The narrative of recent months: DreamWorks Animation, which has gone through restructuring, has been hemorrhaging money. They posted a $247.7 million loss for Q4 2014 and generally things have been looking dismal. But one has to wonder who is mismanaging the company. They have the “Shrek” series which is the highest grossing animated franchise of all time ($3.5 billion and counting presuming they’ll make more spin-offs), the “Madagascar” series ($2.2 billion), and “How To Train Your Dragon” ($1.1 billion). They’ve just had too many pricey flops in the interim, “The Penguins Of Madagascar” being one of them. But with the modest success of “Home” and a third “Kung Fu Panda” film on the way, they’re hoping to turn their ship around.
Here’s the official synopsis for “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 village full of his fun-loving, clumsy brethren to become the ultimate band of Kung Fu Pandas!
“Kung Fu Panda 3” is directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson (“Kung Fu Panda,” “Kung Fu Panda 2”), with Alessandro Carloni serving as co-director. The voice cast includes Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Jackie Chan, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu, David Cross, James Hong, Randall Duk Kim, Bryan Cranston, and Rebel Wilson. Watch the first official trailer below.