Third time’s a charm for the witty ‘Kung Fu Panda 3’

More than anything, “Kung Fu Panda 3” will be noted as one of the most impressive wastes of an all-star cast ever put on screen.

Despite being the best made film of the franchise, Kung Fu Panda3 is long on technicality but extremely short on soul or humor.

Got feedback on our player? As a result of its focus on Po, his fathers and the panda village, the presence of Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) and the Furious Five seems unwarranted, and it feels as if they were only included to appeal to fans of the prequels. The blade-wielding Kai has been stealing the chi (energy) from thousands of kung fu masters in the otherworldly Spirit Realm and turning them into fierce jade zombies.

The previous installments of the Kung Fu Panda series came out in the summer, but Kung Fu Panda 3 is timed to Chinese New Year, which lands next week. And in the third film, an even more improbable bad guy rises. That’s not to mention the physical comedy, which is spot-on. The animation makes the Kung Fu Panda world feel real enough to make the story believable.

While all the voices are unbelievable and perfectly match the characters I really like Jack Black’s voice as Po. He’s lovable, aspirational and audiences like to laugh with him, rather than at him. The film introduces a parent who Po the orphaned panda presumed was dead, a litter of baby pandas and a beast from another dimension – released from his spirit kingdom and threatening to destroy all of the above. The only difference is that “inner peace” has been replaced with chi mastery.

If that weren’t enough drama, Po’s biological father, Li, has turned up, causing consternation for Po’s adoptive father, Mr. Ping (the very amusing James Hong). There are more themes – identity, family, responsibility – than one movie can handle.

In this latest chapter, the daunting animal villain role is filled by Kai, a beastly, green-eyed yak voiced by J.K. Simmons in fully unbridled, “Not my tempo” mode. Jonathan Aibel and Glen Berger return for a third time to create a story that brings the trilogy full circle. She seeks out Po and tells him what’s happened and how strong Kai is, and Po becomes determined to beat him and save all the Kung Fu masters he has imprisoned. Naturally, Simmons does a great job playing both the scary and comical sides of Kai. Who is he? Who is the Dragon Warrior? Since Po has acquired his own martial arts skills all too recently, his approach to training new troops not only echoes Shifu’s injunction but recalls Harold Hill’s “Think Method” in “The Music Man”. The second “Kung Fu Panda” was just as amusing as the first, but this one is a couple of notches below in terms of humor. The animation is gorgeous, the voice work top-notch, and the new story takes the characters to fun and exciting places. We also get a nice salute to fatherhood, as Mr. Ping and Li grapple with their feelings about each other, and their feelings about being Po’s dad.