Kung Fu Panda 4
Kung Fu Panda 4 is a 2024 American animated martial arts comedy film directed by Mike Mitchell and written by Darren Lemke, Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger. The fourth film in the Kung Fu Panda franchise, it was produced by DreamWorks Animation. It features Jack Black, Bryan Cranston, James Hong, Ian McShane, and Dustin Hoffman reprising their roles from the previous films. In the film, Po—who must find and train his successor as the new Dragon Warrior—teams up with fox bandit Zhen to defeat evil sorceress The Chameleon, who plans to steal the kung-fu abilities of all deceased masters in China.
DreamWorks announced the fourth film in August 2022, with Mitchell, Stephanie Ma Stine, and Huntley attached as director, co-director, and producer, respectively, by April 2023. In December 2023, most of the main voice cast, along with the return of Aibel and Berger as writers and co-producers, were confirmed. Lemke's involvement was confirmed in February 2024. Composer Hans Zimmer, who had scored for the previous three installments, returned as composer alongside frequent collaborator Steve Mazzaro.
Kung Fu Panda 4 premiered at the AMC 14 Theater at The Grove in Los Angeles on March 3, 2024, and was theatrically released in the United States on March 8 by Universal Pictures. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and was commercially successful, grossing $547.7 million worldwide on an $85 million budget, outgrossing its predecessor to become the ninth-highest-grossing film of 2024. The film received three nominations at the 52nd Annie Awards and one nomination at the 52nd Saturn Awards for Best Animated Feature.
Plot
While Po helps his fathers—his biological father Li Shan and his adoptive father Mr. Ping—open their new restaurant, Master Shifu tells him that he must advance and become the Spiritual Leader of the Valley of Peace, which means Po can no longer be the Dragon Warrior and must find a suitable successor to take his place.Po struggles to choose the right candidate as he does not want to lose his status, and he stumbles upon a fox bandit named Zhen trying to steal ancient weapons from the Jade Palace. Po outsmarts Zhen and sends her to prison, but a group of mine workers tells him that Tai Lung has returned from the Spirit Realm and destroyed an entire quarry. Zhen reveals that Tai Lung's return was masqueraded by a sorceress known as The Chameleon, who can shape-shift into any animal she wants as well as copying various kung fu skills simply by touching them.
Po and Zhen join forces and travel to Juniper City to take down The Chameleon, with the former unaware that his fathers, worried that he will not stand a chance against her, are following them. After visiting a shifty tavern and fighting off the inhabitants, Po and Zhen soon arrive at Juniper City and are almost arrested, but they are able to escape thanks to the Den of Thieves, where they receive aid from Han, the den's pangolin leader and Zhen's old mentor. From there, Po and Zhen head to The Chameleon's lair until Po is captured. It is then revealed that Zhen has been acting as a double agent for The Chameleon, and was tasked to acquire Po's Staff of Wisdom, which has the power to access the Spirit Realm. Po almost manages to escape, but The Chameleon, taking Zhen's form, fools him and throws him off a cliff, much to Zhen's horror. He nearly falls to his death but is rescued by the timely arrival of his fathers, who convince him that sometimes change can be good.
Using the staff, The Chameleon summons every deceased kung fu master and steals their skills, including three of Po's past enemies; Lord Shen, General Kai, and the real Tai Lung. After defecting for good, the guilt-stricken Zhen reunites with Po and apologizes for betraying him, but he refuses to back down from facing The Chameleon, so Zhen, Mr. Ping and Li head back to the Den of Thieves to convince them to help them save Po. As they battle The Chameleon's army of Komodo dragons, Po tries to reason with The Chameleon to no avail, although she does give the staff back to him as she no longer needs it. They battle one-on-one, but when Zhen intervenes, The Chameleon turns into a Chimera made up of several kung fu masters. Eventually, she shifts into Po himself and fights him, and quickly traps him in a cage before reverting to her original form.
