Sunday, March 13, 2016

Kung Fu Panda 3 - Po Return to His Origin

Finally, I got the chance to see this movie after it was somehow delayed playing in Indonesia (not sure the reasoning as usually Hollywood movies that can attract lots of audiences play at the same weekend as in US, some even play earlier). Anyway, on March 12, 2016 I managed to buy the ticket and watched it at the 2.45 PM show. As I already foresee, most of the people who watch are families with kids and couples.

Movie starts with the scene of Kai (voiced by J.K Simmons) fighting with Master Oogway (voiced by Randall Duk Kim) to acquire Oogway's chi. Kai had been collecting the chi of other Kungfu masters and Oogway's chi was the one he required to come back to the mortal world. Kai was able to defeat Oogway who warned him that Kai should be ready to fight with the Dragon Warrior (Po) as it was him who would be the real master of chi. Kai felt that as a ridiculous thing and really underestimated Po.

Scene moved to the time when Master Shifu (voiced by Dustin Hoffman) told Po (voiced by Jack Black) that he would retire from teaching and passing the title of master to Po. Po was very surprised and he really felt that he was not worthy of being a good teacher and believed that Tigress would be better suited. However, Shifu was very persistent and insisted that Dragon Warrior should be the next master. Hence all five of Po's friends who were all kungfu masters, Tigress (voiced by Angelina Jolie), Mantis (voiced by Seth Rogen), Viper (voiced by Lucy Liu), Crane (voiced by David Cross) & Monkey (voiced by Jackie Chan) greeted Po as their master. As we would have guessed, Po's training to the other 5 masters was terrible. Everyone got injured during this training and Po became frustrated. When Po was feeling down, he met with Master Shifu who advised him that he should become the better him and not trying to become Shifu. He should be the master of chi (which of course Po was not able to understand).

Po later went back to his hometown, where his father Mr. Ping (voiced by James Hong) eventually convinced Po that it was a good step up to become master and perhaps later can be promoted to higher level so Mr. Ping can sell more noodles in the palace. While Po was taking bath, they were informed that someone almost broke Po's record of dumpling eating so they immediately went out and see. Apparently it was another Panda named Li Shan (voiced by Bryan Cranston) who was looking for his son separated from child. After few conversations, they both realized that Li Shan's son was Po, while he was Po's father. Mr. Ping was very skeptic about this and really jealous of Po's affection to Li Shan.

Po was so excited and he showed Li Shan the place where there were lots of artifacts. They had lots of fun by playing using those artifacts. Master Shifu and the rest of the 5 masters suddenly appeared when they were playing and finally were introduced to Li Shan. As Po was about to be asked by Shifu to show his father his training, there was a bell sounded from far which was to alarm there was danger in the valley. So Po and the rest went back to the village and fight with the enemies. Li Shan seem to be worried during this fight. After the fighting with the jade warriors who were assigned by Kai after he arrived at the mortal world, it was found out that Kai was a very dangerous and strong enemy. He has a direct relationship with Oogway and the only way to defeat him was by mastering chi. Po as the dragon warrior was the one that everyone count on, and Li Shan promise that he would be able to make Po learn to become the master of chi in the Panda village.

In short, Po, Li Shan and Mr. Ping arrived at the secret panda village where Po would be introduced to his long lost family. There were his cousins, a grandma, a baby, a dancer and many others. Po had to learn how to be himself (a panda) in order to learn mastering his chi.
Meanwhile, Kai had acquired more and more chi from various kungfu masters. but his ultimate goal had always been the Dragon Warrior's chi. In order to do that, he had to fight his way to the valley against Po's friends and Master Shifu, and later to fight Po.

Is it possible for Po to become the master of chi? Can he fight Kai who is becoming superior every time he defeated the other kungfu masters and made them his personal jade warriors? Can Po become a really good teacher & master as what Shifu and Oogway foresees? You can find it all once you watch it till the end. 

I had a good moment watching this movie. I feel that after 3 movies, the film finally has come to its full circle. There were a lot of funny moments and 1 or 2 touching scenes. But I personally feel that there were more funnier moments in the 1st and 2nd part (I laughed a lot harder and more frequently then). And I really feel that the trailer shown in the theaters are too much. Almost all the supposed funny moments have been shown in this trailer. Perhaps it's also due to the short length of the movie so the funny moments were too few? 
The movie also has got some nice songs like "Kungfu fighting" which was from the original movie and another song I think it's called "Try" in the end credit. There were some raps in that song which was sung by the popular Taiwanese singer Jay Chou.

Anyway, if you have watched Kung Fu Panda 1 and 2, you definitely should watch this one to complete the trilogy. If you have not, I recommend you watch them first before watching part 3. This movie is quite light and should be easily understood by children. Even though it's also a story of martial arts, the fight scenes are very light and no bloody or death scene. It's a family friendly movie where everyone can watch and have fun for 1.5 hours. Ooh btw, I saw it in 2D, but I am pretty sure it would have been better in 3D as I saw various scenes where I believe it could be felt clearer and greater in 3D. So perhaps it would be better if you could see it in 3D.

Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

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