Kung Fu Panda 4

It’s sad to see a franchise that’s held in high regard eventually lose its footing and fall flat on its face. This isn’t going to damage how people view what was released prior, but when a franchise in any industry has a misstep after a track record of releasing consistently solid results, a downtick is going to be noticeable, and it happens more often than you think. Some of the most beloved franchises like Jurassic Park, Terminator, Alien, Indiana Jones, The Godfather and even Star Wars had their prestigious reputation sullied by an unimpressive sequel or sequels, a lot of popular tv shows, cartoons and comic/manga series can outstretch their worth with too much coverage, and even the world of animation isn’t safe from this, with several popular animated movies from a variety of studios releasing sequels with less-than-stellar results (Disney produced so many that it becomes an iconic mocking point for the company even to this day). One of the more recent examples of this trend came from DreamWorks with Kung Fu Panda 4, as despite the series being a surprise delight thanks to two incredible films (and one average third film), and even after proving with their 2022 feature, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, that they can make unnecessary sequels far better than expected, it wasn’t enough to save this film.

Continuing his duty as the Dragon Warrior by stopping criminals across the Valley of Peace, Po (voiced again by Jack Black) is told by Master Shifu (voiced again by Dustin Hoffman) that he must retire his position as Dragon Warrior and choose a successor to train while he becomes the valley’s new spiritual leader. Not wanting to give up the title that has defined him for so long, Po finds a distraction in the form of a new threat named The Chameleon (voiced by Viola Davis), a shape-shifting sorceress who plans to take over the valley by stealing the martial arts skills from deceased kung fu warriors, including Tai Lung (voiced again by Ian McShane). Needing to work with a thieving fox named Zhen (voiced by Awkwafina) in order to find The Chameleon in the bustling streets of Juniper City, the two head out to stop this imposing threat, and along the way, Po can learn what his future will hold now that he no longer needs to be the Dragon Warrior.

Kung Fu Panda 4 may be a perfectly passable film, but that is a large downgrade from the franchise’s prior releases, with its diluted script, animation quality, story progression, and emotional engagement, making it feel like an outlier that didn’t need to exist.

It’s already astonishing that Kung Fu Panda can be labelled as a great picture, as the trailers for the original 2008 film were not very convincing, but with each consecutive movie, it became one of DreamWorks’ best properties. While the third film was not as strong as the previous two, it still carried with it an emotional maturity and ended things on a nice note, calling into question the purpose of this film as it was hard to determine what else it could offer. Talks for another film were thrown out even before the release of movie 3, with the movie’s directors, Jennifer Yuh Nelson and Alessandro Carloni, being open to more adventures, but when DreamWorks announced said fourth film, neither Nelson or Carloni were involved, which might explain why this movie operates as it does and why it feels so different from the previous three. While Kung Fu Panda is definitely a silly, wacky martial arts comedy with modern day references and celebrity voices, there was also a strong hint of spiritual intelligence as well as legitimate heart and passion put into the characters and story which made them surprisingly engaging and even emotional. With this film, you can feel the zany, off-the-walls energy and that it has a least somewhat of an understanding of how to present a story in this universe, but there’s a distinct lack of investment, freshness and even relevance behind this movie.

The plot has a good set up about Po passing on the mantle of dragon warrior, but no explanation is ever given as to why it needs to happen outside of needing another plot for a sequel, and this is a problem that spreads throughout a lot of the writing choices handled by Darren Lamke and returning screenwriters, Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger, with character decisions and plot motivations feeling dictated by the will of the film and those in control of it, rather than a natural decision made by the characters. The writing doesn’t feel as humorous or poignant anymore, the arcs for the characters aren’t bad in theory, but aren’t handled in the best way, the stakes of the story never feel that severe or dramatic so it’s hard to remain invested, and due to the small cast of characters, shorter running time, tinier budget and limited feeling of progression, it feels more like a straight-to-DVD film rather than a feature-length follow up. The directing by Mike Mitchell also makes things feel larger dissimilar to past entries, with his mixed filmography and preference for shallow, mindless fluff over gripping, challenging storytelling, no doubt adding to the film’s frivolous mood.