Putting his trust in Zhen, Po gives her the staff, with which she bests The Chameleon. Po, who was only pretending to be trapped, defeats The Chameleon and returns all of the stolen kung fu to their owners, who show respect to Po and return to the Spirit Realm, with Tai Lung finally acknowledging Po as the Dragon Warrior and forcibly taking The Chameleon with him. While returning to the Valley, Po chooses Zhen as his successor, much to Shifu's dismay, and trains her to become the next Dragon Warrior, becoming confident with his choice.
Voice cast
- 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 and a wanted thief from Juniper City who accompanies Po on his journey to stop The Chameleon
- * Awkwafina also voices The Chameleon's form of Zhen.
- Viola Davis as The Chameleon, a nefarious shape-shifting chameleon sorceress that can copy others' kung fu by absorbing their abilities
- * Tom McGrath voices a crocodile that The Chameleon poses as while meeting with the heads of Juniper City's crime families.
- 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 villainous snow leopard who was Shifu's adopted son and former disciple
- * McShane also voices The Chameleon's form of Tai Lung in the film's opening scene.
- 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
Production
Development
On December 3, 2010, then-DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg said that there was a possibility the series could have three more sequels after Kung Fu Panda 3, bringing it to a six-film series. On January 13, 2016, Collider asked the filmmakers of Kung Fu Panda 3 about the possibility of a fourth film. Co-director Jennifer Yuh Nelson stated, "It's one at a time. We want to make this a perfect jewel, and then we'll see what happens after that". Co-director Alessandro Carloni said, "With the sequels, we don't want to try to have them feel open-ended. We want it to feel like a completed journey, and we feel this movie does. And then, if a fantastic story presents itself, great". On August 2, 2018, when asked about the possibility of Kung Fu Panda 4, Nelson replied that she always saw the series as a trilogy, but was open to a fourth installment as long as the franchise focused on Po.In August 2022, DreamWorks Animation confirmed that Kung Fu Panda 4 was in production. At CinemaCon in April 2023, more details for the film were revealed, such as the premise as described by Jack Black. It was also announced that Mike Mitchell, the director of Shrek Forever After and Trolls, was set to direct the film, with Stephanie Ma Stine co-directing and Rebecca Huntley producing. Mitchell was a creative consultant on the first film and an executive producer on the third film. The film was originally planned to be a live-action/animated hybrid, according to Ma Stine. Characters such as The Chameleon and Zhen would have been humans. This would all eventually be scrapped.
Writing
By December 2023, it was reported that Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger returned to write the screenplay. In February 2024, Darren Lemke was revealed to have co-written the screenplay. Mitchell described Kung Fu Panda 4 as a love letter to the first film. Despite its connections to previous entries in the series, he wanted the story to stand on its own. When producing the third film, Mitchell felt that Po's character development from the first film was wrapping up due to finally becoming the Dragon Warrior, so he wondered what if another sequel took "all that" away, leading the filmmakers to find some "really great heavy themes" that they felt are important for the modern world. Additionally, Mitchell wanted to evolve Po's character, introduce new characters, and expand the franchise's world, feeling that the film took so long to be produced because the filmmakers wanted a perfect story that could evolve Po by making him learn something to advance to the next level. He described Po as having a black-and-white view of the world and wanted to pair him with a more morally grey character, Zhen. Mitchell also wanted a character who Po can be frustrated by, like how Shifu gets frustrated by him.For The Chameleon, Mitchell sought to make her a more-brain-than-brawn kind of villain. He went on to say that she is the smartest and most supernatural foe Po has faced. He described The Chameleon as a mirror to Po in that both characters were underestimated by society for their bodies, but went on to gain high status. He said, "So Po has become the greatest hero, and now she's the greatest villain". Mitchell felt that one of the things the Kung Fu Panda franchise stands out for, aside from Black's Po, are its villains, so he made sure that The Chameleon could be as formidable as Tai Lung, Lord Shen and General Kai, hence his reasoning to specifically bring the former back into this sequel's story. Lord Shen, Kai, and the Furious Five were added to the film at the last minute.