Kung Fu Panda's Po challenges Monkey King on the big screen

The third installment of Kung Fu Panda, a coproduction of DreamWorks Pictures, Shanghai-based Oriental DreamWorks and the China Film Group Corporation, will be released in China and the United States on Jan 29.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Po from the smash hit franchise Kung Fu Panda has a new mission. It is to beat the Monkey King.

This is not the plot line of a new animation film, but the hope of DreamWorks Pictures' CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg.

When DreamWorks' Kung Fu Panda debuted in China in 2008, it hardly faced any rivals.

Records show that the first installment－which raked in 150 million yuan ($23 million)－became the first animation film blockbuster to surpass the 100 million yuan milestone in the history of Chinese cinema.

A bigger feat was achieved by the second installment. It became the all-time highest-grossing animation flick in 2011, and maintained its 608-million-yuan record for four years, until it was overtaken by domestic title The Monkey King: Hero Is Back at 965 million yuan in September.

Now, Katzenberg says his wish is to see Kung Fu Panda 3 return to the top of the animation film box office charts in China, the world's second-largest movie market.

"Today we have over 200 animators working in Shanghai. Their work will showcase a beautiful, amazing, world-class title, coproduced in Los Angeles and Shanghai," said Katzenberg at last Wednesday's Beijing promotion event.

While news of the coproduction is not new, the cooperation with Shanghai-based Oriental DreamWorks and the China Film Group Corporation, the exponential rise in the use of local talent－including around 260 Chinese animators－gives the film a very local touch.

Oriental DreamWorks was set up in 2012 as a partnership between DreamWorks and several Chinese companies. They are now working on catering to Chinese tastes.

Meanwhile, at the same event, DreamWorks said that the film, to be simultaneously released in China and the United States on Jan 29 (usually Hollywood tentpoles are released days or weeks later in the mainland), will have two versions.

Alongside the regular English edition, there will be a Chinese version.

The Chinese version will not only feature the voices homegrown stars, but also adjust the movements of the characters' lips to make it look like they are speaking in Chinese, says Oscar-nominated director Jennifer Yuh.

Yuh worked as the head of the story for Kung Fu Panda and took the directorial job from the second film.