‘Kung Fu Panda 4’ Review 2024 : I’ve already paid full money for two viewings of this film. Since Zootopia, this is the first movie I’ve seen in theaters several times: Kung Fu Panda 4. That’s to say, I thought it was good. Even if the films in the Kung Fu Panda series weren’t particularly fantastic, furry movie lovers would still value it because it is a part of the series. There isn’t another movie franchise that features anthropomorphic animals and has produced four films. Luckily, whether or not it is furry, the series has continuously been among the best animated titles.
‘Kung Fu Panda 4’ Review 2024
The fourth installment of Kung Fu Panda, which is directed by Mike Mitchell from Oklahoma along with Stephanie Ma Stine as co-director, stars Jack Black as Po, the titular Kung Fu Panda. Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffmann), who is for the first time in the series explicitly identified as a red panda, is tasked with finding Po’s replacement.
He refuses to give up his position as the Valley’s protector and instead teams up with cunning fox thief Zhen (voiced by Awkwafina; Zhen is not one of the “big three” fox species of red, Arctic, and fennec, but a seldom-seen Corsac fox) to fight the evil sorceress Chameleon (Viola Davis; no bonus points for figuring out her species), who has the ability to shapeshift and steal kung fu powers—think of a PG humorous animal adaptation of Shang Tsung from Mortal Kombat.
Even though it has been eight years since the last installment of the series, this builds on certain aspects of the last movie, in which Po visited the spirit realm and received a magic staff. The Chameleon intends to steal this staff so she can utilize its powers to steal the kung fu of dead masters, including the three prior villains of the films, in order to move between what is essentially the living world and the afterlife. Her first victim is the snow leopard Tai Lung (voiced by Ian McShane), who battled Po in the first film. The antagonists of the second and third films, yak Kai and peacock Lord Shen, also make appearances, although silent ones.
In relation to silent cameos, the Furious Five also had a part in this film. While this may disappoint longtime fans of the series, I can’t say that I disagree with the decision, even though Master Tigress is still probably my favorite character in the series—after all, I complained about the Furious Five’s lack of action in every previous film, including a lengthy paragraph in my otherwise very positive review of Kung Fu Panda 3.
I didn’t need to witness their fourth humiliation at the hands of the Chameleon. Even if it happened off-screen and against the Free Range Chicken Gang, it’s good to know Tigress truly prevailed in one of these films. In addition, their reintroduction seems to be a setup for a spin-off film, which is something that is long needed.
In addition to Po and Zhen, two more significant characters are Po’s “dads”—his real father Li (voiced by Bryan Cranston) and adoptive goose father Ping (voiced by James Hong). They’ve moved in together since the last film’s events, and while the film never really shows its hand in either direction, it’s reasonable to feel that Roger Ebert’s long-awaited “cross-species pollination” has finally materialized in a completely unexpected way.
In order to explore what assistance they can provide Po, they decide to go along on his expedition together. Other new characters include Ronny Chieng, the first fish character in the franchise, a boat captain who resides in a pelican’s beak pouch (Jean Dujardin), and Ke Huy Quan, a short, round pangolin who mentored Zhen in his early criminal career.
The film has the trademark blend of humor and martial arts from the series. This time around, the tempo seems a little more frenzied, but there are still some great sight gags (like Zhen performing the traditional fox dive to recover money bags from vanquished opponents) and more somber, thrilling fight scenes toward the conclusion. More than the previous films, Kung Fu Panda 4 makes humorous fun of the characters’ animal characteristics. Aside from the previously mentioned fox diving, there’s a brief scene in which Zhen eats a cookie in a realistic manner as opposed to a cartoon one.
Indeed, that was completed in Fantastic Mr. Fox, but this arrangement works better. Although this is inconsistent, the discourse also seems to be attempting harder to use one-liners. Shifu said, “I’m going to go meditate!” to cap off one of his violent outbursts. I’m going to have to take the remark, “A lot!” from the Chameleon, who was moaning that the moonrise was taking too long, and he landed with a very quiet thud.
The character designs remain entertaining. Zhen is a perfect fit with Po, and I obviously adored her. She is the exact opposite of Awkwafina’s previous character Sisu from Raya and the Last Dragon. Her adorable appearance in that film highlighted the innocence and willful lack of mistrust towards anyone. While Zhen finds kindness and selflessness questionable, she makes the most of Awkwafina’s voice work to convey her innocence and attract everyone in her vicinity.
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The film eschews the stylized, painterly aesthetic of Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, which the teaser for DreamWorks’ upcoming film The Wild Robot seems to indicate will be the studio’s signature design moving forward. Given the great visual aesthetic the Kung Fu Panda franchise already possessed, I believe this was the right decision. In particular, Kung Fu Panda 2 has already accomplished what The Last Wish attempted to accomplish in 2011.
The film explicitly leaves open the prospect of a fifth installment in the Furious Five franchise, aside from the potential spin-off of a film based on the same name. Sometimes, it seems like the wisest course of action is to simply let a franchise go. The tales of the last two films looked to be the creatives declaring this story is over, before the box office returns had the studio execs saying, no, it is not. This, I believe, is part of the reason, say, a fifth Toy Story rankles so much. However, that sense isn’t there here. The movie even suggests, conceptually, that change is a good thing. It simply indicates that they can proceed as before.
I’ll be waiting for the next film, regardless of whether it’s Kung Fu Panda 5, The Furious Five, or even Kung Fu Vixen.
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