It’s been 8 years since the last Kung Fu Panda movie was released. The Kung Fu Panda franchise is known by many to have a strong humorous attribute, Chinese cultural references, and heartfelt story themes. In Kung Fu Panda 3, for example, Po (the protagonist of the Kung Fu Panda franchise) reunites with his biological father and meets his panda family in the mountains while the village he was raised in is attacked by jade zombies. There is a major and intriguing conflict in this movie; as Po’s father wants to maintain Po’s safety by keeping him in the mountains with the other pandas after having been separated from him for decades, but the dragon warrior Po has a sense of obligation to return to the village and protect others from the jade zombies. This is a relatively strong plot, yet KFP3 was actually considered the weakest movie by most Kung Fu Panda fans out of all of the main Kung Fu Panda movies up until KFP4. Truly a testament to the quality of the first two Kung Fu Panda movies.
So… what is going on with the latest installment to the Kung Fu Panda franchise? What initially stood out the most was how seemingly empty the plot felt. Things were happening, yet there wasn’t any core compelling conflict or even concept that really held things together. Each story beat seemed to be an individual incident with no overarching theme building up behind it. Many jokes in KFP4 depended on repetition for humor, and so the funny aspect of the jokes dried out quickly. The only part of the movie’s writing that seemed to be high-quality was the development of the relationship between Po’s adoptive father and his biological father. At least in this arc there is an immediate conflict (both feel ‘entitled’ to being a father figure to Po) that develops, and ultimately gets resolved (the two start working together and actually stop their constant fighting by the end of the movie). This is more structured and thought out than the main plot of KFP4, in which Po goes searching for the chameleon upon hearing that she is dangerous. In his journey he visits a tavern, goes on a boat, visits a city (in which there is a chase scene with an amazing soundtrack), meets some scary rabbits, then goes onto the final fight against the chameleon. The events are connected in that they are all progressing in physical location from further to closer to the chameleon, but Po’s experiences in each location do not really cumulate into anything and are all essentially isolated incidences. The movie’s structure practically resembles scrolling through YouTube shorts (or other similar short video entertainment) as in both cases you rapidly see a stream of unrelated and mildly amusing events that spark little to no ‘original’ thoughts (though technically no thoughts are purely original) in your mind.
A major criticism of the film among its critics online is the lack of development for the antagonist. The chameleon is the main antagonist of the film, she has a shape-shifting ability and wishes to use it to emulate kung fu masters after gaining access to the spirit realm. Her motivation throughout this movie is that she was turned down by kung fu teachers because she was too small, so she wants to take the kung fu skills of masters in order to finally learn the art. What most people immediately identified as not making sense here is that viper and mantis, two members of the Furious Five, are tiny just like her, yet they did not encounter this obstacle.
Something I really don’t understand about the chameleon is why she is locked away in the spirit realm as a result of her actions. Po is told at the beginning of the movie that he must choose a successor. If the chameleon’s only goal was to learn kung fu, and she has gained the ability of all kung fu masters, is she not the ideal candidate for the dragon warrior? Who could possibly surpass her abilities in kung fu after she has the abilities of all the best masters from the spirit realm? Why do they even need to banish her? What is her motivation for the fight at the very end if her only established motivation was to learn kung fu?
To continue one of my earlier criticisms, Kung Fu Panda 4 was made with the intent of being a lighthearted and fun movie, which could possibly explain its incoherentness and lack of proper plot. While I do feel very much inclined to say that the movie is good enough for light entertainment for kids (it was a generally well-received film), the lack of any deep themes or pivotal scenes is really disappointing. With short videos becoming more and more popular among young people, it seems that entertainment targeted towards youth now requires less depth.
While it serves its purpose of entertainment and nostalgia, it is not unreasonable to say that the film would not have done as well as it did without its attachment to the Kung Fu Panda franchise. So what do you think? Is this a classic case of a subpar movie from an established franchise just for the sake of money, is this a reflection of what entertainment has become for most people post-pandemic, or perhaps has this phenomenon been caused by something else?
On a separate note, about shapeshifting: it appears that when the chameleon shape shifts, she not only changes her physical form but also manages to change the clothes she is wearing. For example, she wears a kind of cloak-looking garment as the chameleon, but upon becoming Tai Lung she has his signature purple pants. I came up with two theories to explain this phenomenon, the first being that the chameleon does not actually wear the clothes but instead alters her outer form to have the appearance of clothes. So, for example, when the chameleon became Tai Lung, both the fur and the pants can be thought of as her ‘skin’ in different forms. For further understanding of this theory, right beneath the pants would just be muscle, tendon, bones, and other things found in the insides of an animal’s body, as what looks like the ‘pants’ is essentially the skin. What this also implies is that the ‘default’ form of the chameleon in which she is wearing some kind of robes and some kind of gold headpiece is also just her literal skin being manipulated into cloth-like shapes, meaning for the entirety of this movie the chameleon has been fully naked. I guess this shouldn’t be too strange given that she is a chameleon and chameleons generally don’t wear clothes. However, all the other animals in the KFP universe tend to be at least half-clothed at all times, and the fact that the chameleon feels the need to emulate clothes in her shapeshifting kind of proves the point that she has some social incentive to be wearing clothes (I can only imagine it is a social reason because trying to create cloth on your body would probably make you less aerodynamic and therefore hinder your kung fu abilities).
