Yuh Nelson and Carloni bring a flowing, tactile beauty to the new movie’s landscapes, which include the pandas’ secluded mountain village and a large farm where Kai stages one of his many dramatic entrances. It also retains the Asian design flourishes and stylistic adventurousness that distinguished its predecessors, though fans of the series by now will be accustomed to (and perhaps less easily wowed by) its occasional flights into lyrical abstraction. There is perhaps no more hackneyed kid-pic moral than the importance of finding and believing in yourself, but “Kung Fu Panda 3” has just enough conviction and pop gravitas to make even this cliche resonate anew. How he learns to reconcile these different aspects of his personality, including the identity crisis brought on by his split parentage, becomes the rich thematic core of Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger’s screenplay. Elegant and rough-and-tumble by turns, these are movies that blend the somber mystique of Chinese wuxia epics with the rambunctiousness of old-school chopsocky, plus a dollop of American geek-culture enthusiasm: Po may be the Chosen One, but he’s also a total goofball - a misfit and an underachiever who just so happens to have a prophetic destiny foisted upon him. The path to enlightenment, as embodied by the Yoda-like Oogway, is paved with wit and whimsy. The strength of the “Kung Fu Panda” series has long been its refusal to take itself or its internal contradictions too seriously. Not that the Po/Tigress shippers should get too excited, given the cool finality with which Jolie’s Tigress refers to Po as “a friend.” (“I always felt I wasn’t eating up to my full potential!” Po squeals when he realizes chopsticks have merely been slowing him down.) Naturally, too, there’s a brief flicker of romantic possibility in the introduction of a somewhat aggressively amorous, ribbon-dancing panda named Mei Mei (Kate Hudson, voicing a role once intended for Rebel Wilson), though the character is played mainly for laughs. The physical comedy becomes downright infectious as Po begins to bond with his new community and soon realizes the vices that made him such an unlikely kung fu master are in fact a panda’s natural entitlements: sleeping until noon every day, avoiding almost all forms of exercise, and consuming one’s body weight in dumplings, cookies and noodles. Whenever matters threaten to turn grave, however, “Kung Fu Panda 3” always has a mood-puncturing quip or sight gag at the ready, a tactic that would grate more if its sense of humor weren’t so buoyant and disarming (a few repetitive yuks aside). Meanwhile, Po’s faithful friends Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) and the Furious Five - aka Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Monkey (Jackie Chan), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Viper (Lucy Liu) and Crane (David Cross) - stay behind to hold down the fort against Kai, though they succumb almost immediately to the warlord’s brutal chi spree. Knowing he must master his own chi to have a shot at defeating Kai, Po decides to return with Li to the secret mountain village where members of their species now reside, having taken refuge after the terrible panda genocide recounted in the second film. It’s a joyous reunion, and Po, finally coming belly-to-belly with another panda for the first time, feels a powerful longing to be among his own kind. Ping (James Hong), and his long-lost biological dad, Li (Bryan Cranston), who turns up in the Valley of Peace looking for his missing son. Kai’s campaign of destruction couldn’t come at a worse possible time for Po, who finds himself torn between his adoptive father, the noodle-peddling goose Mr. Once he defeats Oogway, Kai harnesses enough power to escape back into the mortal world, where he becomes determined to hunt down the one fated to overthrow him: Po, the Dragon Warrior. Simmons), a blade-wielding yak who has challenged thousands of kung fu masters and stolen their chi, which he stores in jade amulets and uses to raise a powerful supernatural army. Last seen vanishing into a vortex of flower petals in the first “Kung Fu Panda,” the wise old tortoise Master Oogway (Randall Duk Kim) is settling down for a few centuries of well-earned rest when he’s attacked by his ancient frenemy, Kai (J.K. Happily, under the fluid direction of Jennifer Yuh Nelson (who helmed “Kung Fu Panda 2”) and Alessandro Carloni, the new film never seems in danger of falling under that description, pulling us in with an otherworldly prologue set in the eternal Spirit Realm.
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I trust that this book will help them muster strength and courage to face continuing trauma. To my beloved children, who, in our closed society, shall have to suffer the trials of a family exposed. I wish that this book might serve as a mirror, so that he may see in it reflections of the man, the husband, the father, the leader and the friend he is. As his sixth wife, I am holding him accountable. To the five other ex-wives of Mustafa Khar, who have silently suffered pain and dishonour while he walked away with impunity. I want the people of my country to know the truth behind the rhetoric, so that they might learn to look beyond the facade. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 Dedication I dedicate this book: To the people of Pakistan, who have repeatedly trusted and supported their leaders - leaders who have, in return, used the hungry, oppressed, miserable multitudes to further their personal interests. There is a deep-rooted deficiency in the feudalvalue system it must be diagnosed before it is treated. But I had to cast aside my personal considerations in favour of the greater good. When I decided to write this book, I was aware of the perils of exposing the details of my private life to a male-dominated Muslim society. But the fantasy is far from reality, and my country of Pakistan must face up to reality if it is ever to grow and prosper. He is seen as a passionate ladies' man and something of a rough diamond, the archetypal male chauvinist who forces a woman to love him despite his treatment of her. Images of him parrying thrusts with the fiercest of swordsmen and riding off into the sunset on his black steed set the pubescent heart aflutter. Author's Note There is a fantasy of a feudal lord as as exotic, tall, dark and handsome man, with flashing eyes and traces of quick-tempered gypsy blood. |
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