Dreamworks has always been the Pepsi to Pixar's Coca-Cola, but in the last handful of years the quality and quantity of Universal Pictures's animation studio work has made them as relevant as, if not more than, their Disney counterpart.
Dreamworks has been on a bit of a roll and have continued the good times this year (after "Orion and the Dark" came out on February 2) with the new and fourth installment of "Kung Fu Panda," the Jack Black-fronted kids film that deals with the animal kingdom and ancient art of kung fu.
Awkwafina, Viola Davis, Dustin Hoffman, James Hong, Bryan Cranston, Ian McShane, Ke Huy Quan, Lori Tan Chinn and Ronny Chieng also star alongside Black, and it's directed by Mike Mitchell. Here's what the reviews say.
The premise
It's been eight years since we last saw Po, the adorkable black-and-white bear with a penchant for martial arts, on the big screen. And it's been 16 years since the franchise (one of DreamWorks Animation's most resilient) debuted. But despite finding Po at the peak of his spiritual mastery, and on the lookout for a new Dragon Warrior to succeed him, there's no grand reinvention of the material here. Instead, this is an amiable retread of the series' tried and trusted formula. Fellow masters the Furious Five are absent this time, making way for a streamlined buddy pairing between Jack Black's Po and corsac-fox thief Zhen (Awkwafina). Meanwhile, the new villain this time out is The Chameleon (an enjoyably menacing Viola Davis), who can absorb others' powers. Her ability to transform into formerly vanquished foes gives this fourquel a greatest-hits quality (though of the former baddies, only Ian McShane returns vocally).
The new elements in the story are wildly interesting
Where "Kung Fu Panda 4" really shines, though, is in its newer story elements. The roaring streets of Juniper City are a far cry from the rolling fields of the Valley of Peace, offering brand new environments for electrifying fights and action sequences. Particularly fun is a street chase that leads us up onto rooftops and kites before plunging down into the tunnels of the city's Den of Thieves. There, we'll meet thief leader Han ("Everything Everywhere All At Once's" Ke Huy Quan), a pangolin with a delightful penchant for violence. The story's two biggest new additions, Zhen and the Chameleon, each have their ups and downs. "Kung Fu Panda 4" is quick to highlight Zhen's conniving ways, which get her and Po into their fair share of trouble, but it's also quick to saddle her with a clichéd abandonment backstory. Thankfully, a third act bombshell complicates Zhen and gives her room to truly shine in the final battle.
[Mashable]
Despite some fertile narrative ground to build upon, aside from a few, scattered but sweet scenes, there’s so much emotionality and thematic depth left on the table, in favor of comedy above all. Two sequences set inside a rough, rabbit-run tavern on the side of a cliff are consistently funny, but many of the things these films have traditionally done best that set them apart from other animated fare are more muted than normal in "Kung Fu Panda 4."
[Slant]
You know who still rocks? Jack Black
Jack Black as Po is still delightful, though, selling the character with an endearing earnestness wrapped in bumbling enthusiasm. His line delivery is perfect, especially when he's punctuating moments of tension. But the real standout of "Kung Fu Panda 4" is Awkwafina, who gets a chance to shine beyond her usual animated-character typecasting of "loud, wacky comic relief." As smart-talking crook Zhen, she definitely has her share of one-liners, but the character has more depth. When her past and her motives are revealed, Awkwafina gets a chance to bring in more of the dramatic chops we saw in The Farewell. It's a far cry from characters like The Little Mermaid's Scuttle and Migration's Chump, who mostly just exist to be loud and obnoxious. As a whole, the "Kung Fu Panda" movies have a great sense of character physicality that lends itself to both humor and action sequences. The fourth film in the series is no exception.
[Polygon]
Speaking of the story, this is one that is truly worthy of bringing Po back to the big screen after all these years. It is exciting and entertaining, with some truly massive and intense fight sequences. It should come as no surprise that there is a lot of humor and emotion mixed in as well, something that Jack Black excels at and one of the reasons he is a great choice to voice a character as lovable and kind as Po.
The action sequences have no right being this good
The fights are typically great, and though none stand out in the way some of the franchise's ensemble sequences have, a brawl inside a restaurant whose foundation keeps tipping back and forth comes close. There also seems to be a conscious deemphasis on violence and peril: Whereas "Kung Fu Panda 2's" bloodthirsty Lord Shen killed his underlings with throwing knives, a character seemingly plummeting to their doom in "Kung Fu Panda 4" is referred to as "getting hurt." This could just be a writing thing, but it did seem odd compared to Kung Fu Panda's usual candor about the concept of death and an afterlife.
[IGN]
Another fantastic sequence unfolds as a chase through the streets of Juniper City, a new location that is said to be the home of The Chameleon. Since Zhen is a wanted thief, she and Po must evade the authorities, and the skills of composers Hans Zimmer and Steve Mazzaro really pop here, because they've created an orchestral version of Ozzy Osbourne's classic rock tune "Crazy Train," which gives the sequence a contemporary edge without leaning into lazy needle drops like "The Super Mario Bros. Movie." Juniper City is also where we meet Oscar-winner Ke Huy Quan voicing a new character, an armadillo who oversees an underground contingent of shady characters, including the hilarious violence-hungry children glimpsed in the trailer. Quan's character isn't used to his full potential, but his voice brings an enthusiastic energy and laughs to the proceedings.
If the semi-forgettable "Kung Fu Panda 4" has an advantage over the semi-forgettable "Kung Fu Panda 3," it's the brief change of venue that allows Po and Zhen to caper around Juniper City, a more densely populated and crime-ridden environment than the Valley of Peace. Juniper City also provides opportunities for the animators to have fun with new character designs, like the boat captain who's actually a fish housed within the mouth of a barely-sentient pelican, or the menagerie of criminals whom the Chameleon has been shaking down. The Chameleon herself is fun to look at, too, in all her regal bearing and shapeshifting glory; a lot of DreamWorks cartoons trade in bombastic action that's somewhere between Looney Tunes and Michael Bay, while this series actually finds a balletic grace that's more akin to martial arts colliding with kaiju fights.
[Paste]
TL;DR
It aspires to be Taoism for tykes, but it's just too fidgety.
"Kung Fu Panda 4" is exceptionally animated, with bright and colorful set designs. It's perfect for children.
"Kung Fu Panda 4" is a ton of fun and perfect for families.
"4," while nice enough, suggests that the smartest move would be to let the fuzzy guy retire to a calming bamboo forest rather than embark on yet another predictable adventure.