Blaziker’s Animation Adventure

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Disclaimer

I had drafted and finalised this review before news broke out over the alleged mismanagement during the production of Kung Fu Panda 4. While this is currently unconfirmed, this was discussed about by co-director Stephane Stine in a Discord discussion. I will leave you with some of the sources so that you can check out what was going on behind the scenes of Kung Fu Panda 4:

Introduction

Hello, fellow adventurers! Blaziker is here for the first animated movie of 2024 that I watch in theatres, and what better way to kick off a proper theatrical animated movie adventure than of course, the fourth instalment of one of the best modern animated movie series of all time, DreamWorks’ legendary Kung Fu Panda!

Coming off the events from 2016’s Kung Fu Panda 3, with Po destined to be the Spiritual Leader of the Valley of Peace in his homeland, he needs to select a brand new Dragon Warrior to take his place (despite his reluctance), while dealing with a brand new villain who has the power to summon all the villains Po has defeated in the previous 3 movies.

In order to prepare for this movie, I need to watch the Kung Fu Panda trilogy, and it may surprise to hear from me that I had never watched the 3 previous Kung Fu Panda movies before, even though it’s one of the most beloved mainstream animated movie franchises of the last 20 years. If you want to check out my thoughts on the previous 3 Kung Fu Panda movies, here’s my Letterboxd reviews:

With that said, will this be yet another fantastic movie in this already beloved series? Let’s get on with the show!

Key Information

Directors: Mike Mitchell and Stephanie Stine
Animation Studio: DreamWorks Animation
Country of Origin: United States
Rating: PG
Release Date: 7 March 2024 (in Singapore)

Trailer

The Review

Story and Characters

Considering I had recently watched the Kung Fu Panda trilogy, I realised that this is a series that needs to be watched in order to understand Kung Fu Panda 4, and I am glad I covered the trilogy before watching this movie. First off, as always, let me talk about the negatives first to get them out of the way.

One big negative I got for this one with the writing has to be the lack of emotional depth this movie provided with me when compared to the first three movies. While the first three movies all had a strong emotional core surrounding Po’s journey that makes those movies so great, I honestly do not feel the emotional core with this one, focusing on Po choosing a successor to take his place as the new Dragon Warrior while he ascends to be Spiritual Leader. The main story kind of lacks enough depth to understand this new role well, which resulted in the weakness in this movie’s writing.

Another negative for me was that this time, the Furious Five did not appear in most of the movie and while it was explained in the beginning why this movie does not involve them, I feel that their presence helps to elevate and complete Po’s character development in the fourth movie.

Lastly, for minor gripes, a couple of jokes do not land for me and the less said about Mr Beast’s role in the movie as he only appeared in a small part of this movie, the better.

However, there are still positives in terms of the other elements of the writing and characters and again, while there is a lack of presence from the Furious Five, there is thankfully someone to fill in the gap and that was Awkwafina as the thieving fox Zhen who joins along as his sidekick as only she knows the whereabouts of his next villain. As much as the community is tired of Awkwafina’s voice acting in multiple animated movies, I feel she is very good in this one, especially considering she voiced Ms Tarantula in The Bad Guys. Again, her character is sneaky, fun and sometimes hilarious during certain fight sequences, making her a good substitute of the Furious Five for now.

Speaking of villains, Viola Davis as The Chameleon, while not as developed as the other three villains from the franchise, is still a very intimidating villain with the power to disguise as whatever creature she wants, including any Kung Fu technique she stole from them, making her the ultimate shapeshifter that could match Po if this was a “fair” fight. Yes, I wish this movie delves a bit more into her backstory, but I still enjoyed her presence, regardless.

In terms of other positives, the movie also has a great side plot between Po’s two fathers, his adopted noodle-making goose father Ping (once again voiced by James Hong) and his actual father Li (Bryan Craston) as they searched out for Po who they fear is in big trouble, and their arc is as interesting and hilarious as the main story itself without distracting significantly from it. The comedy is still solid, though noticeably weaker than the comedy in the three earlier movies and while it is a bit heavy-handed on the tropes, at least the movie utilised them well.

Animation

Once again, just like in the other three movies, the animation, especially with its visual storytelling, is as impressive as the other three animated KFP movies.

Again, while a bit of the animation style has aged, what remains is fantastic action-based animation that hits the mark when needed, especially one particular fight scene involving Po and Zhen against a group of baddies in a tavern by the cliff in the middle of the movie. I will not go into detail on that fight scene, but let’s just say that this reminded me of a lot of the action-comedy fight sequences from the past Jackie Chan movies that puts a smile on my face.

The lighting and the editing in the movie’s animation are once again top-notch, despite it being the fourth movie in the franchise. Character and background animations are once again well-realised in this movie with some gorgeous backdrops that made it as great as the trilogy and apart from just a couple of scenes that could have been animated better, I have little to complain about this movie’s animation.

Soundtrack, Other Elements and Level of Enjoyment

Once again, the soundtrack might not be the most important part of the franchise, but what it does was to amp up the various scenes in the movie, which was well-needed considering the weaker writing.

As for my level of enjoyment, despite having more grips about his movie compared to the other three Kung Fu Panda movies, I still had a blast during my screening, which goes to show how strong the entire Kung Fu Panda movie series is as a whole. Yes, it is the weakest of the four, but I was still enjoying so much about this movie that the movie’s issues did not bother me until moments after the movie has ended.

Conclusion

I will be honest, I am honestly let down by Kung Fu Panda 4… If we were to compare it to the rest of the Kung Fu Panda movies only. If we were to compare it to other mainstream animated movies from this year so far, while there are only a handful, it is still a great time, regardless.

Kung Fu Panda 4 suffered from a lack of emotional impact with the writing that made the first three movies so amazing in the first place, but it is still a proper Kung Fu Panda movie that has beats that made the franchise so beloved. It still has yet another iconic performance from Jack Black as the lovable Dragon Warrior Po, it has great comedy and action sequences that fans of the franchise come to know and love; it has fantastic animation that, while slightly dated, still holds up well and the soundtrack once again adds another layer of power to this movie.

While it definitely is not the best of the Kung Fu Panda series, the fact that it is still relatively strong shows why Kung Fu Panda is one of the most iconic DreamWorks franchises, and I am curious to see what comes next for Po.

Thank you so much for joining me on this adventure. Tune in next time where this time, we will head to France to catch a chicken to prepare for dinner in the middle of a worker’s strike, and fast! Until next time, see you on the next adventure!