Movie Reviews: ‘Kung Fu Panda 1, 2 & 3’

Directors: John Stevenson, Mark Osbourne, Jennifer Yuh Nelson, Alessandro Carloni

Cast: Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Seth Rogen, Jackie Chan, David Cross, Lucy Lui, James Hong, Randall Duk Kim, Michael Clarke Duncan, Dan Fogler, Dennis Haysbert, Jean Claude Van Damme, Brian Cranston, Kate Hudson, Ian McShane, Gary Oldman, JK Simmons, Danny McBride, Fred Tatasciore

Plot: Po, an overweight and clumsy noodle vendor, is unexpectedly announced as the prophesied ‘Dragon Warrior’. As the Dragon Warrior, Po must accept his fate, learn what makes him unique and defend the Valley of Peace and the traditions of Kung Fu.

Review: We didn’t have a great deal of interest in the 2008 release of Kung Fu Panda. This came at a time when Dreamworks were riding high, having found great success with Shrek and managing to steal audience members away from Disney with a run of decent hits. The issue we found was in the perceived creative process. Dreamworks brainstorming sessions boiled down to naming well-known celebrities and random animals – put them together and you have both your character and plot. An ant based on Woody Allen who is voiced by Woody Allen. A Will Smith fish. An Antonio Banderas cat. A Chris Rock zebra. A Jerry Seinfeld bee. When we saw marketing for what was the next entry this trend – a Jack Black panda – we were a bit over it.

It turned out that we were delightfully wrong on this count. Not that Kung Fu Panda isn’t basically the Jack Black panda movie, because it absolutely is. Perhaps the key to this approach is including Jack Black. The man is part-animated creature as it is, so there’s not much distance to cover to create the final product. The world of Po (Black) is bright and vibrant, and although it states that it takes place in China it’s a world of fantasy. Heavily influenced by Chinese and Martial Arts cinema, it’s a world where kung fu isn’t just the result of hard work and training but the source of mystical abilities. Each warrior in this world has unique abilities, signature weapons artefacts…but it’s never taken that seriously. They play fast and loose with the lore, and the logic is very much in the realm of Chuck Jones cartoons.

When we are introduced to Po, he is working in his father’s (Hong) noodle shop and fantasising about becoming a legendary kung fu warrior alongside the Furious Five. There’s a touch of modern fandom here, with Po collecting action figures and decorating his rooms with posters. Meanwhile, up at the Jade Palace, Master Shifu (Hoffman) trains the Furious Five until his master Oogway (Duk Kim) predicts the coming of Tai Lung (McShane). The former student and adopted son of Shifu has been locked down in a specially designed prison, but is predicted to return to obtain the Dragon Scroll, source of the mysterious Dragon Warrior’s power. With the announcement of the Dragon Warrior being named, the village gather to find out who of the Furious Five will become the legendary figure.

Through a series of accidents, Po is named Dragon Warrior. Shifu, the bad tempered red panda master, is horrified to learn that his students have been overlooked and vows to drive Po away through a brutal regime of training. Although initially dismissive, the Furious Five come to appreciate Po’s differences. At this point we should point out that a consistent annoyance with this series is the laziness of the writers in naming the Furious Five. While every other character has names and titles, they’re just referred to my their animal identity despite being main characters voiced by well-known characters who were quick to get a spin-off series and short film. Tigress (Jolie), Monkey (Chan), Mantis (Rogen), Viper (Lui) and Crane (Cross) provide much of the comedy and action with their unique personalities and design, but they don’t warrant a name. It really is the Furious Five that make the action exciting to watch, as the animators and choreographers have had to get highly creative to show how they function.

Amid the rich style, fun characters and quick pace, Kung Fu Panda is a jolly good time. Our obnoxiously loud washing machine started going off during the film, and on this rewatch didn’t present any obvious time to step away and deal with it. There’s one great set-piece or exchange after another. Tai Lung is a great villain, being completely sincere and dramatic in contrast to Po nerding out and making comical bouncing noises. As he works his way from the depths of his prison through a rope bridge showdown with the Furious Five, he gets built up as a genuine and entertaining threat.

The animation has aged, as it always will, and many of the crowd shots are filled with copy/pasted background figures, and it has all the tropes of Dreamworks. With the voice talent, the stylised design based on a mythical version of ancient China, the fast-moving action, we can ignore these complaints, and the generic story, and enjoy the ride. It is still one of the better of this batch of 2000s animated movies, where being CGI and having celebrities was enough to drum up box office.

It’s wasn’t long until a sequel was in the works, with a new director but a full returning cast. This time around, Po has embraced his path as the Dragon Warrior and has to address a new threat on the horizon. Lord Shen (Oldman) is a banished member of a royal family of peacocks who has weaponised gun powder and returned to reclaim his inheritance and wipe out kung fu warriors. With this new technology allowing Shen to roll in a bunch of canons, it seems like no-one can stop him from taking over China. Po and the Furious Five set out on a mission that will save China and the legacy of Kung Fu. Along the way, Po will discover what happened to his family and the other pandas, and Shen’s involvement.

In addition to repeating the self-fulfilling prophecy plot initiation, this film repeats much of the same story points and gags as the original. It’s a bit darker, shifting the action to an urban city rather than the Jade Palace, with more innocent victims in the firing line and a grim reveal about Po’s backstory. Although Shen and Po are connected, we never saw any of it play out and Po largely doesn’t know what’s happened himself, so it’s not that engaging for the audience. We get told there’s a connection, but we never feel it.

Kung Fu Panda 2 isn’t a bad film by any stretch, with some moments like the opening vintage animation style at the beginning being a nice touch, but it doesn’t do anything new. The original followed the usual marketing driven creative process as any other Dreamworks movie, but this sequel didn’t break the mould in any notable way.

Five years after this lacklustre sequel, a third was released to continue the set-up of Po’s father searching for him. Initially we thought we’d largely forgotten this one, the memory of it becoming hazy like the second, but putting it one today revealed that we’d never seen it. Our foe this time is an old ally of Oogway, named General Kai (Simmons), who has escaped from the Spirit Realm and looks to capture the ‘chi’ energy of every kung fu master to destroy Oogway’s legacy. This particular menacing foe is able to summon legendary warriors as jade zombies to fight for him, and they quickly capture the Furious Five before targeting Po.

Po, meanwhile, has been reunited with his biological father Li Shan (Cranston), which creates a conflict with Po’s adopted father Mr. Ping. When Li Shan offers to take Po to the hidden Panda village to teach him the ability to harness chi and fight against Kai, they travel with Mr. Ping who worries he will lose his son. This story gives Po much more room to grow as a character as he seeks to find a balance between his two histories as the son of two very different father figures. Only by coming to terms with these components, and his new role as a teacher, can he hope to overcome this enemy.

This is very much a return to form for the series, with expansive and detailed environments for the action to take place in. With a more supernatural opponent to deal with, the characters have to operate outside of their usual tactics. Some of the new characters lack in-depth characterisation and the casting feels like stunt casting with currently popular actors, and some of the Furious Five get sidelined, but the core is strong. This is the one film in the series that breaks away from the formulaic plots of the first two and is all the better for it.

The entire Kung Fu Panda series to date stands out as one of the better Dreamworks movies. Shrek is the most successful and beloved, but it always came from a very cynical and petty place. The adventure of Po are much more fun, and the people behind the scenes seem to be dedicated to making a genuinely solid bit of family entertainment. It doesn’t lean on pop culture references (although it wears its influences out the open), it doesn’t try to shock you, it’s just a good time.

Here’s looking forward to a fourth adventure tomorrow.