Have you ever wondered how a franchise that started brilliantly keeps pushing out new tracks with its ebullient, titular martial artist panda to amount towards a slightly diminishing result? Kung Fu Panda 4 fits this bill of carrying the jokes, the cuisine lined-up moments for what’s on the menu, and the fun, kinetic animation of its predecessors, but it’s evident that something is missing. At the very least, it is passable, a functional work to get families into the theaters for unbridled relaxation and a good time.
Sixteen years ago, Dreamworks captured lightning in a bottle with our fat panda, voiced with glee by Mr. Jack Black. Po, the clumsy panda, learned some pertinent themes through his rise and eventual acceptance as the chosen “Dragon Warrior.” The screenwriters developed a wondrous line of essential themes that radiated not only with Po but also with us, from how nothing is impossible to explore your talents as there is no secret ingredient to one’s success. The 2nd and 3rd chapters were acceptable in trying to centralize a new concept, such as inner peace or the wonders of chi. The fourth one, well, has more of a well-documented message about how change is inevitable and not much else vigor amounting to its presentation.
The excessive whirring fight scenes are fine when justified within context; We get it. It’s a martial arts feature, so colorful action will light up the screen when the writers believe it is warranted (or need to shoehorn in something because the beats are monotonous). However, aside from lacking the nuggets of wisdom its predecessors bestowed, the most significant fault is that it doesn’t do much else besides staying in a comforting and familiar territory. A nary sense of lethargy is prevalent, recycling most of the gags and juvenile bits we’ve become acclimated to in this series.
The plot follows Po (voiced by Black) handling bad guys and signing autographs in the Valley of Peace. Immediately, Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) informs him that he must choose his Dragon Warrior successor to ascend to a spiritual leader role. Quite hesitant to move in a different direction, Po comes across a thieving fox named Zhen (Awkwafina) and learns about the Chameleon (Viola Davis), a shape-shifting villain that can inhabit the body of any being she desires, and her ambition to steal all the past masters kung fu to become unstoppable. Enter past villains that we have seen for a long time, such as the power-hungry leopard Tai Lung (Ian McShane) and Lord Shen and Kai (although the latter two do not have any lines for this adventure because they’re tossed aside to make the Chameleon look like the new evil boss around). So, Po must set out for a new journey and team up with Zhen to take on the Chameleon and her army, while Mr. Ping (James Hong) and Li Shan (Bryan Cranston) trail behind, concerned about their son’s well-being.
In a metaphorical sense, the feature is laced with decadence, a stalwart attitude to refuse a change-up in the formula to re-energize Po and Co. All the beats play in an OK aspect. Still, it quietly hinders the Zen-like qualities several of us appreciated over the years. Director Mike Mitchell understood the task of keeping our panda consistent and lovable but didn’t spice up the noodles to add new ingredients to the batch. And while Viola Davis voices the new villain with a dour aristocratic superiority, there’s no grounded connection to past characters or sympathy for us to care. Chameleon is a fodder figure to merely bring back the villains we appreciated from yesterday and then dilute their inherent value (man, no wonder why Michael Shannon felt like an action figure when he was brought back as General Zod in a severely underwhelming fashion in The Flash).
The youthful exuberance of our lovable panda should’ve been dialed back with a wiser, maturing aura incorporated into his character (after over fifteen years of films and TV spinoffs). The film should’ve had some funnier comedy. And there’s no sense of wit and robustness in this fourth installment, a sign this franchise is out of new things to say or do.
Overall, Kung Fu Panda 4 is an acceptable feature, but there is no “Skadoosh” this time to galvanize the need for viewing. You’re better off revisiting the original from ’08.
