Friday 18 March 2016

Kung Fu Panda 3 (review)

Last Sunday Eddie and I went to see Kung Fu Panda 3. We met with one of Eddie's friends and his Mum at the cinema. I braced myself to endure 90 minutes of boredom (last time I went with my son's school to watch the musical Annie, I nearly died of boredom). Since I haven't seen KFP 1 or 2, I didn't know what to expect. I thought I'd just read my ebook on iphone.
After almost half an hour of ads (who thought a long ad on the latest i-gadgets is appropriate for young kids?!), the film started. At first I was quite bewildered. It seemed a rather sophisticated concept for little people. I confess I was hooked.
The film begins with the most bizarre scene of a demon yak in the Otherworld or some universe of the spirit world. He swings his jade axes (or are they knives?) on long chains, trying to capture the chi of the ancient tortoise Master Oogway.
In the "real" world panda Po, an endearing goofball, is propelled into an unenviable position of a Kung Fu teacher. Everyone including himself (well, apart from Master Shifu) thinks it is not a good idea.
This dumpling-munching-kung-fu-fighting hero is the true star of the film.
He is reunited with his long lost father, and goes in search of his panda identity. There are some hilarious scenes which made us laugh aloud.


We watched this animation in 2d, as I didn't think Eddie would be happy to endure wearing the 3d glasses for 90 minutes, but this animation is available in 3D as well.
When our young friend decided to leave half-way through the film because he was scared, I asked Eddie if he wanted to stay, secretly hoping that he didn't want to leave as well. No, thanks goodness, he wanted to stay and watch the film to the very end. He didn't even want to leave when the final film credits were rolling and people started to leave the cinema hall en masse.
Eddie asked me to buy him a DVD of this animation as soon as it is out. And in the last few days he's been glued to the TV, watching Kung Fu Panda on Netflix.
The animation in KFP3 is very impressive. The imaginary universe is populated with antropomorphic animals who behave just like humans. It is funny and sweet, and has super action scenes.
This flamboyant animation will appeal to both children and grown-ups.






Disclosure: both images and the trailer are reproduced courtesy of Dreamworks.

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