"Kung Fu Panda 4" is an American animated movie from 2024, so really new and fresh at this point and the title already gives away that this is the fourth film from the "Kung Fu Panda" franchise. It runs for under 95 minutes, so not exactly short, but also not too long for an animated movie and those are often shorter than live action films. Two directors and three writers is a pretty massive quantity though. I would not say it is an example of too many cooks spoiling the broth, but maybe with slightly more focus this could have been an even better movie. Let's look at those now: Mike Mitchell is a really experienced animation filmmaker and his most known effort to-date may be a Shrek sequel and the original Trolls movie. However, it's been a few years since the last time he was in charge of a big-screen project of a similar prestige like this Kung-Fu Panda film here. It turned out fine though. Stephanie Stine is more experienced as a storyboard artist and has only worked as a director on a television show before this one here, but I have a feeling we will read her name attached to many other projects in the future. Writers Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger have not only a long history together, but also a long history with the Kung Fu Panda franchise while Darren Lemke is new to it, but has worked on the aforementioned Shrek sequel too and also on "Turbo", a film I liked more than I thought I would.
If you look at the fact that this newest installment makes this franchise a quadrology even, more if you include short films, then you can surely say that the quality is good enough. As for the characters, we get many familiar faces back here and also the voice actors return. This includes Jack Black who lent his voice to the title character and I see he is in his mid-50s now already. How time flies. I don't want to go super deep into the cast list now, but the likes of Hoffman, Cranston and McShane are not new to this franchise at all. You can say that this was probably a male-dominated series of films so far, but the inclusions of Viola Davis and Awkwafina here, or rather their character, change that a little bit. The latter voices the biggest supporting character perhaps, even if she is close to lead already. It was fairly predictable from the first meeting between Zhen and the title character that she would become the one who Panda considers to follow in his footsteps eventually and that the two would grow closer on their mission. I liked the character, but I like foxes anyway and if we also look at the upcoming Zootopia sequel, 2024 could be a year for those. Or 2025 if it takes a little longer. They kept her grey here to avoid confusion with the other character. The only thing I was struggling a bit with was the revelation then that the female fox was a loyal helper to the chameleon, the main antagonist from this film here. People who have followed the franchise since the very beginning were surely happy to see the character of Tai Lung back in this film. The opening sequence was pretty gritty was we see him show up and depicted as the main antagonist, even if it was all just a disguise as we find out a little later. But the real Tai Lung can also be seen in the second half then. Given the subject and locations where the film is set, it makes sense that there are really many Asian actors in this movie, also new additions like recent Oscar winner Ke Huy Quan, even if his role was a bit of a nothing role. By the way, I am sure not many will understand the meaning of Po in German, but let's not get into detail there. As I watched the German dub, I personally thought it was nice that Hape Kerkeling returned for the character as you never know with him, but it shows that he probably still adores the franchise and character after all those years.
So yeah, the introduction was nice and the idea of Po having to pick a successor was alright too and made for decent closure if this was really the last film of the series. We will see. It resulted also in one of the funniest moment when he changed a symbol to represent fate and coincidence in a way that showed us that the successor to Po will be Po himself because he did not deem any of those worthy. Speaking of the comedy, a lot also comes from the two buddies of Po that are on their own mission that may be dramatic too in terms of where they were heading, but the journey itself was fairly light most of the time. As for the unfolding then with the antagonist(s), you can almost say that there is also a certain multiverse parallel here or especially a connection to the most recent Spider-Man movie where all the antagonists from back in the day show up again as well. I will just continue with some brainstorming now about what I liked and maybe not liked that much. As for new character, these three really cute bunny creatures (more Zootopia) were fairly hilarious and funny how they were hiding their sadistic selves behind alleged sweetness. Almost every time they were on, I had to laugh. This also included the scene with the deadly drink they were offering Po. Or the character that is named Granny Boar in the cast list I think. She only had one scene with her spectacular hair, but she stole it completely with all her movies. I would watch a film about her and maybe also the three bunnies. However, except for those bunnies, almost all other characters down there did almost nothing for me and felt fairly forgettable, also the aforementioned character voices by Ke Huy Quan. The story has some lengths here and there and is also not always super-logical, but it was alright. The chameleon is a fine antagonist long before her wild transformation into some Kung Fu super creature. There you could also see how they kept it kids-friendly when the evilest thing she does is push another villain down the stairs. In the end, the chameleon even gets a chance to step back from the evil she has done, but decides to take a different route and stay with the bad guys. Everything else really would not have made any sense to be honest. So she follows the previously defeated bad guys into the parallel universe or whatever you wanna call it.
If we go back to the good guys, Po's master does not have that much screen time here, but when he is on, he still delivers, like how at the start he really needs to talk to Po and this results in some funny scenarios there between the two. The moment when he is not too happy apparently that Po was chosen, but hides his feelings, well tries to hide them, was also one of the best comedic moments of the film. Good to see Dustin Hoffman did not get cancelled too like so many other did before him. The idea that Kung Fu is at least as much about the mind and spirit as it is about physical fighting was also picked up and elaborated on in here a few times. I already mentioned the moment of mercy towards the chameleon near the end and this also includes the presence of the master in Po's mind, which was pretty hilarious when the Panda is surprised that both masters were against him and supporting each other instead, thus not offering an angelic and diabolic option as you sometimes see it in terms of voice of reason metaphors that were also done already in cartoons now almost 100 years ago. The final moment there when Po's master (in Po's mind) tells him it is alright and he tried it his way and now can try it his own way was also slightly memorable. In terms of the animation, it is almost difficult to take it not for granted these days that the level is really high, but it can be said here still. Should be said. Maybe this is not a film that will make it to next year's Oscars because of the release date and because the overall rating (on imdb) is not high enough, even if critics liked it quite a bit, but I am still glad the film got made and the franchise stays alive. And aren't we all a bit curious about what happens next to Po there in his new position? We only get very vague details throughout the movie and it ends before we see him in charge there, so I am definitely curious.
Before I get to the end of the review let me also say that the inclusion of McShane's character here may get you curious to watch the first KFP film again and that I was wondering throughout the entire film here not if, but when the chameleon would trick us and Po by changing into a character we did not see through the disguise right away. Or did not thing so right away at least. It happens with Zhen then and it was a very quick scene and revelation too, but a crucial moment that showed us still that the real Zhen is already basically on the good side there. The potentially complex relationship between her and the chameleon was depicted a bit on the shoddy side at times. If we look at the audio, the music was fine overall, but the Britney Spears song they decided to cover for the closing did almost nothing for me. It also had no real connection to the story, so I would have preferred if they had used something else there. Nonetheless, despite some weaknesses, this is a film where it was never in doubt for me that I would give it a positive rating all in all, but also it was never an option to call it a truly great movie, perhaps also because Po sometimes felt more like a supporting character in his own movie. What was great was maybe the funniest moment for me though when one of the (let's call them) henchlizards is down there defeated on the ground and still applauded his surging and boastful leader. That was hilarious. I did not know why I liked this moment so much when the lizards clapped his hands. So yeah this is really it now. I say that you can go see this film, regardless of if you know the previous movies. I thought it was a good watch. Thumbs-up und that powerful green rod was pretty cool too!
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