I found “Kung Fu Panda” to be much better than what I presumed it to be: a corny flick with Jack Black’s character making nonstop slapstick jokes. Instead I found the movie to be a good mix of martial arts, humor, drama, and beautiful scenery.

“Kung Fu Panda 2” definitely uped the game with Gary Oldman as a (peacock?!) power-hungry villain. Po’s memory scenes and the talks with his father made me teary-eyed. Yes, a panda made me cry. Thanks, Dreamworks. The ending definitely ends on an open note.

So long as Dreamworks keeps stepping up their game and keeps writing as well as they did for the first two “KFP” films then the trilogy could work…or not. It is a tremendous risk and sometimes third film turns out to be a flop and/or dissapointment e.g. “Spiderman 3”, “Pirates of the Carribean: At World’s End”, “Shrek the Third”. Here’s to hoping Dreamworks pulls off something better and “Kung Fu Panda 3” accomplishes what it sets out to do.

One last thing: Mads Mikkelson was brilliant as a Bond villain *shivers* so I’m curious to see how he tackles voice acting.