Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024)

[Eric Duncan]

Skadoosh!

[Minnale101]

I saw it at 2pm, with like 4 people in the showing hahah

 

I liked it though, ending was beautiful, I love tai lung redemption but idk if I like Shen redemption, that mf was genocider

 

also seeing furious 5 at the ending 🥲

[filmlover]

Beautifully animated and Jack Black remains as delightful as ever as Po (and connects well with Awkwafina, a solid addition), but more mechanical than the previous entries in the series were.

 

Will say the biggest chuckle I had was from the rather high number of characters from the earlier movies that appear in this in non-speaking roles.

 

B-

[KP1025]

1 minute ago, filmlover said:

Beautifully animated and Jack Black remains as delightful as ever as Po (and connects well with Awkwafina, a solid addition), but more mechanical than the previous entries in the series were.

 

Will say the biggest chuckle I had was from the rather high number of characters from the earlier movies that appear in this in non-speaking roles.

 

B-

 

Speaking of Awkwafina, this is the 7th time she's voiced a talking animal in a film and 3rd year in a row doing it for Universal. She has one more animal voice role this year as Octocat in IF. 

[cannastop]

I thought it was kind of dumb how Zhen switched sides for like one scene and then turned back to Po's side again 

[Morieris]

Where was the Furious Five?

[filmlover]

2 minutes ago, Morieris said:

Where was the Furious Five?

Off on their own adventures the entire movie, before returning for the mid-credits scene (where they have no dialogue).

[Minnale101]

16 minutes ago, Morieris said:

Where was the Furious Five?

They return to dojo and appear when Jack black sings hit me baby one more time in credits and they all do fancy moves of kung fu 

 

with kung fu panda 5 being next, only right for them to be back as furious 5

[YM!]

 

 

This explains a lot of the problems I had with KFP4, and apparently Universal has a runtime mandate for their animated films. I hope Stephanie Ma Stone gets more work and more chance to shine. She worked great in She-Ra and seemingly was one of the people to put in the work according to her Q&A. Got no beef against the director as I did love Lego 2 and liked Shrek 4, and more so blame Universal top brass.

Edited March 11 by YM!

[Minnale101]

9 minutes ago, YM! said:

 

 

This explains a lot of the problems I had with KFP4, and apparently Universal has a runtime mandate for their animated films. I hope Stephanie Ma Stone gets more work and more chance to shine. She worked great in She-Ra and seemingly was one of the people to put in the work according to her Q&A. Got no beef against the director as I did love Lego 2 and liked Shrek 4, and more so blame Universal top brass.

Angelina charges 20 million for few lines? The hell lol

 

i don’t think jack black charges that and he’s entire movie 

[YM!]

19 minutes ago, Minnale101 said:

Angelina charges 20 million for few lines? The hell lol

 

i don’t think jack black charges that and he’s entire movie 

Stine even thinks it's hyperbole herself:

“As I said, I was one of the people who was very vocal about bringing back the Furious 5. But once our producers let me know that “one line from Angelina Jolie would cost us $20 million” (I’m not sure if that was hyperbole or not), I backed down. The movie would have to make like $2 billion box office for us to see a profit. Movies are the worst business venture ever (there’s no way to predict a hit, except during the first phase of Marvel—and even that waned, didn’t it?)”

 

There's the whole transcript on the interview below:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Zry17kF5KTGVvvWsaYPplu8M3VmZkkWDcfUrJ3y0oc0/edit

[Minnale101]

21 minutes ago, YM! said:

Stine even thinks it's hyperbole herself:

“As I said, I was one of the people who was very vocal about bringing back the Furious 5. But once our producers let me know that “one line from Angelina Jolie would cost us $20 million” (I’m not sure if that was hyperbole or not), I backed down. The movie would have to make like $2 billion box office for us to see a profit. Movies are the worst business venture ever (there’s no way to predict a hit, except during the first phase of Marvel—and even that waned, didn’t it?)”

 

There's the whole transcript on the interview below:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Zry17kF5KTGVvvWsaYPplu8M3VmZkkWDcfUrJ3y0oc0/edit

Mike Mitchell seems like such a hack, shrek 3 was bad 

 

he doesn’t know why shrek or kung fu panda were so successful 

 

he got Luxary of people having good will for franchises and will watch

[Morieris]

Quote

For the record, Stephanie wanted for KFP4 to "stay truer to KFP1 and KFP 2" but was dismissed as a nobody by the crew.

 

....Well why the hell not. What was everyone else aiming for at this rate?

[YM!]

59 minutes ago, Morieris said:

 

....Well why the hell not. What was everyone else aiming for at this rate?

“A Kung Fu Panda film with total creative freedom? Haha. That depends on the director. KFP4 is what you get with a director who had total creative freedom

Kung Fu Panda 2 is what you get when Jen Yuh Nelson had near total creative freedom” - What Stephanie Ma Stine said in the interview also Mitchell had more power because he produced the franchise too and wanted a more comedic focused vibe which makes sense given his resume. However, she doesn't have any vitriol towards him and just cited they had different creative visions.

Edited March 11 by YM!

[fabiopazzo2]

a banal and predictable film. very similar to Wish
 

C

[Morieris]

So I finally saw this.

 

I have never felt the mantra of "hire actual voice actors" more strongly than I did listening to this. I don't think Ke Huy and Viola are bad actors, but they are not voice actors and it really stands out.

 

I'm torn between calling Akwafina one, just because you're in x amt of animated movies doesn't mean you've got the training, and it sure doesn't seem like she's had training.

 

It feels like they really lost what made these movies special. These weren't the pinnacle of "Eastern Philosophy" movies, but it's like the jokes here are a little too contemporary. I felt that way with the fight scenes too, it felt like there was a lot less martial arts moves and styles and more slapstick fighting.

 

The clearest example I can make are the credits in 1 and the credits here; 1 uses at least the same artstyle that ties into the movie at various points, flat, with a cover of "Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting" (which yeah, not a Chinese song in the least).

 

Here it's just a clipshow of the same CGI we've been seeing for the past hour with a rock cover of a pop song from the West.

 

The first 20 minutes or so were kind of odd, so many of the jokes were callbacks to 3 minutes ago.

It got a few loud laughs out of me.

It looks nice, that's kind of the nicest thing I can say - oh, and I think I'll rewatch the first one instead.

Edited April 10 by Morieris

[efialtes76]

On 3/11/2024 at 2:17 PM, Minnale101 said:

Mike Mitchell seems like such a hack, shrek 3 was bad 

 

he doesn’t know why shrek or kung fu panda were so successful 

 

he got Luxary of people having good will for franchises and will watch

Shrek the Third was directed for Chris Miller.

[ingridguerci94]

Super disappointed. Tai Lung was completely out of character and had no arc or redemption. Tai lung is on the cover art and all the trailers but does absolutely nothing in the film. Pure nostalgia bait. 
 

Shen and Kai would never bow to Po. They brought back all the villains and did nothing with them. Huge wasted opportunity. 

It's a bit too convenient that Zhen becomes good-hearted enough to become the dragon warrior after a lifetime of crime.
 

I didn't mind the furious 5 not being a part of the movie but the plot needed to be excellent to make up for it and it wasn't.
 

The positives for me were the beautiful environments and details of Chinese culture. Ping's message to Po about change was well done. Fight scenes were great although short. 
 

I watched all the movies multiple times over and loved them all but I wouldn't revisit this one.