Skadoosh!

It’s really weird and disappointing that unlike the previous films this film doesn’t have a unique animated version of the DreamWorks logo. The Kung Fu Panda series is my favorite DreamWorks series that I have a very personal history with. The first one took me by surprise and Kung Fu Panda 2 is not only my favorite DreamWorks film but also one of my favorite movies of all time. The previous film Kung Fu Panda 3 was the very first movie review on this site. Kung Fu Panda 4 is about Po finding out that he has to choose a new dragon warrior. He gets news that Tai Lung from the first film has returned so he teams up with a thief named Zhen to travel to Juniper City to stop the Chameleon.

The Kung Fu Panda series is known are some of the best animation in all of Dreamworks. While KFP4’s budget was lower I still think this film’s animation is still top notch. There’s this little detail I like that feels very anime-ish and if you see the film you’ll understand. The voice acting in this film is very impressive. Jack Black is still great as always as the main protagonist Po. It really feels like this is a character Jack really enjoys playing. Awkwafina is fine as Zhen, she’s not bad it’s just felt like another Awkwafina role. Viola Davis as the main villain the Chameleon is the biggest new standout for me. It also neat to hear Ke Huy Quan doing voicework now. The two biggest highlights in terms of voice acting were Po’s dads, Mr. Ping and Li Shan. Both these two have such a fun and hilarious dynamic thanks to the James Hong and Bryan Cranston’s performances.

While it was cool that they got Ian McShane as Tai Lung back it was a huge disappointment that they didn’t get Gary Oldman as Lord Shen (BEST DREAMWORKS VILLAIN BTW) or JK Simmons as Kai. I just think it would’ve been cooler to see all these villains come together and even work off each other kind of like the villains in Spider-Man No Way Home. This film also suffers from having a lot of similar plot beats from the previous films especially from 2. To be fair the third film borrowed a lot from the first one.

Kung Fu Panda 4 is kind of like the Toy Story 4 of the Kung Fu Panda series. It didn’t really need to exist but it’s still a fun addition to the series. I am glad this film is doing surprisingly well at the box office. Not the strongest but still an awesome time.

Verdict:

+Po’s dads

+The animation

+The voice acting

+/-The returning villains

-Reused story beats

Score: B+