Who doesn’t love Po? Right from Kung Fu Panda (2008), Po’s adventures in the Valley of peace have been a source of pure joy for audiences of all ages and particularly kids. The Kung Fu Panda movies were successfully able to combine childish humor, deep philosophy, and cute animals into one of the most successful animated movie franchises of all time. Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024) is another successful addition into this entertaining anthology. However, it does leave the audience with a sense that something is lacking in the movie.
“…..the movie chose to lean heavily on the comedy aspect, which is still quite entertaining, but without the spiritual understanding of Kung Fu to tie it all together, the movie comes across as a stunning, beautiful yet unfinished piece of art…..”
Maybe it is just me who thought this, but when I saw the trailers of Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024) and understood that the premise was around Po becoming a spiritual leader, I expected Oogway wisdom along the way. Grand Master Oogway was at the core of establishing the whole philosophy of Kung Fu in this franchise and explained a lot of amazing things to Master Shifu and Po himself along the way. His quotes, and deep realizations have gone on to become some of the most famous philosophical quotes of the century. With Po set to become the next spiritual leader of the Valley of peace, I went into the movie expecting such life altering realizations and wisdom to be transmitted on screen and although there were a lot of good quotes and philosophical lessons, none of them were deep enough to make any impact. Instead, the movie chose to lean heavily on the comedy aspect, which is still quite entertaining, but without the spiritual understanding of Kung Fu to tie it all together, the movie comes across as a stunning, beautiful yet unfinished piece of art.
To be fair, there could have been multiple logistical reasons for this including the unavailability of the star-studded original cast of the furious five and lack of screen time for Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman). However, the movie’s new cast members had enough star power and “it” factor to deliver a good movie. Awkwafina in her role as Zhen is quite superb throughout this movie, but the tacky writing for Zhen makes it look like a sloppy choice for this character to warrant so much screen time. Viola Davis as the chameleon has also done a commendable job in this movie. Her menacing and cold-hearted voice is well matched by the qualities of the chameleon character. As intense as her build up is through the first two acts of the movie, the climax completely takes away from the seriousness of her threat and makes the ending seem a little lackluster
Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024) definitely is entertaining and has moments of cinematic magic within it, but it is not comparable to the entertainment value of the first 3 movies in this franchise. It looks to be setting up a complete revamp for the franchise, the fan reception to which is TBD. I certainly hope that they bring back the aspect of Kung Fu spirituality and philosophy back into these movies and make more entertaining ones in the future.