Dreamworks has had its fair share of success in the animation realm, and part of that is the Kung Fu Panda Franchise. The adventures of Po the slightly overweight panda have become legendary. He has had his fair share of ups and downs in his journey to become the Dragon Warrior,  but he always learns a lesson in humility and comes out on the other side better off. Jack Black is widely known for this character, so it makes sense that he came back for a fourth installment of the Kung Fu Panda. Is it as good as the others? Let’s find out.

Po (Jack Black) is doing what he does best and that is fighting bad guys in the Valley of Peace and enjoying himself in the process. The five are out on various missions so he is defending the land by himself. When Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) comes to him with a proposal to train a new Dragon Warrior he isn’t exactly in favor of the idea. After a disturbance in a far-off town gets back to him he decides he needs to go to find out what’s going on. In the process, he meets a sly, quick-witted fast on her feet fox Zhen (Awkwafina) who he takes in as his apprentice. She’s more than meets the eye though. Together they must uncover the mystery of the Chameleon (Viola Davis) who could be a new threat to the Valley of Peace.

The Kung Fu Panda Franchise combines two things that I love in movies and those are comedy and action. The comedy is the banter between Black’s Po character and various other characters in the franchise including his fathers voiced by James Hong, Mr. Ping, Bryan Cranston,  another Panda, and many others. The cast is stacked with voice-over performances from Ke Huy  Quan as a crooked armadillo,  Ronny Chieng as a fish who lives in the mouth of a pelican, and Ian McShane who returns, don’t ask me how, as Tai Lung. Together all of these actors bring a comedy relief to a Franchise that thrived on that over the years. 

Two specific scenes define the action that this franchise has been known for. There is a sequence where Po and Zhen visit a pub on a cliff run by some boars. Of course, because it’s Po there was a misunderstanding and things got out of hand and a fight broke out. This was a fun fight though and I got a few laughs out of it. The other was a scene involving bulls who were the police of Juniper City where they went to confront the Chameleon. There were multiple bull references including the running of the bulls and a bull in a China shop that was on point. This action scene was crazy good though.

One of the best things about these films that I love is the villains. The villains are voiced by larger-than-life actors like McShane and in the case of The Chameleon Viola Davis, an Academy Award winner for Fences. The villains are nasty characters and have various motivations that make them stand out. The Chameleon is one of the lesser villains I would say. She has good traits that lend themselves to this film but don’t have the extra sinister aspects to her that others have had. She’s just not the strongest villain in the series.

Mike Mitchell the director has taken a lot of the elements from previous films in the franchise to make a fun time at the theater. He gave fans a new villain in the Chameleon and a new side character in the Zhen the fox but he relied on characters from the past and things from previous films a little too much. I would have rather seen more of an original story. Not as much of the past.

The Kung Fu Panda Franchise has been a fun one and I enjoy Jack Black as Po. That being said I don’t think this one is as good as the other in the series. There are enough comedy and action sequences/fight scenes that kept me entertained throughout but it just didn’t get me excited while watching it as some of the others in the franchise. Po’s journey in the other films seemed much more emotional and I genuinely cared about him more in those films. I feel that this one was a bit distant in its emotional heft, compared to the others. Kids will probably still like it though. That’s the main thing. There isn’t much for parents to take kids to right now and I’d say this is worth seeing for the reasons I mentioned.

3 ½ stars

Dan Skip Allen