this movie balances the comedy and drama worst of the three. I think there were more times where the jokes felt ill-timed or unnecessary. Some of the seriousness is undercut due to the comedy side being too heavy on the scale. The movie does succeed at being funny like the others. But I felt more of the jokes felt repetitive. This movie feels more like what everyone expected the first one to be like before watching it, if that makes sense.
Kai just felt like a functional villain to me. He does not have a fraction of the presence Tai Lung and Shen did. His backstory with Oogway did not feel very substantial, especially if you compare it to Tai Lung + Shifu and Shen + Po. There is really not much emotional weight to him or his actions. I never felt much intensity the way I did with the others. He keeps the movie moving and does some cool stuff but that is kinda it. As a character there is not much to him.
A throughline theme of all of these movies is Po finding himself. He learns to believe in himself, confront his past, and in this movie discovers another side of his identity. While I don’t think this angle was truly needed in the sense that the story felt like a part was missing before, I do think it connects to previous themes enough to justify its existence. And the theme of embracing multiple sides of your identity is a good one. People have so many influences and should take pride in all aspects of their identity.
This movie has a big focus on the pandas, revealing that the pandas were not actually wiped during Shen’s attempted genocide. I actually do not have much issue with this and don’t think it retroactively hurts the 2nd movie. I don’t think Po being the very last panda specifically was needed for the last movie’s story to work. The point was not that he was the last panda, it was about Shen being defeated by a panda and Shen failing to avoid his destiny. The story still functions the same way despite the pandas still being around. Regardless of whether the Pandas were actually wiped out, Po was still scarred by what happened. The fact that Po’s mother really did die leaves the weight of her loss and the attempted genocide intact.
Looking at the pandas' inclusion as a whole, it's ok. I did not get annoyed with them similarly to how the first movie plays out, but it did get a bit repetitive. It did feel like they retreaded on old ground a lot in terms of jokes. You can justify that because they are trying to say they are similar to Po, but when the jokes about being fat and eating a lot have already been used a lot in the series, that is not the best place to return to. I was not offended by the stereotypical panda stuff, but just barely.
What also justifies the inclusion of the pandas is the theme of stepfathers. This part was great, even if it does not feel especially deep or nuanced like most of this movie. It was great seeing both fathers make mistakes that I imagine many fathers have in their situation. Seeing them and Po embrace each other was great to see. This side of things was simple, but it was nice.
Kung Fu Panda 3 is a decent movie but far below its predecessors. It has some solid comedy, albeit unbalanced (funny with how much of the series focuses on balance). It has some cool action, but the dramatic weight of the fights and the choreography does not hold up to the past ones. Kai is a functional villain that does not bring any issues narratively or with his character, but he does not have anything truly likable or memorable about him. It does successfully carry the torch thematically while bringing in some solid ideas, but does not draw as strong emotional responses from me the way the first two are capable of even on rewatch. While it’s not a bad movie despite my mostly lukewarm and negative things to say, it’s difficult to not be harsh on it considering the quality of the first two. You can argue it may partially be due to nostalgia for the first two and my tastes changing, but I have rewatched the first two multiple times and believe they still hold up as strong as before.
This is my first time talking about a series that is not Japanese. While anime is my favorite source of animated shows, I do love animated media as a whole. So while I will mostly continue to write on anime and manga, you may see more posts on non-Japanese animated things from time to time. Such as a review on Kung Fu Panda 4. Thank you for reading!
My Patreon: patreon.com/ReiCaldombra
Kung Fu Panda 4 Review: https://www.blogunderalog.com/blog-collection/kung-fu-panda-4-review-out-of-touch?rq=Kung%20fu%20panda
