Jack Black is back for Kung Fu Panda 4 and this time joined by Viola Davis and Awkwafina in this next chapter all about change.
After Po is tapped to become the Spiritual Leader of the Valley of Peace, he needs to find and train a new Dragon Warrior, while a wicked sorceress plans to re-summon all the master villains whom Po has vanquished to the spirit realm.
We talked with director Mike Mitchell about the themes and new characters in this family favorite franchise.
Interviewed for Family Entourage
Family Entourage: So my family is huge fans of the Kung Fu Panda franchise, and my nine-year-old son said that this one is actually his favorite.
Mike Mitchell: Yes, kudos. Woo. We now tell him to go to school and tell all of his friends to go see an opening weekend.
FE: Talk to me because this time around we meet a couple new characters, which is really fun too, with Zhen and the Chameleon.
MM: First we made sure that we brought as many of the old characters back that we could Mr. Ping and Lee his dads, which was so fun. But yeah, thankfully Awkwafina agreed to be in our film and we created this gray corsac, Chinese Fox, and it was neat because Awkwafina and Jack Black are buddies in real life and it kind of informed, it made it easy for them to kind of play off each other and be buddies. And we kind of let that inform our storytelling. And then with Viola Davis when she signed on, it was really cool. I just saw this film, we just had the premiere yesterday, and it was the first time I was able to watch the film without having to work on it. I didn’t have a job. I could really just sit there with my popcorn and watch everyone else. And I noticed that her voice was so great with that design matched up so well. And then with the Han Zimmer score was so creepy and I was like, wow, that’s a great villain. And that’s one of the things that I think is the best thing about this franchise. One of the best things is it has the best villains. They create such good villains in these Kung Fu Panda movies. So I was happy that I feel that we created a really good villain.
FE: I love that they also have so many great themes and this one is all about change. And I love the line where it was like, sometimes it’s easier to hold onto the life you know rather than move on to a life that you don’t type of a thing. Talk to me a little bit about…
MM: Change. It probably took a while to get to the screen. We work really, I didn’t want to just make another film. We wanted to be able to tell a really good story and a lot of good storytelling for these animated films. Even though they look like cartoon characters that are singing or dancing or doing epic kung fu, we really like to have a theme that’s not in your face, but something that elevates the story and that people can get a lot out of. And not just kids, adults as well. So when we came up with change, we figured it was something that kids go from grade school to junior high to high school and there’s a lot of anxiety that goes with that, a lot of fear that goes with change.
And same with adults. Even us going from one job to another job or moving locations can be very stressful. And we thought it was very relatable and we’re hopeful that when Po learns this story that maybe our audience can learn the same story that when you change, it’s not leaving anything behind. You’re just becoming more than what you already are. And maybe you’re becoming someone even better than you already were. And so our goal is to have people less anxiety out there in the world. There’s so much fear and so much anxiety. So maybe with this, if we can embrace change with open arms, it’s a good thing
FE: Yeah. I love how all of the characters are fully fleshed out. We see Po’s dad kind of stepping into bravery and you see there’s some fun tricks and turns that others might not see coming, which was super fun too.
MM: I’ll tell you another sub theme that I think is interesting when people go see this with their families and discuss it later. Po is a black and white panda. So we figured he sees everything in black and white. There’s heroes, and there’s villains. And Zhen is kind of this gray corsac fox, she’s kind of shades of gray. She’s kind of a villain. She’s a friend. She’s helping Po take down the villain, but she’s also a thief and she hangs out with criminals. So that tapped into our theme of one, judging a book by its cover, but also Po is like having faith that she can change. He’s growing to try to have an open mind that maybe Zhen can change and become a good person. And I thought that was, we like that for this current kind of internet world that we live in where people want to point like, you’re bad and you’re good, and you’re good and you’re bad. That maybe we’re all imperfect and maybe there’s shades of gray and we should be a little open-minded. Right? So that was another little sub theme that we crammed in there to change.
FE: I love that it’s reinforced even with the color palette. We’re all works in progress, so thank you so much for taking the time today and I cannot wait for audiences to go see this movie.
Kung Fu Panda 4 hits theatres March 8
REVIEW: Full disclosure we are big fans of the Kung Fu Panda franchise. When the family sat down to watch this we had high expectations and the movie delivered. Both my kids said it was their favorite film yet. The introduction of new characters while transitioning out the originals worked well especially since Jack Black continued to voice Po and the additions were familiar voices from Awkwafina and Viola Davis.
