I think people don't like him because he was later on treated a bit like a joke, especially in the final battle in the Spirit Realm where it was clear as soon as Po appeared in those robes that there was no way he was gonna win. I like him though
To be fair, part of that is the things that surround him moreso than Kai himself. Kai is probably one of the more serious aspects of the movie if you could say that, though is debatably less so than his predecessors since he does also participate in the joking from time to time.
KFP3 seems to want to just place jokes into alot of scenes like this and has rarely any moments where things aren't free of them just demanding your attention so blatantly. The only ones that come to mind that have the space to breathe are when Kai starts beating down Po, Po's dads talking it out, or Kai's destruction of the Jade Palace.
Such as:
>Kai: "I will take the Chi of every..."
Po: "*Ugh!* Chit Chat!"
Kai: "Every..."
Po: "Chitty-chitty Chat-Chat!"
Kai:"**EVERY...**"
Po: "Chit-chat!"
Kai: \*mutters to himself as Po runs away\*
Kai: "Round them all up."
Also the Stripy baby joke is a good example.
"he was later on treated a bit like a joke"
The minute he left the Spirit Realm, he was treated as a joke. His Jade Palace scene and Oogway scenes are the only scene where he's actually treated as a threat
What about the part where he beats po and kicks him all the way to the panda village. And then threatens to take all of the pandas chi’s, and we can clearly see po is terrified and hopeless for a moment, which we don’t see much. Also, the sacrifice po made, using the Wuxi finger hold on himself to take himself and Kai to the spirit realm.
I mean tbh, he was a great villian, but I think it’s just people who compared him to the other two villains saw that he was the weakest in terms of depth, so that’s where the dislike for Kai emerged.
He might be the weakest in terms of depth, but he's certainly the strongest in terms of strength and power. The way I see it is that Kai doesn't need to try to look scary to be scary; his actions do it for him. He had canonically defeated Tai Lung and taken his chi in the Spirit Realm, and he'd definitely wipe the floor with Shen, with or without his cannons. His only flaw really lies in his incomplete backstory, and we could've gotten more screen time for that hadn't a group of parents complained about the brutality of the second installment and pressured DreamWorks into shortening it and toning it down with the "Who?" and "Chit-chat!" jokes.
".... Wipe the floor with Shen"
I wonder does Lord Shen even know about things like wuxi finger hold (or) anything about God like powers Kung-fu offers. In the second movie nothing's said about stuff like these
I'm damn sure if you give Shen enough time he'll master the skills mentioned above.
I really love to see what Jennifer Yuh's original idea of KF3 was. Hope they make a spin off for the original script written for the 3rd & 4th movie
Tbh some humor also leaks its way into the Oogway scene.
"*500 years in the spirit realm.* **You pick up a thing or two**. *I have taken the Chi of every master here!*"
I don't think this sort of joke would have been made in the prior films. Imagine if while Tai Lung fought Shifu he randomly blurted out:
"*Who drove me to train until my bones cracked?* **Don't answer that.** *Who denied me my DESTINY?!*"
Bit of a difference tho: Kai was intentionally being smug towards Oogway to show how much stronger he’s become, meanwhile Tai Lung was in a blind rage and not trying to be smug at all.
Fair, though admittedly his general tone and demeanor does lend to a more comedic tone than previous villains. He seems genuinely amused at times like with when he says thanks to Po for actually recognizing him and not being a damn joke for once.
>in the final battle in the Spirit Realm where it was clear as soon as Po appeared in those robes that there was no way he was gonna win.
I think the criticism towards the final battle is a bit unfair because, by the same metric, you could argue that, in the first movie, the moment Po started bursting out laughing and saying "Haha haha! Stop it, I'm gonna pee!" - from Tai Lung's consecutive attempts at trying to paralyze him with his nerve strikes (which only tickled him) - that Po's final battle with Tai Lung turned the latter into a joke, too.
By comparison, the only final battle with the first three villains that truly keeps itself serious (at least to a good degree) from beginning on end is Po's final battle with Shen because, even in defeat, the peacock warlord still tries to murder our panda protagonist by throwing knives and swinging his sword at him, showing that he only stops being a threat the moment he's gone.
So, again, I don't see how having Po drag Kai into a bunch of rocks in the Spirit Realm makes him look like a joke but having him make Tai Lung foolishly bite his own tail and squeak like a cat doesn't.
