Movie Waffle | Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016) - JK! You're Not an Orphan!


Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016) directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson and Alessandro Carloni - Kung Fu Panda 1 & 2 are some of my most beloved films; they’re guilty pleasures of mine for sure. Maybe it’s the nostalgia talking but the franchise had shown that it could mix just the right amount of emotion and light-heartedness to convey a profound universal message.

Kung Fu Panda 3 never achieves that feeling though. It is silly but not funny -- loaded but not substantive. Also it retcons. Rather substantially in fact. So much so that it invalidates a key point of both the previous movies. 


An antagonist who quite literally just pops in because reasons (maybe he’s on holiday from Naruto given that his abilities basically amount to the Rinnegan minus a few bits), magic that can be mastered in two seconds with the power of friendship, and an abundance of flippancy left me wanting. 


Even the music and the art just don’t feel as endearing anymore.


The stakes should have never been higher than in this film, yet I could never bring myself to care. Just contrivance upon contrivance soiling a solid foundation.

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