jack black

KUNG FU PANDA 4: Jack Black Shapes Up For Another Round In The Official Trailer

“Skadooshing” its way back into the cinema stratosphere is the Kung Fu Panda franchise with a fourth entry hitting theaters on March 8 from Universal/Dreamworks Animation. Directed by Mike Mitchell, Jack Black leads a VO cast that also included Awkwafina and Viola Davis, as well as Ian McShane reprising his role from the film as revealed by the new official trailer as of Wednesday. After three death-defying adventures defeating world-class villains with his unmatched courage and mad martial arts skills, Po, the Dragon Warrior (Golden Globe nominee Jack Black), is called upon by destiny to … give it a rest already. More specifically, he’s tapped to become the Spiritual Leader of the Valley of Peace. That poses a couple of obvious problems. First, Po knows as much about spiritual leadership as he does about the paleo diet, and second, he needs to quickly find and train a new Dragon Warrior […]

Justice With A Side Of Noodles, Dumplings And Bamboo In The New Trailer For KUNG FU PANDA 3!

Lee B. Golden III

Kung Fu Panda 3 is opening on January 29 in the U.S. next year, and so it goes we have a new trailer this week that further guarantees a great time for fans of one of Dreamworks’s most successful franchises. Jennifer Yuh Nelson and Alessandro Carloni direct with actor Jack Black lending his devotion to kung fu once more as “the chosen one” now tasked with defending his village from another ambitious, and obviously begrudging new challenger. SYNOPSIS: In 2016, one of the most successful animated franchises in the world returns with its biggest comedy adventure yet, KUNG FU PANDA 3. When Po’s long-lost panda father suddenly reappears, the reunited duo travels to a secret panda paradise to meet scores of hilarious new panda characters. But when the supernatural villain Kai begins to sweep across China defeating all the kung fu masters, Po must do the impossible—learn to train a […]

There's No Room For Chit-Chat In The New Trailer For KUNG FU PANDA 3

Lee B. Golden III

Actor Jack Black adding kung fu movies to his resumé isn’t too far fetched an idea with the incredible work he’s put in personifying our beloved supersized bear, Po in Dreamworks’ Kung Fu Panda franchise. We have an ample story full of loveable characters worth cheering with Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Lucy Liu, David Cross and Seth Rogen adding to the budding comedy that sees our hero rise up from underdog martial arts fan to the kingdom’s ultimate kung fu savior, dumplings and all. We now begin heading back to that very kingdom with Kung Fu Panda 3 from Jennifer Yuh Nelson and Alessandro Carloni serving as the film’s directors. With this, teaser footage has been circulating online for sometime now but we finally have a full-on first trailer that presents what we’ve been waiting for, and it looks about right! SYNOPSIS: In 2016, one of the most successful animated […]

The New KUNG FU PANDA 3 Trailer Reunites Father And Son… Or Not

Lee B. Golden III

Picturing actor Jack Black as an action hero would be something of an impossible feat to pull of, but he’s done quite so successfully in the past decade or so the lead in Dreamworks Animation’s Kung Fu Panda trilogy. The first film was absolutely brilliant and the second wasn’t as substantive but scored plenty of points for spectactle in the epic telling of a sizeable panda’s fish-out-of-water journey toward kung fu greatness in the face of evil and of self-discovery. With the third now on the way in Kung Fu Panda 3, aside from the second film’s ending, you still wonder what else is left to tell, and the latest official trailer acknowleges that rightly so. SYNOPSIS: In 2016, one of the most successful animated franchises in the world returns with its biggest comedy adventure yet, KUNG FU PANDA 3. When Po’s long-lost panda father suddenly reappears, the reunited duo […]

KUNG FU PANDA Moves Up To January 2016

Lee B. Golden III

Dreamworks Animation has been pretty busy so far in restructuring itself since the top of the year. The studio will only be releasing two films per year from now through 2018, starting next year with Kung Fu Panda 3, the third installation of the Jack Black-starring kung fu animated franchise with Twentieth Century Fox, and word has it from the Dreamworks Animation CEO himself, Jeffrey Katzenberg, that there could be another trilogy in the works beyond that point, which does feed the curiousity. Anyway, the film has been pushed back a few times between its previously-announced December 2015 and March 2016 dates, but THR is now reporting that the film will arrive just a little sooner next year with a flag planted for January 29, 2016, so it’s definitely a small sign of better prospects to hopefully come. Animation veterans Jennifer Yuh Nelson and Alessandro Carloni are co-directing the new […]

KUNG FU PANDA 3 Gets Co-Production Status Amid Studio Layoffs And Reduced Slate

Lee B. Golden III

It hasn’t been a good week at DreamWorks Animation with their stocks hitting a 52-week low on Thursday, ultimately leading to a huge number of layoffs. This also forced the company to reduce its feature film release plan to only two a year, including the long-awaited threequel to the largely China-produced Kung Fu Panda frachise. With actor Jack Black joined by an ensemble cast once more, the film is poised for a March 18, 2016 release following its pushback from December this year to avoid crossing sabers with J.J. Abrams’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Thankfully with the way things have been for the company, the film was finally granted co-production status which grants the filmmakers a larger share of box-office receipts as opposed to what it would have gotten as a foreign film, and will also bypass China’s quota system (that won’t be solved for another few years in […]