Jonah Naplan   March 8, 2024

“Kung Fu Panda 4” is DreamWorks Animation’s newest movie and it’s also one of their most formulaic, given that it follows old routines and never brings anything to the table that justifies its own existence. Did we really need another addition to this franchise after the third one seemed to wrap up a trilogy perfectly well back in 2016? “Kung Fu Panda 4” never seems to come up with much of an answer, despite a talented set of filmmakers and an even more talented ensemble of voice actors who give it their all despite a mediocre script that frankly doesn’t deserve their skills. What the other “Kung Fu Panda” movies did so well in appealing to such a large demographic of both children and adults, this film completely dissolves by pandering only to children through cheap fart jokes that I thought the industry had collectively outgrown since pre-Covid times. This film, however, runs out of steam at the very beginning and struggles to continue chugging along, desperately reaching for any fruit it can find. Too often it settles for the lowest.

Arriving eight years after its predecessor, “Kung Fu Panda 4” continues to follow the misadventures of Po (Jack Black), the Dragon Warrior, who lives happily with both his biological (Bryan Cranston) and adoptive father (James Hong). The plot is set into motion when Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) tells Po that he must assume the sacred role of spiritual leader of the valley—a position occupied by Master Oogway in the previous films—and, in turn, appoint someone to take over as the Dragon Warrior. (For any fans wondering, the Furious Five, a quintet of powerful kung fu sidekicks are not in this picture, the explanation being that Tigress, Mantis, Monkey, Crane, and Viper are all off on individual missions of their own—or maybe, simply, the studio couldn’t afford to bring back the voice actors to step into these characters once more). Either way, there’s a blatant, gaping hole in the movie’s plotting that always makes it seem like something’s missing. In reality though, the lacking of fan-favorite characters is probably one of the least concerning things about the whole experience.

The new villain is dubbed the Chameleon (Viola Davis), and she’s a sorceress reptile who can shape-shift into anything at her will. The character herself is nothing new; for most of the movie she’s an odd mishmash between all of Po’s former adversaries in a more powerful package; but Davis seems to be having so much fun playing this character that she adds a needed freshness to the villain and nearly saves the entire movie with her stinging wit. Like previous “Kung Fu Panda” villains, her ultimate goal is to drain the most powerful warriors of their fighting abilities so she can absorb their skills herself, trapping such victims as Tai Lung and General Kai in cages as she carries out her plan.

Po won’t have this tyranny, so he navigates a journey to the New York of the “Kung Fu Panda” universe called Juniper City where the Chameleon currently resides in a large foreboding tower that looms over the metropolis civilians. Along for the ride is Zhen (Awkwafina), a thieving fox who becomes a sort of one-time sidekick for Po, providing rational information about what they should do in tricky situations and intuitive street-smarts that Po never could have come by himself in his own modest but secluded village lifestyle. The character of Zhen is afforded, by far, the most narratively complex avenues to go down in this movie, and ends up serving as (spoilers!) the movie’s twist, pathos, and eventual resolution. So it’s a real shame that Awkwafina doesn’t bring any more depth to this character than she did for roles in “Raya and the Last Dragon,” “The Bad Guys” and “Migration,” playing the same smart-alecky comic relief that thinks she’s way more brilliant than she actually is.

All of the characters in “Kung Fu Panda 4”—both old and new faces alike—are given such little depth or meaning that they barely register; Ke Huy Quan’s Han is an intriguing caricature in and of himself, but he lacks a singular great moment in which his value can shine; a subplot involving Po’s two dads trying to catch up with their son seems like it could boast important messages about morals and adjusting to change, but the end result feels tacked on and unnecessary; and the central relationship between Po and Zhen, two individuals learning to work together and accept each other gets too sappy to the point of embarrassment.

Director Mike Mitchell has of course created a beautifully animated movie, but that’s to be expected of a product coming out of DreamWorks these days. Even so, the key scenes in which the animation could really get a chance to shine—often extended battle sequences or montages that depict the evolution of something through time’s passage—feel incredibly manufactured from a narrative perspective, only allowing brief moments of inspiration like the occasional sight gag or joke that might entertain an adult for a fleeting moment.

Ultimately, “Kung Fu Panda 4” feels overly childish and doesn’t really know what to do with itself for most of the runtime, adding convoluted idea on top of convoluted idea until it realizes it won’t be able to wrap up effectively. What’s the point here? There’s a clear push to continue churning out content just so this series can stay alive, but this particular entry doesn’t seem to understand that popular franchises remain that way because each new chapter adds nuance to the table each time, building upon the others in necessary ways. “Kung Fu Panda 4” seems to only exist for finances, to give a couple of employees an easy check, which is not how creativity is fostered. And when the art is removed from the media, we get something like this: cold, clichéd, and removed; a reminder that simply having pandas in your movie doesn’t make it great. It’s what you do with them that matters.

Now playing in theaters.