History WesternAnimation / KungFuPanda3

** This exchange:
--->'''Elderly panda:''' ''[to Po]'' Oh, he's so handsome, just like his father!\\
'''Mr. Ping:''' Thank you!
** And later, this:
--->'''Po:''' I'm gonna stay, and fight that monster.\\
'''Mr. Ping:''' Po, he may be a monster, but he's still your father.\\
'''Po:''' Not him! ''Kai!''

** The Wuxi Finger Hold was left as a mystery in the first film, with not much more details than it results in NoBodyLeftBehind, gives off a lot of engy and fog, and the "hardest part of it is cleaning up afterwards". [[spoiler:In this film, it shows that by touching the finger to someone, they are forced to go to the Spirit World, leaving behind a yin-yang symbol composed of flower petals. Of course, it is also shown to only work on Mortals, not spirits.]]

** Kai [[spoiler:revealing he's immune to the Wuxi Finger Hold.]]

** To Marvel Studio's ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'' regarding Kai and Star-Lord. Both become ecstatic at the first mention of recognition to their name and accomplishments.

** The final battle of "villages doing what they do best" is one to ''Film/ThreeAmigos''.
** Kai has hooves, large horns, green blades, uses trinkets powered by energy of foes he defeated, turned evil to gain power, AND his friend locked him up for a very long time. The resemblance to [[VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft Illidan Stormrage]] is uncanny.

** The scene where Po and Li are struggling to wade through the snow while Mr. Ping is simply lking on top of it brings to mind an identical one in Film/TheFellowshipOfTheRing.

* DemotedToExtra: The Furious Five save Tigress get hit hard with this with them all becoming zombified by Kai less than halfway through the movie, heavily contrasting the screen time they got in the second movie. While Shifu gets captured as well, he still gets more time onscreen than the rest before Kai gets to him.

In the realm of the spirits, [[TheBusCameBack Oogway]] faces an opponent from the past, the evil spirit Kai (Creator/JKSimmons). Kai has waited five hundred years, gathering enough chi from late kung fu masters [[SupernaturalMartialArts in order to defeat Oogway]] and return to the world of the living, something he succeeds in. Meanwhile, in the Valley of Peace, Po learns that Shifu is retiring and [[PassingTheTorch passing his role as the Furious Five's teacher to him]], a position Po struggles to handle. His mind is soon diverted, however, as he is faced with the arrival of his biological father, Li Shan (Creator/BryanCranston), who takes him to a hidden panda paradise in the mountains. Things quickly go downhill when Kai arrives and wreaks havoc at the Jade Palace, leaving Tigress the only one to escape and warn Po of the approaching threat. Now, Po must gather his teaching skills in order to [[TrainingThePeacefulVillagers train the pandas into capable fighters]] that will help him defeat Kai, while also learning how to master the power of [[KiManipulation chi.]]

The first Chinese trailer can be viewed [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eM80enLZBpc here]]. The second trailer [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLBiRg9doag here.]] The official US trailers can be viewed [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10r9ozshGVE here]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoXk1_3KRZg here]], and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqN7nHM1YTA here.]] The Japanese trailer can be viewed [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nR6qrJEjBSg here.]]

* BigEntrance: [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]] and [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]]. Po says that this is a very important thing... and to everyone's surprise, including his own, Shifu agrees, pointing out a proper entrance can get you the advantage before the fight actually starts. He then follows up with the "dramatic exit": getting Po to [[LookBehindYou look behind him]] so he can slip away. [[ChekhovsGun This becomes important]] in how Po is able to [[spoiler:banish Kai back to the Spirit Realm]].
* BigSisterInstinct: [[spoiler:Tigress develops this with Lei Lei.]]
* BigSisterWorship: [[spoiler:Lei Lei is completely smitten with "Stripy Baby" Tigress and is constantly by her side.]]

* {{Bowdlerize}}: Po's "I think I just peed a little" line at seeing the full capability of Master Rhino's armor is changed in the Mandarin dub to "This is too much".

* HasTwoDaddies: Despite some initial antagonism on Mr. Ping's side as he is afraid of losing Po, he and Li end up bonding as they seek to help Po. [[spoiler:They end up fighting against a Jombie-fied version of Shifu together and when they welcome him back, even use "we" to refer to themselves as his fathers.]]

