KUNG FU PANDA 4 | ©2024 Universal Pictures/DreamWorks Animation

Rating: PG
Stars (voices): Jack Black, Awkwafina, Viola Davis, Dustin Hoffman, James Hong, Bryan Cranston, Ian McShane, Ke Huy Quan
Writers: Jonathan Aibel & Glenn Berger and Darren Lemke
Director: Mike Mitchell; co-director, Stephanie Ma Stine
Distributor: Universal/DreamWorks Animation
Release Date: March 8, 2024

In the tradition of its ancestors – the original KUNG FU PANDA (2008), KUNG FU PANDA 2 (2011), and KUNG FU PANDA 3 (2016) – the new KUNG FU PANDA 4 (as the title suggests) centers on a panda who practices kung fu. It probably helps to have seen the earlier films, but it’s not absolutely necessary.

The KUNG FU PANDA films are set in a mythical, pre-industrial China, where various species of animals live in relative harmony, with houses and cities and businesses and healthy doses of magic.

Our panda hero Po (voiced as before by Jack Black) is now the Dragon Warrior of the Jade Temple, protector of the City of Peace (and the rest of China, when necessary). Despite his uncomfortable beginnings (when all of his personal kung fu idols felt he wasn’t up to the demands of the warrior life), Po has settled into being the Dragon Warrior and greatly enjoys it.

So, Po is nonplussed when his mentor, the red panda Shifu (voiced by Dustin Hoffman), declares it is time for Po to name a successor as Dragon Warrior. This will allow Po to become the Valley’s spiritual leader.

Po feels entirely unqualified to be a spiritual leader. We’re inclined to agree with him, but then again, he seemed a pretty unlikely candidate for Dragon Warrior way back when.

Meanwhile, a shapeshifting sorceress known as the Chameleon (voiced by Viola Davis) has a plan to subjugate the Valley of Peace and all of China.

Po meets the fox Zhen (voiced by Awkwafina), a thief who promises to lead him to the Chameleon in exchange for a furlough from prison. They set off on a quest. Po’s two dads, adoptive father goose Ping (voiced by James Hong) and relatively-recently-found biological father panda Li (voiced by Bryan Cranston), fear for their boy’s safety and follow in his tracks.

While all KUNG FU PANDA films find Po eventually squaring off against villains, KUNG FU PANDA 4 is the most action-oriented. Writers Jonathan Aibel & Glenn Berger and Darren Lemke include the usual messages about believing in yourself and in your family and friends. However, they structure the movie so that it mostly bounds from set piece to set piece, with a variety of locations and challenges.

The artwork here is truly impressive, with a collection of gorgeous interiors and exteriors. Likewise, the fight choreography is diverse and exciting enough to engage adults as well as children, and the pace easily carries us along.

Director Mike Mitchell and co-director Stephanie Ma Stine keep the mood lively and strike a pleasant balance between being jocular and earnest. Very little kids may be scared by the Chameleon’s transformations, but there’s no blood and no corpses; the few thoroughly vanquished characters literally go into the light.

Black conveys the sense of a big, good-hearted kid as Po, and, once more, Hong is superb as his fretful, loving dad. Cranston has a good time with his Cowardly Lion panda, and Awkwafina is properly suspicious and feisty as Zhen. Hoffman is masterly in his exasperation as Shifu, and Davis is appropriately steely as Chameleon. Ian McShane sounds like he’s having fun reprising his KUNG FU PANDA 1 role, and Ke Huy Quan is suitably wily as a Fagin-esque pangolin.

For those who have seen the earlier films, KUNG FU 4 is like catching up with casual but well-liked old friends after a long absence. For viewers new to the franchise, those who enjoy American animation directed at youngsters will probably find it diverting. Those who don’t enjoy this genre, they may consider themselves duly informed of KUNG FU PANDA 4’s essential nature.

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