Jack Black Returns to Save China With Awkwafina
DIRECTORS: MIKE MITCHELL & STEPHANIE STINE/2024
Skadoosh! Dragon Warrior Po is back 8 years since we last checked in and 16 since we first met him.
In the near-decade since his last adventure, Po (Jack Black) has made protecting the Valley of Peace look easy even as his Furious Five colleagues (voiced in the original trilogy by Jackie Chan, David Cross, Angelina Jolie, Lucy Liu, and Seth Rogen) have moved on to protect other regions of ancient China. But Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) has a new assignment for Po: to become the spiritual leader of the Valley, which means giving up his role as Dragon Warrior. Since our panda hero loves kung fu (as he shouted memorably in the first film), he’s not interested. Why give up a job you’re good at? Instead, he sets out on a journey made for a Dragon Warrior. With the help of thief Zhen (Awkwafina), he plans to defeat the evil shapeshifter The Chameleon (Viola Davis).
Though the Furious Five are M.I.A., many favorites return, including the solid comedy duo of Po’s birth dad (Bryan Cranston) and his adopted goose dad (James Hong, still this franchise’s MVP at 95 years old). New cast member Awkwafina is continuing her quest to voice every member of the animal kingdom, adding a fox to her resume after a spider in The Bad Guys, a pig in Angry Birds 2, the titular beast in Raya and the Last Dragon, and a variety of fowl in The Little Mermaid, Migration, and Storks. Though Kung Fu Panda 5 is still TBD, she is proving there may be a future for Kung Fu Fox. What’s no surprise, though, is that Davis is the addition who is really cooking. Kung Fu Panda has never shown interest in making its antagonists redeemable or complicated, and Davis’s Chameleon chews through every moment of her Space Jam-inspired scheme with the same glee as her sadistic scientist in The Hunger Games. The Chameleon may not give kids nightmares like Davis did for the ones in Panem, but she is a villain.
The kids at my Kung Fu Panda 4 screening seemed to be having a blast, and the adults weren’t having a bad time either. The Kung Fu Panda series is well above-average for kids’ entertainment, with every entry structured around coherent storytelling and wuxia-inspired action. Have Po and his anthropomorphic animal friends ever reached the emotional heights of the best Pixar movies or blown us away with design like the Spider-Verse films? No, but its gentle comedy lands most of its punch lines, and its kung fu takes inspiration from martial arts film classics. You may not call this breezy series innovative, but you could call it perfectly pleasant.