* HongKongDub: {{Averted|Trope}}. Because this particular movie is being co-made by Oriental [=DreamWorks=] in China, the animators made
two different versions; one where the characters move their mouths after the original English dub, and another where ''they move their mouths after the Chinese dub.'' This is the first time something like this has ever been done with an animated feature.

** Within the [[CloudCuckooLand quirky Panda Village]], Po and Tigress' roles are practically reversed from what they often are in the Jade Palace, with Po's eccentricities making him an efficient leader and Tigress reduced to a bewildered FishOutOfWater.

* OhCrapFakeout: Kai's reaction to Po [[spoiler:attempt to use the Wuxi Fingerhold on him.]]

** Oogway's scroll describing Kai is much more serious and straightforward than his normal laid back way of doing things, even outright saying [[spoiler:if Kai ever came back, only a master of Chi was capable of stopping him.]] Not only does this show how dangerous he is, [[spoiler:it shows that Oogway was likely torn up seeing his old friend turn into a selfish psychopathic monster.]]

** Mei Mei (who has at this point been hitting on Po in every scene she is in) asks "Who is she?" in an almost condescending tone when she first sees Tigress, which is a very stereotypical way to address a woman you see as a rival LoveInterest. It's probably no coincidence that she's the one to ask said question out of all the pandas either. Plus, once Tigress is in the village, Mei Mei stops flirting with Po completely as if having admitted defeat.

** Po and Tigress at one point [[spoiler:begin to spar while discussing how to deal with Kai. The ensuing spat that follows has them sounding LikeAnOldMarriedCouple.]]

* {{Unperson}}: Nobody remembers who Kai is because Oogway kept the records of him hidden away and never mentioned him to anybody. This greatly angers Kai when he returns, seeing that Oogway has destroyed his legacy.

* WhereItAllBegan: The final scene of the film takes place in the Jade Palace Arena, the same place where Po was chosen by Oogway to be the Dragon Warrior [[Westernanimation/KungFuPanda in the first film]].

'''Po:''' I don't wanna be more! I like who I am!\\

* BookEnds: The trilogy began with Po as a legendary, revered warrior in a robe and wearing a nice hat - albeit only in a dream. This film almost ends the same way, but under much different circumstances: [[spoiler: Po only dons the outfit he wore in the opening of the first film after accepting himself as the Dragon Warrior after sending himself and Kai to the Spirit Realm. Po loses the outfit once he returns to the mortal realm, but he still ends the film and the trilogy as the legendary, revered warrior he once only dreamed he could be.]]

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar:
** In one trailer, Po shows off "backwards Kung Fu", then ends it with "a respectful backwards bow" -- in other words, ''mooning the viewer''.
** And this:
--->'''Bao:''' What's that?\\
'''Mr. Ping:''' My hat.\\
'''Bao:''' What's that?\\
'''Mr. Ping:''' My beak.\\
'''Bao:''' What's that?\\
'''Mr. Ping:''' My wing.\\
'''Bao:''' What's that?\\
'''Mr. Ping:''' [[DoubleEntendre My dumplings!]] ''([[BaitAndSwitch holds up bowl of dumplings]])''
** A ''male'' duck farmer suddenly lays an egg when Kai scares him, then spews out a dozen of them when Kai asks if he stepped on him, would he die?[[note]]Replace "egg" with "brick" to get the Radar.[[/note]]

* UnspokenPlanGuarantee: Preparing for his final battle with Kai, [[spoiler:Po reasons that he needs to get close enough to Kai to employ the Wuxi Finger Hold. We then see a TrainingMontage where Po drills the other pandas not in kung fu but in skills they already possess (hugging, hacky-sack, ribbon dancing), then moving on to weaponizing those skills (hugging logs so hard they splinter, using fireworks instead of hacky-sacks and nunchucks instead of ribbons). Even amid the training, Po's plan is still not revealed; when he announces, "They are ready," Tigress is scratching her head. Finally, when Kai arrives with the jade-zombie army of martial arts masters, Po springs his plan and the other pandas succeed in holding their own against the jombies and distracting Kai enough for Po to get close enough for the Wuxi. [[NoSell Which does not work on Kai because he is no longer mortal.]] The parts of Po's plan that we don't fully know about in advance work flawlessly. The part he discusses in the beginning (the Wuxi Finger Hold) doesn't.]] GenreSavvy viewers will know it won't work simply because the Trope was averted.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Oogway's scroll describing Kai is much more serious and straightforward than his normal laid back way of doing things, even outright saying [[spoiler:if K\\ai ever came back, only a master of Chi was capable of stopping him.]] Not only does this show how dangerous he is, [[spoiler:it shows that Oogway was likely torn up seeing his old friend turn into a selfish psychopathic monster.]]

