Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016)
Directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson
While Po and his father are visiting a secret panda village, an evil spirit threatens all of China, forcing Po to form a ragtag army to fight back.
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12 films that influenced Kung Fu Panda 3
What critics say influenced Kung Fu Panda 3
In case you didn’t get enough recycling of the original “Star Wars” trilogy in “The Force Awakens” try “Kung Fu Panda 3” or “Luke Skywalker Is a Dumpling-Devouring Giant Panda.”
When chi is described, it is explained to be an awful lot like the Force; however, it only makes sense for them to rip off “Star Wars” considering George Lucas was basically ripping off eastern religions when he wrote his script.
Beginning in the surreal Spirit Realm, through fluid graphics recalling manga comics and Asian paintings, through battles with the splendidly realised "jombies" (jade zombies) and finally ending in homage to Seven Samurai, the inventive visual side is stirring, dazzling and vibrant, an exemplar of creative grandeur and finesse.
And when its own climax does arrive, it's handled like a charmingly cartoonish riff on Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai .
“Kung Fu Panda 3” is more in line with the first film in terms of tone, which makes sense; even George Lucas knew that it would be foolish to follow “ The Empire Strikes Back ” with an even darker movie, hence ewoks.
The only other franchise I can think of to achieve this three-peat would have to be Toy Story.
By the third movie in any kid vid franchise, you’re likely to be more The Land Before Time than Toy Story.
(Only “Toy Story 3” director Lee Unkrich and writer Michael Arndt had the guts to kill off a couple of old characters to keep the numbers down.)
That same emotion carried “Toy Story 3” to its hankie-clutching finale.
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The only other franchise I can think of to achieve this three-peat would have to be Toy Story.
By the third movie in any kid vid franchise, you’re likely to be more The Land Before Time than Toy Story.
Una de las marcas de la casa Dreamworks ha sido una histeria expresiva que ha encontrado sus afortunados contrapuntos en momentos puntuales: el Po del primer Kung Fu Panda, el león Álex de, especialmente, Madagascar 2 (2008).
By the third movie in any kid vid franchise, you’re likely to be more The Land Before Time than Toy Story.
But Po’s time away is costly, leaving the home front vulnerable to a literal raging bull, chi-stealing baddie Kai (J.K. Simmons, not quite getting “Whiplash”-nasty material this time).
Simmons is a natural as the vengeful Kai, having perfected his ominous baritone in everything from HBO’s prison drama “Oz” to his Oscar-winning performance as a tyrannical music teacher in “ Whiplash .”
He puts a humorous spin on his Whiplash heavy as the voice of Kai, a bullish beast of vengeance who’s stealing the chi of all the Chinese martial arts gurus and turning them into an army of jade soldiers.
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Well, it worked for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade .
But since the first two films, a certain snowman has raised the bar on goofy sincerity, and the specter of Josh Gad's Olaf from "Frozen" looms over the Po-ceedings.