‘Kung Fu Panda 4’ Review: What Has Po Gotten Himself Into This Time?

March 7, 2024

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Skadoosh Skadoosh Skadoosh Skadoosh (CREDIT: DreamWorks Animation)

Starring: Jack Black, Awkwafina, Dustin Hoffman, James Hong, Bryan Cranston, Ian McShane, Ke Huy Quan, Lori Tan Chinn, Ronny Chieng

Director: Mike Mitchell

Running Time: 94 Minutes

Rating: PG for Typical Cartoon Mayhem

Release Date: March 8, 2024 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: Giant panda Po’s (Jack Black) status as the Dragon Warrior has always been met with skepticism by some of the other talking animals around him. But now he’s actually expected to retire and find a successor, as he settles into a role as more of a local wise man. That feels like even less of a natural fit for this rotund goofball, but luckily Kung Fu Panda 4 is more interested in sending him on one last great adventure. A shapeshifting reptile known as The Chameleon (Viola Davis) is stealing all the kung fu masters’ powers, so Po teams up with streetwise fox Zhen (Awkwafina) for what might be his most dangerous mission yet. Fortunately (or annoyingly), his biological dad (Bryan Cranston) and his adoptive goose dad (James Hong) are sneakily following right behind to make sure nothing too deadly happens to their boy.

What Made an Impression?: Locating the Lore: Before this fourth cinematic outing, I’d only ever seen the first Kung Fu Panda. I was hoping to catch up with 2 and 3, but alas, I didn’t get around to it. I wasn’t too worried about those shortcomings, though, because this series isn’t exactly beholden to impenetrably dense mythology the way that less kid-friendly franchises often are. Still, in addition to the big screen sequels, it has spawned multiple TV spin-offs that add up to more than a hundred total episodes. So while I didn’t exactly feel lost in the Kung Fu Panda lore, I did get the sense that there have probably been more fulfilling adventures in Po and Co.’s pasts. Jack Black is infinitely charming (and he delivers a killer cover of a certain late 90s pop hit during the end credits), but my mind drifted to all sorts of other topics while I watched KFP4.
Rolling Around: So while KFP4 didn’t exactly make me immediately seek out my own martial arts training, at least the animation is reliably colorful and engaging. It makes solid use of the geography, with Po and his cohorts rolling around and causing mayhem on cobbled streets and imposing castles. And there are some solid visual gags dispersed throughout, including a riff on that old saying about bulls in a china shop, as well as a moment with Po summoning his (multiple) inner voice(s). They didn’t exactly release my inner child, but they were worth a few chuckles.
Who’s That Voice?: My mental energy during this viewing was mostly spent on trying to identify the actor behind Po’s dad Li Shan. I was pretty sure I knew him primarily as a sitcom dad. And while that did turn out to be accurate, it’s been nearly two decades since that was his signature gig. Meanwhile, my viewing companion confessed that it took her nearly the entire running time to pinpoint Viola Davis’ inimitable purr as the voice of the big baddie. Honestly, film culture doesn’t talk often enough about the great joy of trying to identify voiceover performances without looking at the credits. We should rectify that.

Kung Fu Panda 4 is Recommended If You Like: The underdog (or the underpanda, as it were) remaining the underdog forever

Grade: 2.5 out of 5 Skadooshes

‘M3GAN’ Captures What It Means to Be Both a Robot and a Human in 2023

January 4, 2023

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews , , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

In another scene, M3GAN reminds Cady to flush the toilet! (CREDIT: Universal Pictures)

Starring: Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Amie Donald, Jenna Davis, Ronny Chieng, Brian Jordan Alvarez, Jen Van Epps, Stephane Garneau-Monten, Lori Dungey

Director: Gerard Johnstone

Running Time: 102 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for Horrifying Demises That Cut Away Before the Goriest Parts

Release Date: January 6, 2023 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: Roboticist Gemma (Allison Williams) becomes the guardian to her young niece Cady (Violet McGraw) after her sister and brother-in-law die in a violent accident. But at the same time, she’s facing a deadline for a major project that could make or break her entire career. Isn’t that just how it always  goes?! 😛 But as it turns out, maybe she can take care of everything in one fell swoop by completing her passion project: the Model 3 Generative Android, aka “M3GAN” (Amie Donald, with Jenna Davis providing the voice). She’s a lifelike talking doll with a titanium foundation and artificial intelligence-fueled learning abilities. She imprints onto Cady and thereby becomes a best friend, surrogate parent, and sworn protector. Initially, she proves to be a wonderfully therapeutic tool for a grieving child, but when it becomes clear that M3GAN’s interpretation of her duties has no ethical bounds, well, then, you’d better watch out.

What Made an Impression?: M3GAN delivers a whirlwind of emotions. It kicks off with a commercial for a line of Furby-esque talking animal toys called Purrpetual Pets that feels like it was plucked from the Cinco company of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! Which is to say, it was designed for the most demented consumer market imaginable. But the entirety of the movie doesn’t operate on quite that same bizarro logic. At least not entirely. To clarify: just about every scene features a thrilling tonal mix. I constantly found myself switching between cracking up, choking up, and tightening up for fight-or-flight mode within the span of just one minute.

Take, for example, the scene in which Gemma and her colleagues make the big pitch about M3GAN’s capabilities to the company bigwigs. The presentation immediately goes off the rails when Cady, who’s too upset to stick to the script, breaks down after she’s suddenly hit by the grief of losing her parents that she’s yet to fully process. Everyone steels themselves for a disaster, but M3GAN is a master improviser, so she coaxes a supremely silly story out of Cady about a time that her mom found a cockroach in her school bag. This goofy bonding proves to be exactly what Cady needed in the moment to work through her trauma, and then M3GAN caps it all off with a stunning singing performance, and everyone in the room is blown away by the revolution they’ve just witnessed.

Of course, this being a horror movie and all, M3GAN’s methods for looking after Cady quickly turn much more sinister. And while the scares are effective, they arrive in a much different fashion than you might expect. MEGAN‘s most obvious antecedents are creepy doll franchises like Child’s Play and Annabelle that stare deep into the bowels of the uncanny valley. But M3GAN is more concerned with the unchecked power of artificial intelligence and robotic technology. Essentially, this is The Terminator updated for an era grappling with AI voice assistants that know everything about us, AI portraits that rival the work of human painters, and AI chatbots that can write sophisticated newspaper articles. Every generation activates Skynet in its own particular way, and we are so lucky that the warning postulated by M3GAN allows us to experience the full spectrum of what it means to be alive and human.

MEGAN is Recommended If You Like: The Terminator, AI-generated art, The “Aerodynamics of Gender” episode of Community, The Wikibear sketches from Conan

Grade: 4.5 out of 5 Roasted Chestnuts