Kung Fu Panda 4

Kung Fu Panda 4 arrived eight years after Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016). DreamWorks Animation confirmed the project in August 2022 and handed it to Mike Mitchell (Trolls), with Stephanie Stine as co-director. Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger, who wrote the earlier films, return on the script, and Hans Zimmer scores again with Steve Mazzaro. Mitchell called it a love letter to the first film.

A film built around Po

The Furious Five, Po's companions in the first three films, only make a brief appearance. The story rests on Po (Jack Black) and Zhen, a corsac fox and thief (Awkwafina). Viola Davis voices the Chameleon, and Ke Huy Quan, an Oscar winner the year before for Everything Everywhere All at Once, plays Han, a pangolin who runs a den of thieves. Ian McShane returns as Tai Lung, the snow leopard from the first film.

Kung fu in animation

The series has never tried to copy one specific style: each character borrows from the animal forms of Chinese martial arts (tiger, crane, monkey, mantis, snake), and Po makes up his own way of fighting. For this fourth film, Mitchell said the fights draw more on Japanese anime, and Marvel stunt performers gave the animators reference moves to study. Martial artists will recognise the language of screen kung fu and the theme that runs through the whole series: when a student has to become a teacher.

A box office hit

Made for $85 million, it grossed around $548 million worldwide. Reviews were cooler than for the earlier films (54 out of 100 on Metacritic, 71% on Rotten Tomatoes). It is aimed first at children and at families who grew up with the series.