The franchise’s reliance on formula however is the 3rd film’s undoing. In a way, the story, which now involves a certain Spirit World, a villain that has jade warriors at its command, and an entire village full of overeating panda bears, is fully utilized for its visual promise, with bursts of patterned lights accompanying the standard-issue action sequences that are all backdropped in exoticized locales. The movie, co-directed by Yuh with Alessandro Carloni, has moments that come close to being sublime. Kung Fu Panda 3 is spectacular when it needs to be.
( WATCH: First trailer for ‘Kung Fu Panda 3’)
It still features Po, who has now established himself as a great warrior with the heart and humor of a kid, fighting another opponent who wields a power that is more immense than anything he has encountered before. The story remains the same, only this time, the backstory that is only teased in the sequel becomes a major plot point.
Now, Kung Fu Panda 3 doesn’t stray far from the formula. The sequel is back at having unlikely hero Po fighting off an even greater opponent and learning a thing or two about himself and his capabilities along the way. Kung Fu Panda 2 expanded the universe of Po by infusing his story with a dramatic past, which in turn is the springboard of the franchise’s 3rd installment. Sadly, the storytelling did not evolve as much as the visual design. It possesses a color palette and an animation style that makes it feel like it isn’t just making fun of the culture it is lampooning, but that it at least has a certain respect for it. Jennifer Yuh, who directed the imaginative opening of the first film and is tasked to take the helm from Osborne and Stevenson, infused the series with a visual richness that is often neglected in cartoons that are all about gloss and slapstick. Kung Fu Panda 2 is left with just a fraction of the first film’s novelty but with heavy expectations to fulfill. Moreover, its east-meets-west antic is exploited for whatever its worth, to the point that the film doesn’t really strike as a clever piece of cartoon but as a hodgepodge of jokes strung together by a Hollywood-ish appreciation of the orient. Its playful appropriation of Po (Jack Black), an overfed and charmingly immature panda, as an up and coming martial artist is enough to sustain a feature length film. The first Kung Fu Panda, directed by Mark Osborne and John Stevenson, had novelty going for it. (IN PHOTOS: A look at new characters in ‘Kung Fu Panda 3’) Amidst the movie series’ predictable tale of its standard-issue hero overcoming physical and spiritual trials to overcome a far stronger opponent, wuxia( literally “martial warrior”) films are almost always draped in visuals that often transcend the mechanical plot they adhere to. The genre that the Kung Fu Panda movies have repetitively parodied throughout the years is one that is heavily defined by formula.
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