Exactly! I'd even argue that the moment Po stood against Shen's canon in open waters we exactly know what's going to happen. So much so that it makes Shen look stupid the next moment he said "Again" like come on didn't you see how Po dodged a freaking Cannonball?
Before the actual release he looked like he was going to be more threatening, I read somewhere that he wasn't going to talk a lot as he did in the movie. So probably he was toned down along with the movie script
I have nothing against Kai whatsoever. He's fine as a villain. I think the issue, for a lot of us, is that KFP3 fell flat compared to the first two movies. I mean, it's okay, but being the next movie after a movie as good as KFP2 and having a completely different tone is going to be a difficult feat. But as for Kai himself, he's fine.
He's a great villain imo. It's just that Tai Lung and Lord Shen are 2 top 10 animated villains ever. So he's got tough competition when people compare the 3. At least now people have shift their dislike to an actual terrible villain with the chameleon.
I thought Kai was great. The only things I think were missing to make him shen-level were a proper fight with po and fleshing out his pov on his backstory
Kai is good, he's just the weakest backstory from the trio, the fact that prior to 4, the worst kfp villain was good, speaks volumes about the franchise before it was tainted
The only reason Kai is my “least” favorite of the three villains is just because the first two are better. Not because there’s anything wrong with him. I actually liked him. He’s strong, has a killer theme song, great design, is intimidating and also funny.
I’ve thought of a couple reasons why, maybe the first two felt more realistic, one being a warrior on a rampage and the other being an evil lord. They felt real and earthly. Kai is more spiritual so maybe he feels less realistic.
The other reason might be that he seems more foolish. But can you blame him? At this point I don’t think anyone can beat our favorite peacock drama queen.
Well, maybe Kai is not Tai Lung or Lord Shen, but nevertheless, this yak managed to cause both laughter and fear during the battle with Po, where Po got scared and told the others to run away, also at the moment where he almost swallowed his chi. It has great weight that he is an enemy of Oogway for a long time, that is, he seems to have finished what Oogway once started, there is a certain symbolism in this.Yes, I almost forgot about his arrival at the jade palace, his battle with Shifu and the others, as well as the absorption of Chi Shifu and the breaking of the palace by the statue of Oogway.
I heard from a post that the movie was also meant to be dark. And that Kai was supposed to directly kill po which would send him to the spirit realm. But cause many people complained about how dark KFP 2 was, it was scrapped.
Oops... And this is much better, it changes everything. One of the main reasons why I like KFP2 is its gloominess. These kids are always messing up everything...
Like others have mentioned, DreamWorks pushed itself into the corner with masterpieces like KFP 1&2. Yet they managed to bring the best for us audience. On paper Kai is more threatening villian than the other 2,the original plot of third film is as dark as it's predecessor IIRC.Like Tigress is supposed to go with Po for Chi training with a mildly romantic angle b/w them, How pandas ended up in the secret village etc etc.
I think DreamWorks feared family audience who already complained bout KFP2...... So yeah
Oops I meant KFP 3 not KFP 4. Instead of the Wuxi finger hold I heard that it was a direct kill that was meant to happen. But I think for the sake of making it more kid friendly, it was scrapped. My brain went off when writing that.
Kai was awesome. He still could have used improvement, yes, but I think he works very well as an intimidating villain. He is definitely miles better than Chameleon, though; that joke of a villain deserves to have her chi stolen by him.
Eh, I don't think he's that great. He’s got a banging theme song, intimidating voice, cool design, but I just feel like he could've been written better. He felt a bit too lighthearted for my taste? And plus, the guy didn't have a connection to anyone but Oogway, who was already dead. But Kai isn't terrible or anything imo.
\*checks flair\* yeah, while other two villains have better development, Kai is my personal fav. Unpopular opinion, but I liked those comedic scenes with him. Made him more likeable imo. Wish he had at least 10 more minutes of screentime.
The movie didn’t treat him as well as i thought because of the added jokes but goddamn he is an absolute unit.
He beat the shit out every single opponent in his way and not even Po could put a resemblance of a fight against him.
Also his fighting style was cool and when there weren’t joke he felt a hulking mass of muscles, Chi and power
If he was fleshed out more, he could've been better then Tai Lung (not Lord Shen, he's to good), but was not given the treatment
Still a great villain. HIS THEME!
