This is a quick summary and breakdown of my thoughts on the newest Kung Fu Panda film. To find my entire breakdown and essay on the film, check out my “Full Essay” article.
Plot Summary
The film follows as Po is met with his newest personal challenge; having to hand the role of Dragon Warrior to another person, as Po is now destined to become Spiritual Leader of the valley. Po however does not find interest in this new destiny, and when he hears word that a new evil force, The Chameleon, is rising to take over China, he teams up with crafty and mischievous fox-thief, Zhen, and sets off to put an end to her dark plans.
The movie ends with Po and Zhen defeating the Chameleon, and earning the respect of all his past enemies who were dragged out of the spirit realm and back into the real world as the Chameleon sought to absorb all their power. Po hands the role of Dragon Warrior over to Zhen as he looks to become Spiritual Leader.
The Breakdown
This film seriously lacks stakes and meaningful drama when compared to its three predecessors, which is a huge shame considering Dreamworks just released their absolutely terrific film, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, just in late 2022. The hope among many fans was that the new Kung Fu Panda film would have access to the same brilliant team of writers and stylistic animators that Puss had, but unfortunately, that was not the case. Kung Fu Panda is notorious for its spiritual morals and stories, deep villains, and development of Po’s character. This film however checked none of these boxes off, shocking many hard-core Kung Fu Panda fans including myself.
Po doesn’t come off as interesting or even one you care to sympathize for unlike his past appearances in his films, specifically in the first and second where he is clearly the underdog. We barely see him face any hardship in this film, and his internal struggles, such as needing to become the next spiritual leader, are simply shrugged off with goofy gags and no serious weight. Even at the end of the story, I felt no sort of interest in him handing off the role of Dragon Warrior to Zhen.
Speaking of Zhen, although she could have been written a lot worse, she was certainly no interesting or compelling character. First making her intro by being snarky and sarcastic to fan-favorite Po, she doesn’t ever really calm her hyper attitude down, all except near the end where she calls Po a good guy, and of course eventually joins his side even against her master, Chameleon. However, I was in no way invested in her even after we learned she was an orphan because she just kinda blurts it out as one point and we learn the full story. If there was an overarching plot where we see she really struggles with that fact, but maybe Po comforts her, sharing his personal as he came to terms with being an orphan (although kinda irrelevant now that he has both of his dads in his life), we’d be able to see Po shine as a character and see him pour wisdom into Zhen. However, no sort of meaningful character development occurred between the two, making Po’s passing of the torch lackluster.
My biggest issue with the film resides in the fact of how terribly the previous villains were shoehorned into this film. I go very deeply into how their lackluster cameos annoy me in my ‘Full Essay”, but in short, having Tai-Lung hunger his whole life for the role of Dragon Warrior, only to respect Po by the end of the story because he and his friend Zhen defeated some mid-power level villain (Chameleon) with one magic move using the Pole of Wisdom is absolutely ridiculous. Seeing Tai-Lung, Shen, and Kai all approach Po with menacing looks, only for Lung to speak on behalf of all of them saying they respect him now is a baffling and terrible move writing-wise. It completely destroys the past beef each villain has had with Po, and their reasons for hating him, for a boring, child-friendly plot resolution.
Not even letting Shen and Kai have voice lines in the film is sickening considering Dreamworks even dared bring their faces back on screen. Tai-Lung considerably could have had a story arc where he comes to respect Po, but the way it came about was shoehorned, lazy, and baffling; I couldn’t believe THE Tai-Lung just forgave and moved on that easily without any sort of major development. Shen could have at least mentioned how he learned from Po his teachings were right, and that you can move on in life, and as for Kai he could… Wait, wasn’t Kai DESTROYED in the spirit realm in the last movie? Why is he even here?! See, none of this makes sense, and that’s why the entire execution of bringing “back” these iconic villains was executed horrendously.
Side Notes:
Some strong suits of the film included the bright and vibrant animation, the inclusion of Mr. Ping and Li Shan as side characters on their own adventure, (which I found to be the most charming and cute part of the film, with both of their antics being very funny and endearing, and the film giving us more screen time of both of these ‘dads’ together) and the Fish that hung around in the Pelican’s mouth, that was actually pretty creative.
Some not-so-strong suits include the lazy dialogue, shoe-horned villains, terrible reasoning for Chameleon’s motivation to be evil, boring stakes and plot, no internal conflict, and completely throwing aside the Furious Five.
Conclusion:
Combining everything I’ve said here, and in my Full-Essay review, I have to rank this film a 2.9 out of 5. The major issue is it simply pales in comparison to the trilogy, where this film makes the third one look terrific. It’s an unfortunate time to be a fan of the Kung Fu Panda lineup, but this was for some reason Dreamwork’s “next big step” with the series as they supposedly plan to make more films in the series, according to the co-director. However, it certainly was not the worst film I ever watched, and I suppose the younger audience will get a nice laugh out of it alongside their thankful parents there was a children’s movie in theatres. This film just targeted a completely different audience I suppose, and yet, I will very likely still be watching whatever piece of media the Kung Fu Panda franchise decides to release next. Anyways check out this really cool custom poster I found for Kung Fu Panda 1, aka peak!!
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-Caleb Gunn, Writer, Actor, Artist, and ‘Self-Proclaimed’ Celebrity
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