Kung Fu Panda 3

Since animated films are typically a summer type fare, it's interesting that "Kung Fu Panda 3" is already the second animated flick right behind the recent "Norm of the North". Does someone know something I don't, or have audiences changed recently? Whatever is going on, the animated film isn't going away any time soon.

When Po's long-lost panda father, Li (Bryan Cranston) suddenly reappears, the reunited duo travels to a secret panda paradise to meet scores of hilarious new panda characters. But when the supernatural villain Kai (J.K. Simmons) is unleashed and begins to sweep across China defeating all the kung fu masters including Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman), Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Monkey (Jackie Chan) and others, Po (Jack Black) must do the impossible-- learn to train a village full of his fun-loving, clumsy brethren to become the ultimate band of Kung Fu Pandas.

Others to round out the cast are Lucy Liu as Viper, David Cross as Crane, Kate Hudson as Mei Mei, James Hong as Mr. Ping and Randall Duk Kim as Oogway.

This was directed with ease by directors Jennifer Yuh Nelson ("Kung Fu Panda 2" '11) plus TV and Alessandro Carloni (short). Especially in the case of Nelson having directed the second installment of this franchise, this certainly was familiar territory. It was also written by the writing team of Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger who also wrote both earlier installments of this franchise. This can be a positive and/or a negative aspect in that with the same writers, there's a lot if not too much similarity with all the installments, however if there were different writers, then would there be a bit too much choppiness and jumping around? If there's a plan for a fourth installment, I'm not sure what territory these writers could endeavor that they've not already covered. Look, this is not the only work these talented writers have pulled off--they have quite the resume, so maybe without this franchise getting stale, a new project sounds like something these guys could dwell on, and we would definitely be the lucky recipients. And the animation and visuals were created by the incomparable DreamWorks Animation. The one nice touch to this film was the redesign of the DreamWorks fanfare at the beginning of the film which depicts the feel of the film with distinction.

This is certainly worthy of a viewing, however to see this only on DVD would be a crime, because one would miss the amazing impact this film has. It's a fun flick and a great reprising cast to carry it off, so enjoy.

Out of 4 Stars: 3.5                                    Rated: PG                                   95mins.