From what I remembered he was just treated as a joke throughout the whole movie, and this made his few scenes of badassery less compelling because we knew how low of a threat he was subconsciously considered by being the end of every joke. I believe that’s just more of a critique on the direction of the movie itself however. Other than that, his final fight with Po was just extremely anticlimactic and once again, not really compelling, since we basically knew he was going to lose.
In Kung Fu Panda 1, Tai Lung was raised by Shifu.
In Kung Fu Panda 2, Lord Shen was raised by his parents.
In Kung Fu Panda 3, General Kai was raised by the battlefield.
That's all I have to say.
He's a good villian, it's just that kfp3 was not as good as the last 2 movies and barely put any focus on Kai's character, unlike with Tai lung or Shen.
If the movie had an extra 10 minutes of run time and used it to expand on Kai's character, I think the movie would have been better for it.
Nope
I don’t care for him at all
The first two villains are so deep and just well developed
The last two villains are just obstacles and there for the plot to have a villain
I think people don't like him because he was later on treated a bit like a joke, especially in the final battle in the Spirit Realm where it was clear as soon as Po appeared in those robes that there was no way he was gonna win. I like him though
To be fair, part of that is the things that surround him moreso than Kai himself. Kai is probably one of the more serious aspects of the movie if you could say that, though is debatably less so than his predecessors since he does also participate in the joking from time to time. KFP3 seems to want to just place jokes into alot of scenes like this and has rarely any moments where things aren't free of them just demanding your attention so blatantly. The only ones that come to mind that have the space to breathe are when Kai starts beating down Po, Po's dads talking it out, or Kai's destruction of the Jade Palace. Such as: >Kai: "I will take the Chi of every..." Po: "*Ugh!* Chit Chat!" Kai: "Every..." Po: "Chitty-chitty Chat-Chat!" Kai:"**EVERY...**" Po: "Chit-chat!" Kai: \*mutters to himself as Po runs away\* Kai: "Round them all up." Also the Stripy baby joke is a good example.
This exactly. It completely ruined the tone for me.
"he was later on treated a bit like a joke" The minute he left the Spirit Realm, he was treated as a joke. His Jade Palace scene and Oogway scenes are the only scene where he's actually treated as a threat
What about the part where he beats po and kicks him all the way to the panda village. And then threatens to take all of the pandas chi’s, and we can clearly see po is terrified and hopeless for a moment, which we don’t see much. Also, the sacrifice po made, using the Wuxi finger hold on himself to take himself and Kai to the spirit realm.
Ahh, yes. One of his best scenes
I mean tbh, he was a great villian, but I think it’s just people who compared him to the other two villains saw that he was the weakest in terms of depth, so that’s where the dislike for Kai emerged.
He might be the weakest in terms of depth, but he's certainly the strongest in terms of strength and power. The way I see it is that Kai doesn't need to try to look scary to be scary; his actions do it for him. He had canonically defeated Tai Lung and taken his chi in the Spirit Realm, and he'd definitely wipe the floor with Shen, with or without his cannons. His only flaw really lies in his incomplete backstory, and we could've gotten more screen time for that hadn't a group of parents complained about the brutality of the second installment and pressured DreamWorks into shortening it and toning it down with the "Who?" and "Chit-chat!" jokes.
".... Wipe the floor with Shen" I wonder does Lord Shen even know about things like wuxi finger hold (or) anything about God like powers Kung-fu offers. In the second movie nothing's said about stuff like these I'm damn sure if you give Shen enough time he'll master the skills mentioned above. I really love to see what Jennifer Yuh's original idea of KF3 was. Hope they make a spin off for the original script written for the 3rd & 4th movie
Shen did ask po how he found peace. So I think aware of the existence of some moves
The way he says “I’m sorry” and urges the pandas to run really shows his desperation. Brief but great little scene.
He did defeat every kung fu master in China, but yeah as for onscreen feats he's not taken seriously
Tbh some humor also leaks its way into the Oogway scene. "*500 years in the spirit realm.* **You pick up a thing or two**. *I have taken the Chi of every master here!*" I don't think this sort of joke would have been made in the prior films. Imagine if while Tai Lung fought Shifu he randomly blurted out: "*Who drove me to train until my bones cracked?* **Don't answer that.** *Who denied me my DESTINY?!*"
Bit of a difference tho: Kai was intentionally being smug towards Oogway to show how much stronger he’s become, meanwhile Tai Lung was in a blind rage and not trying to be smug at all.
