Re-analyzing Kung Fu Panda 3 · 9:30pm Last Wednesday
Rating Scale:
12/10—a complete masterpiece; flawless and outstanding
11/10—Excellent, near-perfect film
10/10—the standard rating; awesome film with a couple of flaws
9/10—a wonderful film with several flaws
8/10–a great film with numerous flaws but not enough to ruin it
7/10—a fun and entertaining movie; not great but still enjoyable
6/10—a slightly above average film; it is something I might watch again
5/10—mediocre movie; not awful but not great either
4/10—a below average film; it could have been much better
3/10—a bad film; poorly written and poorly executed
2/10—a very bad movie; the few good things in the movie overshadowed by the bad things
1/10—a terrible movie; a total waste of time
0/10—a worthless piece of abomination; should have never been made
Greetings, folks! This is Mr. J back with my surprise review for you all! Today, I will be re-analyzing “Kung Fu Panda 3”, the third installment of the franchise released in 2016. Just yesterday, I was able to re-watch this animated film because it has been a while since I’ve seen it.
Folks, I cannot express enough just how much I love this movie more than ever! The storytelling, the characters, the dialogue, etc. Almost everything about it was just amazing, and I’ll explain why that is.
This movie is about Po who—now a full celebrity and defender of the Valley of Peace—is being taken to the next level: becoming a teacher. But Po is inexperienced in this department as he only knows how to kick butt; therefore, he learns more about himself by understanding mastery of self and the significance of chi.
But with an ancient foe seeking its power, the Dragon Warrior must master it so he can defeat him.
Now that Po has learned his own physical prowess and disciplined his mental faculties, he must now come to terms with his spiritual nature. At this point, he thinks that he has reached to his full potential and doesn’t need to go any further. But Master Shifu proves him wrong as he outlines how Po is ready to become a teacher.
Now here’s where Po starts to question himself; if all he ever does is just punching and kicking, then is he truly the Dragon Warrior? He wonders that if he can’t teach the Furious Five anything, then why bother teaching? If he can’t do that, then he isn’t actually growing or learning how to be the better version of himself.
That’s what leads to my next point: it was pointed out that asking yourself this one sincere question “Who am I?” can lead to full understanding of one’s true identity. That’s where mastery of self comes into play, and I love how the writers challenge the audience into thinking carefully about the reality of an identity crises.
Because oftentimes, we get so caught up with our talents and capabilities that we forget the reason why we received our high calling. We lose who we are, and therefore, we have no idea what we’re supposed to be and how we are to inspire others through our teaching. Heh, I’m sure religious people can relate to this.
But back on topic, the writing in this movie is absolutely immaculate. They did a fantastic job digging deeper into Po’s character and revealing how sensitive he is when it comes to his family and self-worth.
The voice acting is likewise top-notch. It wasn’t just the returning cast members who knocked it out of the park with their iconic voices, but it was also the new additions to the voice cast such as Bryan Cranston, J.K. Simmons, and Kate Hudson. They each did a phenomenal job with their voiceover roles.
Speaking of J.K. Simmons, his performance as General Kai was spectacular. He gave the character so much personality with his intimidating style and charisma…all of that done through his voice. He’s that talented and recognizable.
And honestly, Kai deserves more praise and credit for the way he handled our heroes in this movie. Although I would’ve liked if they took him more seriously and not make a running gag about everyone not knowing who he is, he still made sure everyone feared him for what he was capable of doing. He’s one of the most powerful and underrated villains in all animation.
Now let’s talk about the backstory between him and Oogway because I feel like a lot of people completely misinterpret the details and the sequence of events that transpired. Oogway explicitly stated in the beginning that he was a young ambitious warrior who helped lead the army right beside his brother-in-arms Kai.
Keep in mind that at that time, they were both warlords—meaning that they slaughtered villages and destroyed their enemies together. Remember Kai’s titles? The Beast of Vengeance? Maker of Widows? The Jade Slayer? Master of Pain? These were titles he had to earn, and there’s no way Oogway would’ve been friends with him unless he too was just as unforgiving, ferocious, and relentless as he was.
But that all changed when they encountered a secret village of pandas. That’s where Oogway learned the power of chi and how they used it to heal his battle wounds. From that time onwards, Oogway learned the error of his ways and learned how to give, not take.
You see? Kai didn’t become evil; he was always evil from the start. The only person who changed was Oogway, and that’s how the whole conflict started. So for all the people who dislike Kai as a character simply because they think he’s “poorly written” or whatever either didn’t pay attention to the details of this backstory or just misunderstood the point of his character.
Kai is simply evil because he’s a power-hungry warlord. He wanted to take chi as a means to gain power as a warlord; he doesn’t have to be a complex character like Tai Lung or Shen. From his perspective, Oogway DID betray him.
Remember Tirek and Scorpan from MLP? It’s the same scenario where one of the brothers amends his ways while the other brother simply refuses to repent and stays evil. It’s the same story with different concepts.
I want to slap myself in the face for missing the point of these characters when I made my initial review.
Moving on, I love how they wrote Li Shan: Po’s biological father. We already know he was a badass when he fought off Shen’s wolves in the second film’s flashbacks, and Jennifer Yuh Nelson & Alessandro Carloni did him even greater justice by making him a relatable character.
It’s perfectly understandable why he wouldn’t want to lose his son again. He lost his wife to a murderous peacock, half of his whole family to the wolves, and their first home. He almost lost everything, but when he sensed that his son was alive, I’m sure he cried tears of joy.
It makes sense why he had to lie to Po about learning chi and how to give it. The LAST thing he wanted was reliving the trauma and possibly seeing more of his family getting taken by a maniacal buffalo with jade blades. So, he had to be a little overprotective. It doesn’t excuse what he did, but I understand why he did it.
Plus, I love the way Ping had to begrudgingly let Po hang out with his birth dad although it hurt him so much that it felt like he was taking his son away from him. But at the end, they learn how hard parenthood is and basically become co-dads together. I love it!
Also, when I was watching the moments where Po had to finally train his family how to fight in their unique panda way(now becoming the teacher), it just made me realize something: Li may not have known how to master chi for a while, but he was indirectly helping Po master chi by making him do all that panda stuff in their village.
By mastering his weaknesses and understanding who he really is, he was able to finally master the techniques of chi in the Spirit Realm, and that wouldn’t have happened if Li didn’t teach Po all the ways a true panda lives life. As Shifu stated earlier in the film, he can’t turn Po into him; he had to turn Po into being himself.
Seriously, the message in this film is brilliantly well-delivered it makes me want to cry. I’ll never understand why some people don’t like this movie.
Lastly, the action is awesome, the comedy is hilarious, the animation is gorgeous, and the soundtrack is absolutely fantastic. My favorite scores are The Battle of Legends and The Spirit Realm. And can we please respect Kai’s theme? It’s so catchy to listen to every time I listen to it.
Overall, this movie is amazing! It is a near-perfect sequel that manages to remain faithful to its two predecessors and bring everything full circle. With that said, the score is upgraded from a 9/10 to an 11/10! I’m not sure if I love this more than the first movie or if I love them both equally. While the second one remains to be the best, this movie is definitely on par with its predecessors.
Peace!
Well said on all of this!