Kung Fu Panda 4 🥋🐼 REVIEW:

After Po is tapped to become the Spiritual Leader of the Valley of Peace, he needs to find and train a new Dragon Warrior, while a wicked sorceress plans to re-summon all the master villains whom Po has vanquished to the spirit realm. The Kung Fu Panda movies have always been a reliable source of comfort food in the realm of studio animation. They have a fairly big appeal towards younger audiences but never forget to touch on themes that older viewers can relate to. I’ve enjoyed all three previous installments and I’m glad to report I also liked this fourth entry quite a bit, even if it is not as fresh as its predecessors. This time around, after failing to name a worthy Dragon Warrior successor, Po reluctantly teams up with a thieving fox named Zhen voiced by Awkwafina to track down and defeat the Chameleon, a tiny, shapeshifting lizard sorceress voiced by Viola Davis. I’ll just get the obvious out of the way and say that Jack Black is as likable as ever as Po, and his dynamic voice acting hasn’t missed a beat. In this movie, Po has to learn to grow up and cope with making a drastic change in his life, which is something I felt was appropriately aimed at the older young adults who have been watching this series ever since 2008.

Ever since Po became the Dragon Warrior, that is all he was ever good at and finds it difficult to listen to Master Shifu’s advice in passing on the mantle to a worthy successor. Just to preempt any viewer expecting to see all of the classic characters, this is basically a solo outing, with the Furious Five and Master Shifu being sidelined in favor of a more Po focused adventure. Whether or not that works is merely dependent on the viewer and their expectations, but personally, I liked having the movie focus mainly on Po’s character development. Same goes for Po’s two dads, Mr. Ping and Li, who spend plenty of time bonding in this film after their initial differences in the third movie. Bryan Cranston as Li and James Hong as Mr. Ping have excellent chemistry with one another and their newfound friendship made for some of the film’s funniest and most heartwarming moments. Awkwafina׳s voice acting as Zhen is as charismatic, sly, and quick witted as one could ask for in a sneakily thievish supporting character. She has natural voice chemistry with Jack Black, her character has more depth than I would have expected and she never overshadows Po’s lead role, but rather compliments it.

The Chameleon is quite a terrifying villain, voiced with coldly calculating menace by Viola Davis who makes this tiny lizard seem super intimidating. Her abilities to shape-shift and turn into other animals was extremely impressive from an animation standpoint (might be frightening to younger children) and helped give the action sequences something we haven’t seen before in the franchise. The movie runs at a breezy 94 minutes, with a pace so fast it never lets up or allows time for much breathing room. The 3D animation is visually stunning with artful direction from Mike Mitchell, and there are more than a few frames from the final act alone that would make gorgeous looking paintings. There are a few surprise appearances that will satisfy longtime fans and a twist that I admittedly didn’t see coming. Seeing Ian McShane as Tai Lung back on the big screen had me grinning ear to ear and the little involvement he does have added so much gravitas and catharsis not just to his arc, but Po’s as well.

The movie isn’t as fresh or as innovative as the first two installments when it comes to the story, and there are a few plot points that the average viewer will see coming from a mile away. It follows a relatively safe formula that is proven to work and never tries to mislead audiences or shoehorn in a biased political agenda like so many current Disney animated films have done to their detriment. This was one of the easiest reviews I ever had to write. Universal Studios and Dreamworks know their audience and know how to simultaneously entertain both younger and older viewers without overstaying their welcome. I had a pretty good time watching this movie at last night’s early screening and found myself laughing and smiling the whole way through, even if it wasn’t the most substantial animated movie of recent times. Overall, while it doesn’t have the freshness of its predecessors, Kung Fu Panda 4 is a thoroughly enjoyable sequel with charismatic voice acting, strong character development for Po, important life lessons on growing up, and enough colorfully animated action to satisfy fans of the franchise. Parents, I allot my seal of approval to bring your children to this movie.