** Kai has hooves, large horns, green blades, uses trinkets powered by energy of foes he defeated, turned evil to gain power, AND his friend locked him up for a very long time. The resemblance to [[VideoGames/WorldOfWarcraft Illidan Stormrage]] is uncanny.

* HongKongDub: {{Averted|Trope}}. Because this particular movie is being co-made by Oriental [=DreamWorks=] in China, the animators are making two different versions; one where the characters move their mouths after the original English dub, and another where ''they move their mouths after the Chinese dub.'' This is the first time something like this has ever been done with an animated feature.

* UnspokenPlanGuarantee: Preparing for his final battle with Kai, [[spoiler:Po reasons that he needs to get close enough to Kai to employ the Wuxi Finger Hold. We then see a TrainingMontage where Po drills the other pandas not in kung fu but in skills they already possess (hugging, hacky-sack, ribbon dancing), then moving on to weaponizing those skills (hugging logs so hard they splinter, using fireworks instead of hacky-sacks and nunchucks instead of ribbons). Even amid the training, Po's plan is still not revealed; when he announces, "They are ready," Tigress is scratching her head. Finally, when Kai arrives with the jade-zombie army of martial arts masters, Po springs his plan and the other pandas succeed in holding their own against the jombies and distracting Kai enough for Po to get close enough for the Wuxi. [[NoSell Which does not work on Kai because he is no longer mortal.]] The parts of Po's plan that we don't fully know about in advance work flawlessly. The part he discusses in the beginning (the Wuxi Finger Hold) doesn't.]]

* AnimalGenderBender: A male goose lays a bunch of eggs when frightened by Kai, probably for RuleOfFunny.

* TheBusCameBack: Oogway returns in this film after having been completely absent from the second film (not counting the opening logo of that film) after his death in the first film. It turns out that he's been spending all this time in the spirit realm, and doesn't know how to get back to the real world because he never tried it.

'''Li''': And I hope you find your father. [''Mr. Ping's guests {{facepalm}} at Po and Li failing to see the resemblance to each other'']

* CaptainObviousReveal: An InUniverse-version played for laughs. When Mr. Li and Po meet, Li tells Po he's looking for his lost son, while Po tells Li he's looking for his lost father. They wish each other luck, [[WhatAnIdiot and both turn to leave.]] ''Everyone'' in the crowd watching them facepalms.

* CurbStompBattle: [[spoiler:This is pretty much what Po delivers on Kai after channeling a dragon BattleAura in the spirit realm.]]

** Mr. Ping after [[spoiler:Li Shan admits he lied to pull Po out of danger goes to the latter with fresh dumplings, and admits he also lied because he wanted to make sure Po didn't leave him. He undersatnds the need to be an OverprotectiveDad and a PapaWolf.]]

* HardWorkHardlyWorks: Also counts as a ContinuityNod to ''[=KFP2=]''. Once again, [[spoiler:Po masters a skill by the end of the film that he was told about by Shifu at the beginning and where Shifu goes to the length of explaining how it takes many, ''many'' years of training in a lonely cave to master it.]] Shifu's exasperation is evident [[spoiler:when Po tells him he got his new staff from Master Oogway after defeating Kai in the Spirit Realm. He does soften however when Po promises to teach him]]. The movie reveals in the end that [[spoiler:it is a lot easier than Shifu thought, since the pandas figure it out by accident and Po teaches the ''entire Valley of Peace'' to channel their C'hi in apparently less than a week.]]

* ChekhovsBoomerang: [[spoiler:Po reveals to Tigress that he plans on using the Wuxi Finger Hold against Kai.]]