Kung Fu Panda 4: After 15 Years, Jack Black's Po Stubbornly Won't Tap Out

By Chris Knight

Rating: C

The fourth film in the Kung Fu Panda franchise, Kung Fu Panda 4 is the story of a character who doesn’t know when to call it quits. Ponder that for a moment. There’s no definitive answer on when the movie is set, but I’m guessing it’s the late Iron Age, when irony was at its height.

Jack Black returns as the voice of Po, a rotund, mildly food-obsessed panda who has become known as the Dragon Warrior. But in the early going, his mentor (Dustin Hoffman) tells him he must train a replacement, while he himself will move on to the nebulous role of spiritual leader of the Valley of Peace.

Po (Jack Black) and Zhe (Awkwafina) in Kung Fu Panda 4

Trouble is, Po doesn’t want the new job. So, when word arrives of a new villain, The Chameleon (Viola Davis), he decides to set out on one last adventure and vanquish her. Aiding, abetting and sometimes betraying him is Zhen (Awkwafina, a fox who looks like she wandered in from a rival studio’s Zootopia franchise. Also, her trademark wit is severely tamped down by the film’s lackluster screenplay.

Where are the Furious Five, Po’s erstwhile co-kung-fu fighters, you may ask? And I may answer that, as in a minor Marvel movie, they’re explained away as being out of town on their own missions, leaving Po to handle things on his own. (Fun fact: The original Kung Fu Panda was released in 2008, the same year as Iron Man.)

This fourth film, featuring the same writers as two and three, but new co-directors Stephanie Stine and Mike Mitchell, isn’t a bad movie, but it does feel like it’s going through the motions. There are reveals of characters, motivations and plot points that won’t surprise anyone over the age of eight. There’s a staff that bestows magical powers, a rare blood moon that is needed for dramatic timing, and a few minor battles en route to a major one that, honestly, didn’t feel all that major when it was over.

There is also a quickness and brevity to the storytelling that is in keeping with the franchise, whose film’s run-times have fallen squarely between 90 and 95 minutes apiece. By the time I was seriously thinking of checking my watch, the freight-train sound of an approaching denouement told me it wasn’t necessary.

Also unnecessary, sorry to say, is the film itself. Many years ago, there was talk of two Panda trilogies, which would make this the first part of the second trio. But it really doesn’t feel like much more than a tacked-on postscript to an already finished story.

Another fun fact, assuming there are more sequels to come. The series so far has followed a release date pattern drawn from a mathematical formula called the Fibonacci Sequence. There were three years between the first two films, then a five-year gap, and then an eight-year wait (five plus three).

 If that holds, eight plus five means the next Kung Fu Panda should hit cinemas 13 years hence, in the spring of 2037. The one after that, 2058. I can wait.

Kung Fu Panda 4. Directed by Stephanie Stine, and Mike Mitchell. Starring Jack Black, Viola Davis, and Awkwafina. Opens March 8 in cinemas.