Kung Fu Panda 4 Review
I’m a few weeks late but I was finally able to watch Kung Fu Panda 4, one of my most anticipated movies of 2024. I grew up watching the Kung Fu Panda franchise so naturally I was very interested in checking this movie out. How is the movie? Is it any good? Or is this a franchise that didn’t need a fourth movie?
The Good
Coming out of the theater of this movie, the thing I kept on saying was “it was fun”. Now having time to reflect and think about it, that’s the word I use to describe the film “fun”. It’s obviously a kids movie, it’s meant for kids and there were a lot of kids in my theater and everybody was laughing and having a good time. When you’re a kids movie, your target audience is kids and when kids like the movie you know it did its job. It’s 93 minutes long, and establishes the threat and Po’s arc very early on. It’s never boring, it moves from action sequence to action sequence in a great manner. When there’s no action, there’s a joke or something going on that puts a smile on your face. The movie is never boring, from beginning to end the movie is filled with energy and fun.
Tied to that, it’s fun to be able to spend more time in this world with these characters. Po is so much fun to be around, he’s such a likable character. Even when he’s being kind of dumb you still love him. It helps that Jack Black is so effortlessly funny and does a great job of Po. He brings so much energy to the role. I’ll talk more about Awkwafina’s character, but as somebody who likes Awkwafina she brought some nice moments of humor. But if you don’t like Awkwafina then you won’t like her character in the movie. Po and Awkwafina characters have a fun dynamic, they’re fun to see on screen together. Master Shifu returns and is as grumpy as ever, Po’s dads are in here and have their own little side quest that they’re on. The adventure takes Po to a new place where he meets new characters, the characters are fun side characters that flesh out the story really nicely.
From there, we got a solid new villain here with The Chameleon voiced by Viola Davis. She is a chameleon so she changed her appearance and they use that in some clever ways here. Especially with the action side of as you move into the third act, they have a lot of fun with that. They even find ways to turn the Chameleon into Tai Lung as jokes in the third act. Some of those jokes were the ones that made me laugh the hardest in the film. The Chameleon is a different type of villain, the past villains have been loners or seeking revenge. Here she’s this evil ruler over this town, she has power in the system and everything in the city. They use some of that in the film, which makes her stand out from the past villains of the franchise.
Finally, I thought this was a nice direction to take the franchise. This franchise is 16 years old, Po has been The Dragon Warrior for a while. So creating a story that’s about him finding his apprentice as the new Dragon Warrior makes sense. Especially with an eight year time gap from the release for Kung Fu Panda 3 and this film, it’s given the franchise a lot of time to grow. Especially when its audience has grown up a good amount. This felt like the right movie to do as the fourth film of the franchise that is almost 20 years old.
The Bad
This is something I knew going into the movie and I was curious how much it was going to bother me coming out of the movie. I’m very disappointed that The Furious Five aren’t in this movie. They were such a pivotal piece of the first three movies, Po is very clearly the lead and he's strong enough to stand on its own. But The Furious Five helped make the franchise what it is. I saw the original film in the theater when it first came out. I grew up watching that movie. So to get a fourth movie where they’re not really in the movie. They’re mentioned, they have a little bit at the end. You want more of them, you want to see them and Po go on another adventure. The story they wanted to tell with Po finding his predecessor, I don’t know the context in which The Furious Five would have had anything meaningful to do. Therefore they didn’t include them in the film, fair enough. But that part that’s frustrating, they’re placed by Awkwafina’s character who’s not as interesting. Like I said, Awkwafina’s character is fun and she fits the story nicely. But, she’s The Furious Five. They don’t build up as a good enough character to be worthy replacements of The Furious Five.
Another thing with this movie, there was an untapped potential with this film. Especially as we moved into the third act, I started hoping certain things would happen that didn’t. When they tease Tai Lung coming back the villain can steal their Kung fu skills, there’s a lot you can do with that, that doesn’t go anywhere super interesting or meaningful. Lord Shen and General Kai do return for this movie, but they don’t say anything. They’re just little voiceless cameos for the sake of being there. I don’t want to spoil too much, but I think there could have been a more interesting movie inside of here. That could have acted as a really nice fourth and final film for the franchise.
FINAL THOUGHTS: In general, Kung Fu Panda 4 is exactly what I hoped and thought it would be. I had fun with this movie, it’s a nice continuation of the franchise. It’s nice to spend more time in this world with these characters. Our new villain is solid and brings in some new dynamics. It’s not as good as the first two films, but it’s solid and I had fun nonetheless.
The Score: 8.3/10 (B)
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