KUNG FU PANDA 3 (PG) 95 mins. ) Featuring the voices of Jack Black, Bryan Cranston, Dustin Hoffman and Angelina Jolie.

ARDENT fans of unlikely kung fu-fighting warrior Po will happily grin and panda bear this derivative yet breathlessly energetic third instalment of the computer-animated adventure series.

Visually, Jennifer Yuh Nelson and Alessandro Carloni's picture is a black belt: bright colours saturate the screen, the 3D format is employed adroitly in gymnastic fight sequences and character detail has improved noticeably since Kung Fu Panda 2.

After 500 years of incarceration in the Spirit Realm, megalomaniacal yak Kai (voiced by JK Simmons) steals the chi of every kung fu master including his one-time friend, Oogway (Randall Duk Kim).

Only the Dragon Warrior - overweight dumpling-obsessed panda Po (Black) - can bring Kai's reign of terror to an end.

So the power-crazed yak returns to the mortal plane and gallops towards the Jade Palace to lock horns with Master Shifu (Hoffman) and his plucky disciples: Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Monkey (Jackie Chan), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Viper (Lucy Liu) and Crane (David Cross).

Meanwhile, Po is reunited with his rotund biological father, Li Shan (Bryan Cranston), and embarks on a quest of self-discovery to harness the power of chi.

In a mountaintop panda village, Po builds bridges between Li Shan and his surrogate father Mr Ping (James Hong), fends off amorous advances from ribbon dancer Mei Mei (Kate Hudson) and learns about his late mother.

Kung Fu Panda 3 is a jaunty affair that breeds comfort and warm smiles through familiarity.

Violence is obscured - no digital creatures were harmed in the making of Nelson and Carloni's film - and pacing rarely slackens.