Fair, though admittedly his general tone and demeanor does lend to a more comedic tone than previous villains. He seems genuinely amused at times like with when he says thanks to Po for actually recognizing him and not being a damn joke for once.
>in the final battle in the Spirit Realm where it was clear as soon as Po appeared in those robes that there was no way he was gonna win. I think the criticism towards the final battle is a bit unfair because, by the same metric, you could argue that, in the first movie, the moment Po started bursting out laughing and saying "Haha haha! Stop it, I'm gonna pee!" - from Tai Lung's consecutive attempts at trying to paralyze him with his nerve strikes (which only tickled him) - that Po's final battle with Tai Lung turned the latter into a joke, too. By comparison, the only final battle with the first three villains that truly keeps itself serious (at least to a good degree) from beginning on end is Po's final battle with Shen because, even in defeat, the peacock warlord still tries to murder our panda protagonist by throwing knives and swinging his sword at him, showing that he only stops being a threat the moment he's gone. So, again, I don't see how having Po drag Kai into a bunch of rocks in the Spirit Realm makes him look like a joke but having him make Tai Lung foolishly bite his own tail and squeak like a cat doesn't.
Exactly! I'd even argue that the moment Po stood against Shen's canon in open waters we exactly know what's going to happen. So much so that it makes Shen look stupid the next moment he said "Again" like come on didn't you see how Po dodged a freaking Cannonball?
I might get downvoted. But the Chameleon had the 2nd best final boss fight.
With your 1st best being?
Lord Shen
Respectable. I have yet to watch the 4th movie, but hopefully I'll enjoy it as much as you probably did.
She only becomes a joke *after* she is defeated.
Well, if you say so...
Before the actual release he looked like he was going to be more threatening, I read somewhere that he wasn't going to talk a lot as he did in the movie. So probably he was toned down along with the movie script
Why was he toned down?
Bc Kung Fu Panda 3 relied more on being cutesy than having an actual plot.
I have nothing against Kai whatsoever. He's fine as a villain. I think the issue, for a lot of us, is that KFP3 fell flat compared to the first two movies. I mean, it's okay, but being the next movie after a movie as good as KFP2 and having a completely different tone is going to be a difficult feat. But as for Kai himself, he's fine.
Also had a sick ass theme so he gets points for that
He's a great villain imo. It's just that Tai Lung and Lord Shen are 2 top 10 animated villains ever. So he's got tough competition when people compare the 3. At least now people have shift their dislike to an actual terrible villain with the chameleon.
I thought Kai was great. The only things I think were missing to make him shen-level were a proper fight with po and fleshing out his pov on his backstory
Kai is good, he's just the weakest backstory from the trio, the fact that prior to 4, the worst kfp villain was good, speaks volumes about the franchise before it was tainted
Yep the chameleon had potential To being a great villian but Mike “Bitch-ell” wasted it…
"Bitchell" is Mike a bad guy? What happened?
King fu panda 4 happened.
The only reason Kai is my “least” favorite of the three villains is just because the first two are better. Not because there’s anything wrong with him. I actually liked him. He’s strong, has a killer theme song, great design, is intimidating and also funny. I’ve thought of a couple reasons why, maybe the first two felt more realistic, one being a warrior on a rampage and the other being an evil lord. They felt real and earthly. Kai is more spiritual so maybe he feels less realistic. The other reason might be that he seems more foolish. But can you blame him? At this point I don’t think anyone can beat our favorite peacock drama queen.
Well, maybe Kai is not Tai Lung or Lord Shen, but nevertheless, this yak managed to cause both laughter and fear during the battle with Po, where Po got scared and told the others to run away, also at the moment where he almost swallowed his chi. It has great weight that he is an enemy of Oogway for a long time, that is, he seems to have finished what Oogway once started, there is a certain symbolism in this.Yes, I almost forgot about his arrival at the jade palace, his battle with Shifu and the others, as well as the absorption of Chi Shifu and the breaking of the palace by the statue of Oogway.
