Movie Review: ‘Kung Fu Panda 4’
Director: Mike Mitchell
Cast: Jack Black, Awkwafina, Viola Davis, Dustin Hoffman, James Hong, Bryan Cranston, Ian McShane, Ke Huy Quan
Plot: Po, the Dragon Warrior of the Valley of Peace, faces an uncertain future as Spiritual Leader of the Valley and selecting a successor. This process is paused with the news of a powerful sorceress who has somehow teamed with the vanquished Tai Lung.
Review: After a successful trilogy of films following a pretty basic formula, the Kung Fu Panda series went silent for almost a few decade. Whilst past Dreamworks movies slipped in obscurity (Antz, Shark Tale) or became cult and/or meme classics (Shrek, Road to El Dorado), the adventures of Po the Dragon Warrior has been in a limbo. Fondly remembered, but having little presence in merchandising and culture. Everyone likes Kung Fu Panda, but it felt like it had run its course. It was a pleasant surprise to get a new one turn up.
Brought to us by the man behind Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo and some passable animated features, Kung Fu Panda 4 unfortunately doesn’t do anything with the style of the movie. Dreamworks had a very set style to their movies, and while the quality and detail of the animation has improved, this does look like an animated feature from two decades past. Mitchell has stated an intention to take more influence from anime, they could have leaned further into this. One of the strongest aspects of the more recent revival of Puss in Boots was the new style and art direction. Something similar and distinctive for Kung Fu Panda would have been nice.
What does move forward is potential for more franchising. This fourth entry has many of the hallmarks of a legacy sequel…returning original characters with a new generation to pick up the story. In additional to Po (Black), we have his two fathers Mr. Ping (Hong) and Li (Cranston) and his Master Shifu (Hoffman), all of whom seem to having a great time with these performances. Po, having been granted Master Oogway’s staff, fought many villains and brought business to his father’s noodle shop, has fallen into a comfortable rhythm. When Shifu informs him that its time to pass the mantle of Dragon Warrior on, Po is reluctant to make the change. Seeking an answer leads to the discovery of a thief in the Jade Palace, a fox named Zhen (Awkwafina) who manages to give Po a runaround before he captures her.
News soon reaches the Valley of Peace that Po’s long defeated enemy Tai Lung (McShane) has been attacking mines. Zhen tells Po that this is actually the work of The Chameleon (Davis), a crime lord and powerful sorcerer who has the ability to shape-shift. Po reluctantly teams up with Zhen to work as a guide to track down The Chameleon and put her out of action.
A large part of Po’s character arc is finding the value in Zhen even when her approach doesn’t sit right with him. Zhen grew up on the streets, and will pilfer an opponents pocket at every chance, while Po tries to return stolen coins while knocking attackers out. Zhen’s habits and ties to the underworld challenges Po to come up with suitable ‘words of wisdom’. One the highlights of this series is the different shapes and sizes of the fighters, and how the animators and choreographers work within this limitations. Zhen and Po are complete polar opposites, which makes for fun sequences, especially in the tilting tavern.
On the subject of creative choreography, The Chameleon adds plenty to this. Initially diminutive, she utilises the ability to shape-shift mid-fight, giving us an ongoing change in style. As The Chameleon furthers her plan to access the Spirit World and steal abilities from defeated fighters, she starts switching out to previous villains including Tai Lung, Lord Shen and General Kai. It’s good fun, and the base character model for The Chameleon has some of the better animation.
On the subject of returning characters, we should address the elephant not in the room. There’s a number of notable absences in the cast. Pulling in three villains from past films is great, but you’re bound to notice that only one of them has any dialogue. Ian McShane is the only one picking up a paycheck (not that Gary Oldman and JK Simmons are hard up for work), which we don’t mind because Tai Lung is easily the best villain with the coolest voice. We are burying the lede here, however, as we haven’t addressed the absence of the Furious Five. There’s a quick sequence in the opening explaining that they’re all on missions, such as Viper broking peace between the cobras and mongooses.
We understand why this is happening, beyond not having to cut a check for Angelina Jolie, Lucy Liu, David Cross and Lucy Liu. This is about Po moving on to the next stage of his life, having his old squad kicking along with nothing to do would hold the story back. That said, having all the characters turn up during the end credits for a training montage feels like a cop-out. It only draws attention to these characters being absent. Seth Rogan is the only one to turn up, adding some kung fu screams for Mantis, but maybe leave that alone.
Oh, and there’s a whole storyline about Ping and Li following Po and Zhen because they’re worried about him not needing them. This whole plot could be dropped, it only repeats a character beat we covered in the past movie. When you’ve already got seven past characters turning up and not saying anything you have to wonder if this was the best use of time.
Now this is a very small gripe but if Dreamworks, Disney and especially Illumination stops with the ‘it’s a cute thing but it’s actually a vicious thing…characters are in awe and then scream’ moment I’d be much happier. It’s some a tired joke it makes be grind my teeth.
There’s been some negative responses to this film, but we think there’s some rose-tinted nostalgia goggles at work. It’s on par with the previous films and like them, there is room to improve. It looks a bit simple compared to recent trends in animation, but the adventures of Jack Black as a martial arts fighting panda is always going to be charming enough to be a crowd pleaser.
Rating: SEVEN out of TEN
