Kung Fu Panda 4 - Spiritual Führer
Thoughts On: Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024)
A new villain revives enemies from Po’s past.
I watched Kung Fu Panda 4 while in Hamburg, so I saw it in German and without understanding it. The most jarring element of the German dub is the plot revolving around Po becoming the Spiritual Führer; I was the only one in the audience to whom that sounded strange. That said, the plot and visual storytelling were simple enough to follow along and Kung Fu Panda 4 is a solid film. The animation is super crisp and smooth with each character having clear physical definition to their movement and combat; the character design of the new villain, the Chameleon, was a big highlight and pretty stunning visually. Plot-wise, nothing special happens; this 4th addition to the series, which is more of a world by now with tv shows and such, appears to simply extend the life and adventures of Po, bringing his arc towards a more mature stage in his life as a martial arts hero. In such, he doesn’t face a significant challenge or change in his world - we are rather introduced to some new characters, but they are only slightly developed here. The most fascinating aspect of world building comes with the introduction of a city, which shrinks the world of the Dragon Warrior. But with all that said, Kung Fu Panda 4 is content to just be a fun continuation of the saga; there are no unexpected developments or twists, the humour is what you expect and the animation retains high standards. My only criticism with this would be the final battle; it just didn’t feel conclusive or particularly meaningful. The villain is built to seem invincible, but is shrugged away quite easily; the run time time therefore could have been extended by 15-20 mins to allow for a more complicated and dramatic final conflict. But all that said Kung Fu Panda 4 was pleasant and showed little signs of the franchise stopping any time soon.