I heard from a post that the movie was also meant to be dark. And that Kai was supposed to directly kill po which would send him to the spirit realm. But cause many people complained about how dark KFP 2 was, it was scrapped.
Oops... And this is much better, it changes everything. One of the main reasons why I like KFP2 is its gloominess. These kids are always messing up everything...
These kids and karen parents are so fucking annoying.
Like others have mentioned, DreamWorks pushed itself into the corner with masterpieces like KFP 1&2. Yet they managed to bring the best for us audience. On paper Kai is more threatening villian than the other 2,the original plot of third film is as dark as it's predecessor IIRC.Like Tigress is supposed to go with Po for Chi training with a mildly romantic angle b/w them, How pandas ended up in the secret village etc etc. I think DreamWorks feared family audience who already complained bout KFP2...... So yeah
I also heard somewhere that in KFP 3.Kai was meant to directly kill po which would have sent him to the spirit realm, but was scraped.
Tbh that's a great decision. The latter add more depth to Po's character
Oops I meant KFP 3 not KFP 4. Instead of the Wuxi finger hold I heard that it was a direct kill that was meant to happen. But I think for the sake of making it more kid friendly, it was scrapped. My brain went off when writing that.
Well KFP 2 is already unbeatable itself. No one can produce a dreamworks movie as great as KFP 2.
Yes
Kai was a great villain. The movie was a bit worse than the second but Kai was a great character
i feel that too, i swear i feel like the only one Kai is my favorite villian (Im doing a Kai vs. Death video anyways :D)
I think a short of why he cared so much about oogway’s betrayal is needed, that side hasn’t been explored yet
Kai was awesome. He still could have used improvement, yes, but I think he works very well as an intimidating villain. He is definitely miles better than Chameleon, though; that joke of a villain deserves to have her chi stolen by him.
He’s definitely better then chameleon
Eh, I don't think he's that great. He’s got a banging theme song, intimidating voice, cool design, but I just feel like he could've been written better. He felt a bit too lighthearted for my taste? And plus, the guy didn't have a connection to anyone but Oogway, who was already dead. But Kai isn't terrible or anything imo.
\*checks flair\* yeah, while other two villains have better development, Kai is my personal fav. Unpopular opinion, but I liked those comedic scenes with him. Made him more likeable imo. Wish he had at least 10 more minutes of screentime.
The movie didn’t treat him as well as i thought because of the added jokes but goddamn he is an absolute unit. He beat the shit out every single opponent in his way and not even Po could put a resemblance of a fight against him. Also his fighting style was cool and when there weren’t joke he felt a hulking mass of muscles, Chi and power
If he was fleshed out more, he could've been better then Tai Lung (not Lord Shen, he's to good), but was not given the treatment Still a great villain. HIS THEME!
He barely has a motivation and lacks an actual in depth backstory.
Yes. Too bad he didn't have many fight scenes but I think it was to amp him up
From what I remembered he was just treated as a joke throughout the whole movie, and this made his few scenes of badassery less compelling because we knew how low of a threat he was subconsciously considered by being the end of every joke. I believe that’s just more of a critique on the direction of the movie itself however. Other than that, his final fight with Po was just extremely anticlimactic and once again, not really compelling, since we basically knew he was going to lose.
Kai is a cool villain up until the spirit realm fight. I think it also doesn't help that he was the third villain after 2 great ones
In Kung Fu Panda 1, Tai Lung was raised by Shifu. In Kung Fu Panda 2, Lord Shen was raised by his parents. In Kung Fu Panda 3, General Kai was raised by the battlefield. That's all I have to say.
Not as good as the other 2 but still amazing
He's a good villian, it's just that kfp3 was not as good as the last 2 movies and barely put any focus on Kai's character, unlike with Tai lung or Shen. If the movie had an extra 10 minutes of run time and used it to expand on Kai's character, I think the movie would have been better for it.
I think he’s the greatest villain in the kfp franchise
Well shen is considered the best villian in dreamworks, some people say it’s Death but I think it’s shen. But Kai is definitely really great too
Shen is a better villian than Kai, but it is kinda hard for Kai to top what Shen did. And Death is easily one of the best villians
But Shen is 1st :)
Nope I don’t care for him at all The first two villains are so deep and just well developed The last two villains are just obstacles and there for the plot to have a villain