The voice cast for DreamWorks Animation’s sequel Kung Fu Panda 3 is starting to fill out quite nicely.  Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Seth Rogen, and other unspecified actors are reprising their roles from the first two animated films, but Heat Vision reports that Bryan Cranston, Mads Mikkelsen, and Rebel Wilson (Pitch Perfect) have also been set as new additions to the film.  Kung Fu Panda 2 director Jennifer Yuh Nelson returns to helm the follow-up, which also sees the return of executive producer Guillermo del Toro, producer Melissa Cobb, co-producer Jeffrey Hermann, and writers/co-producers Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger.

Story details are firmly under wraps, but the ending of Kung Fu Panda 2 provides a strong hint that the third film will involve Black’s Po meeting his real father.  Del Toro previously told us that Kung Fu Panda 3 has “the most formidable villain in the series,” and either Cranston or Mikkelsen would certainly fit that bill.  Additionally, Kung Fu Panda 3 will now open on December 23, 2015 instead of March 2016.

The feature animation world is about to get a bit bigger as Paramount Pictures is looking to expand its original animation output.  The studio surprised last year with the excellent Rango, a film which many (myself included) stood head an shoulders above what Pixar and DreamWorks Animation had to offer in 2011.  The studio has since put into development a number of properties, but thus far the only one we’ve known much about was The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie 2.

A new report just hit that clues us in on much more of what Paramount has in store, including an animated project from J.J. Abrams and feature film adaptations of a number of Nickelodeon shows like The Legend of Korra and Dora the Explorer.  Hit the jump for more.

Kung Fu Panda 2 stands as a shining example of DreamWorks finally getting the sequel formula right. Building off of the success of the original 2008 hit, Panda 2 delivers more laughs, larger scale, finer animation, and arguably more heart. Jack Black returns as the  incompetently powerful Po the panda to battle the next stage in warfare that threatens to make hand-to-hand combat extinct. Joined by the Furious Five, the group wages war amidst the beautiful landscape of China in thrilling sequences of 3D combat that highlight the evolution of the fighting in the first film. With newcomer Jennifer Yuh at the helm, backed by the returning talents of writers Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger along with the full voice cast, Kung Fu Panda 2 is the latest animated film to blur the lines between the admiration from adults and kids alike, and brings bang for your buck in 3D. Hit the jump for the full review.

Universal has hired Kung Fu Panda writers Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger to pen the script for a movie based on the board game Candy Land and directed by Kevin Lima (Enchanted).  The development of Candy Land falls under Universal’s worst deal of all-time that they made with Hasbro back in 2008.  If you’re wondering why a studio would waste time on movies like Battleship and Stretch Armstrong, there’s your answer.  The film has been in development since 2008 and various writers, including Etan Cohen (Tropic Thunder) and Chris Morgan (Wanted) have worked on the project.

Heat Vision reports that Candy Land is being fashioned as a “a live-action epic adventure.” The story has the protagonists tasked with finding the lost king of Candy Land.  Players of the board game wind their way through locales like Candy Cane Forest and Gum Drop Mountain.  Candy Land is also responsible for 35% of all childhood obesity.  While I totally made up that statistic, I’m pretty sure it’s true.