Because the film had a smaller budget than any of the past three films (only having $85 million while the others all got over a hundred at least), you can feel the ramifications of that decision. It’s much shorter, it doesn’t feature any large-scale fight scenes or dramatic moments, the animation quality doesn’t take a drastic dip but still looks cheaper, and the cast is dramatically smaller, which is jarringly obvious with the complete removal of the Furious Five (outside of a last-minute cameo). While these films have strangely never used these characters to their fullest except for Tigress, they did still feel like they were relevant to the story and played their parts accordingly, so just having them M.I.A for the entire mission feels pretty bizarre (even if they couldn’t afford the actors, they could’ve replaced them and it wouldn’t have been that much of an issue). For the characters that do remain, the returning faces are still fairly charming and use their previously established relationships to lead to a few nice moments. Po’s two dads (voiced again by James Hong and Bryan Cranston) are given a small side plot about travelling to help Po on his quest, and while a mostly pointless detour, it’s a pretty cute side quest helped out by the natural charisma of both actors, so the wholesome quality hasn’t entirely been lost.

This movie did manage to get actors who feel like perfect fits for this world like Awkwafina, Ke Huy Quan, Ronny Chieng and Viola Davis, but how they are utilized is where things start to fall apart. The character of Zhen is obviously positioned as Po’s successor for the Dragon Warrior (it’s so obvious that it isn’t even a spoiler), but nothing about her character screams why she would be a good candidate other than ‘’the story says she is’’ and everything about how she’s written, her purpose in the story and even how she’s performed, is done extremely generically. Awkwafina matches the tone of this world very nicely, and her acting is perfectly acceptable, but it also sounds like every other vocal performance she’s given in many other animated movies, so it doesn’t feel very special here, and due to her weak scripting, bland design and underwhelming connection with Po, she doesn’t leave much of an impression despite being the co-lead. The Chameleon is also a very poorly realized villain, despite having all the right ingredients to be as good as past examples. The design is okay, how her shape-shifting powers are used in and outside of combat is pretty well done, and Viola Davis is effective as the voice, but her weak motivation and zero feeling of intimidation makes her quite an unimpressive antagonist against the previous three, who did have relevant standings in their narratives and showcased their power in a big and meaningful manner.

As previously stated, the film’s lower budget means that it feels and look cheaper than the previous films, and while not to an extreme degree, it is noticeable enough to feel out of place. It still has nice colors, lighting, camera angles and even decently laid out fight scenes with dynamic visuals and that appreciated comical delivery that feels like something out of a Jackie Chan flick, but the textures look simpler, the backgrounds look nice but aren’t as striking, and even the inclusion of 2D elements feel like nothing more than anime streaks rather than meaningful adages, it feels like something that would look better as a streaming film or something sent straight to DVD (which this film was probably intended for but got changed in order to earn more money).

None of the fights are bad, but because the story is more a situation-of-errors with more focus on comedic sequences rather than climatic payoffs built upon drama or character, it means that they have very little weight and are only around for the fun of it. A few moments work, like the first time Po and Zhen meet and a confrontation within a bandit-invested tavern that leans on the side of a cliff, as both have fun choreography and an active spirit that comes through its shots and pacing, but otherwise, few to any will leave a lasting impression. The music by Hans Zimmer mainly just feels like perfectly tolerable but forgettable background noise at this point, with the only notably tune being the cover of …Baby One More Time played over the credits performed by Jack Black himself, which is surprisingly good (it is easy to forget that this guy is a musician who has had success for a reason), but feels like a very bizarre and random choice to include in this movie.

Kung Fu Panda 4 feels like the equivalent of what Toy Story 4 was for its series; a fundamentally different and pointless fourth instalment for a trilogy that might’ve slightly lost a bit of footing at the finish line, but concluded in a sense that didn’t require another entry. Even though there is more room for stories in this universe, it feels like this movie was created for the purposes of making money rather than to advance anything (and since it earned over $500 million, it definitely paid off). It fits better alongside the cheap Nickelodeon and Netflix specials (which definitely felt lower quality and were more interested in pandering to little kids rather than adults) and while that seems logical for a property called Kung Fu Panda, the past three films proved they were more than that, so seeing them devolve to a lower standard is a little disappointing. It isn’t really a bad film, as it’s a quick sit and doesn’t technically do anything wrong, but it’s just very bland, safe, uninteresting and more of the same, rather than an evolution or even a ‘’successor’’. If you like the franchise, you might enjoy it, but if you aren’t, this little dumpling won’t fill your appetite.