The plot: Po must train a new warrior when he’s chosen to become the spiritual leader of the Valley of Peace. However, when a powerful shape-shifting sorceress sets her eyes on his Staff of Wisdom, he suddenly realizes he’s going to need some help. Teaming up with a quick-witted corsac fox, Po soon discovers that heroes can be found in the most unexpected places.
Kung Fu Panda 4 was Okay.
Pros: Jack Black is still great as Po. A lot of the action are some of the best I seen in animation. Zhen was pretty good. It still had what make this franchise so special. The comedy was decent for the most part & I enjoyed their remix of baby one more time at the credits.
Cons: The Furious Five were absent from this movie for unknown reasons. I wasn’t a fan of how they used past characters from the previous movies. There’s certain parts in the main story that didn’t get resolved and I didn’t like how the villain was defeated so easily.
Genre: Kids & family, Comedy, Adventure, Animation, Action
Directed by Mike Mitchell
Produced by Jonathan Aibel, Glenn Berger, Darren Lemke
Written by Rebecca Huntley
Starring: Jack Black, Awkwafina, Bryan Cranston, James Hong, Ian McShane, Ke Huy Quan, Dustin Hoffman & Viola Davis.
Cinematography: Joshua Gunther
Edited by Christopher Knights
Music by Hans Zimmer, Steve Mazzaro
Production companies: DreamWorks Animation
Distributed by: Universal Pictures
The Voice Casts:
- Jack Black as Po, a giant panda who is set to become a spiritual leader after renouncing his title as the Dragon Warrior.
- Awkwafina as Zhen, a corsac fox who is a wanted thief and accompanies Po on his journey.
- Viola Davis as The Chameleon, a nefarious shape-shifting chameleon sorceress that can copy others’ kung fu by absorbing their abilities and the adoptive mother of Zhen.
- Dustin Hoffman as Master Shifu, a wise red panda and Po’s master.
- James Hong as Mr. Ping, a Chinese goose and Po’s adoptive father.
- Bryan Cranston as Li Shan, Po’s biological father.
- Ian McShane as Tai Lung, a snow leopard who was Shifu’s adopted son and former disciple until he became evil. Po vanquished him to the Spirit Realm in the first film and General Kai captured him off-screen during the third film, but the Chameleon brings him back from the Spirit Realm.
- Ke Huy Quan as Han, a Sunda pangolin who is the leader of a den of thieves.
- Lori Tan Chinn as Granny Boar, an elderly female boar who can take out her tusks and use them as weapons.
- Ronny Chieng as Captain Fish, a green arowana that lives in a pelican‘s mouth, who is his seemingly adoptive mother.
- Harry Shum Jr. as Scott, a fire-breathing crocodile who was sent to the Spirit Realm by Po.
The Furious Five make a brief non-speaking appearance in the end credits with the exception of Seth Rogen providing screams for Mantis. Lord Shen and General Kai also have non-speaking appearances when The Chameleon is summoning villains from the Spirit Realm. YouTuber Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson has a cameo as Panda Pig, a pig with black-and-white paint who is one of the candidates for the next Dragon Warrior.
I still recommend watching this sequel.
Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars
Ryan Balkwill:
Resident film reviewer,
Level Best Art Cafe