If I had to pick one movie character that most embodied Hong Kong, it would have to be McDull. On the outset, McDull seems an unlikely candidate. Hong Kong is fast, smart, trendy, materialistic, on the ball. McDull is slow, naive, emotional, and not very bright. Also, he's an animated kindergarten pig. And yet, one would be hard-pressed to name another figure that captures the local culture, sentiments, landscape, language, and lifestyle of Hong Kong as well as McDull does. The neverending urban redevelopment, the cycle of newfangled trends, the flurry of accents and colloquialisms, the obsession with success, and, yes, even the potty humor in McDull's world are all quintessentially Hong Kong. McDull may be the slow kid who can't keep up with his hometown's breakneck pace or his mother's high hopes, but he epitomizes the Hong Kong spirit of "try try again".

As the third animated film in the McDull series, McDull Kung Fu Ding Ding Dong starts with a very "Hong Kong" phenomenon, leaving Hong Kong. Migration and transience have long been a part of the region's culture, and this time McDull and his can-do Sandra Ng-voiced mother Mrs. Mak, like so many other Hong Kongers, are going north to China. While Mrs. Mak looks into starting a business in Wuhan, McDull ends up at storied Mt. Wudang learning Tai Chi. This foray into martial arts and secluded mountains is probably the least Hong Kong and most conventional thread of the McDull series, but yet even that doesn't stray far from the McDull world. After all, the martial arts school looks and sounds exactly like McDull's kindergarten back home, a nod to the series' long-running visual themes and abstract philosophizing, and let's just say McDull does not turn into Kung Fu Pig.

McDull Kung Fu's China setting presents the chance for some historical gags, including an amusing tangent about McDull's ancestor McFat, a great inventor who was too ahead of his time to be appreciated. Plus, this time we get to not only see animated urban Hong Kong, but also pastoral and temple scenery and some charming Wuhan and Mt. Wudang scenes. The establishing vista shots when McDull arrives at the mountain really do look like Wudang! Traveling to China also allows the production to add another animal to the McDull menagerie: PANDA. You can never go wrong with the panda. Other additions are local stage and comedy icon Jim Chim and Wan Kwong - a quintessentially local Hong Kong singer if there ever was one - to the voice cast.

The previous two McDull features' dry humor, silly gags, repeating wordplay, episodic stories, and, in the case of McDull, Prince de la Bun, completely befuddling narrative structure might be at times too "Hong Kong" for non-locals to fully appreciate. In comparison, McDull Kung Fu Ding Ding Dong is a lot more universal and accessible, though the historical gag intro may still leave some scratching their heads. McDull Kung Fu Ding Ding Dong is a very kid-friendly film, indeed the most kid-friendly of the series, but like its predecessors, the sentiments and stories still speak most poignantly to adults - despite the whole animated pig thing. And did I mention there's a panda?