THE FUR FIST WAY

KUNG FU PANDA 4 | Dragon Warrior Po heads to the big city, and faces a shape-shifting new threat in the kung-fu-fourquel.

@JORDANFARLEY

1 PANDA EXPRESS

‘It’s been a while since the last Kung Fu Panda movie,’ director Mike Mitchell tells Teasers – eight years to be exact. ‘And that’s because we wanted to make the best sequel of all time.’ Now that’s fighting talk. The fourth mainline Kung Fu Panda movie has heavyweight competition if it wants to emerge victorious in the battle for best-sequelevs, not least from Kung Fu Panda 3, which brought the story of dumplingdevouring Dragon Warrior Po to a conclusion of sorts in 2016.

‘When we made 3, we were like, “Wow, we’ve really wrapped it up.” We patted ourselves on the back,’ smiles Mitchell, while talking to TF over Zoom from DreamWorks HQ in LA. ‘But there was such a hunger to see this character again.’

For anyone in need of a recap, KFP3 saw Po (Jack Black) graduate to Grand Master, and bestowed with the Staff of Wisdom after unlocking the door to the Spirit Realm. But what comes next? ‘Po doesn’t want to do anything else. He loves kicking butt and taking names. That’s his thing,’ notes Mitchell. Instead of embracing the natural next step – taking Oogway’s place as the spiritual leader of the Valley of Peace – Po embarks on ‘one last battle’ before evolving into something new.

‘He learns, like we all do, “We’re not giving up anything. We’re just becoming something more than we already are,”’ Mitchell explains. ‘It’s a great lesson for kids and adults. You can’t just [make another movie] because people want it. We really wanted the movie to say something, and to mean something.’

2 FOX FORCE

In his latest quest to kick butt, Po meets travel buddy Zhen (Awkwafina), a Corsac grey fox who eventually becomes a protegé, and potential new Dragon Warrior. Initially, however, they’re less yin and yang than chalk and cheese. ‘She’s a thief and a wanted criminal from the big city,’ Mitchell says. ‘We figured that she would be very fast and wily and, of course, a fox is a very wellknown animal in Chinese culture.’

While Po is typically the joker in the pack, particularly in the company of Shifu (Dustin Hoffman), the freespirited fighter finds himself on the back foot with Zhen. ‘We thought we’d give Po a little bit of frustration. He’s never met someone that’s such a smart alec and so dismissive of kung fu. So there’s still that contrast, but we’ve flipped it a bit.’

3 TAKING SHAPE

In previous films Po has fought fearsome snow leopards, power-hungry peacocks and spirit warrior yaks, but The Chameleon is something very different. ‘He’s never faced a female villain,’ points out Mitchell. As revealed by the film’s recent trailer, The Chameleon will be voiced by Academy Award-winner Viola Davis. ‘There’s been no villain with such supernatural talent and skills. She’s more of a witch… a shapeshifting sorceress with the ability to transform into any animal she’s met.’

The Chameleon can even perfectly mimic voices, leaving the door open for the return of major villains from past Kung Fu Panda movies, including Ian McShane’s Tai Lung. ‘For me, out of all the DreamWorks movies, that’s my favourite villain,’ Mitchell nods. ‘We made sure that we had the perfect reason to bring him back. Ian McShane kind of is Tai Lung. He’s very sure of himself.’

4 STREETS OF RAGE

Kung Fu Panda 4 will take Po out of the Valley of Peace and to the more urbanised environs of Juniper City. ‘It’s a fantasy, Chinese version of Times Square and New York,’ Mitchell says. To capitalise on their showstopping new location, Mitchell and his team orchestrated some of the series’ most vertiginous fights to date. ‘We’re not just fighting on the streets, but the rooftops,’ the director grins. ‘Our production designer, Paul Duncan, built these beautiful rooftops, because we thought, “We’re a kung fu movie. Let’s have them run over the rooftops, as they often do in movies like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” We even go underneath the city – we call it the den of thieves. Down in the sewer, there’s a whole city of thieves that live there. In this movie, we take advantage of all three of those levels.’

5 KITE CLUB

Mitchell highlights two key strengths that are crucial to the series’ enduring appeal: Jack Black’s endearing performance as Po, and the acrobatic ‘kung fu panda action’. When it came to the latter, Mitchell drew on some notable influences for the fourth entry. ‘I love Stephen Chow movies,’ the director says. ‘He’s got this great Bugs Bunny energy to all his kung fu moves, and that’s what we do, too.’ In the eight years since KFP3 technology has leaped forward, both in terms of animation tools and cameras used to capture live-action kung fu movies. ‘We were like: “We’re an animated film. We can move the camera anywhere and really play with gravity.” That’s how we elevated [the action]. We’re taking all of the technology that’s been created, even for live-action kung fu films, and we’re pulling it into animation, which was a lot of fun.’

6 STING IN THE TALE

In a seaside kelp village run by pigs (naturally), Po discovers that the porcine farmers have been tormented by deadly stingrays possessed by demons. ‘Po tries to be polite to the stingray, but it turns into a big battle. He’s got to save lives,’ Mitchell says with a chuckle. ‘In past movies we didn’t explore aquatic creatures too much. Our challenge for Kung Fu Panda 4 was: “Let’s see those creatures in action.”’

Kung Fu Panda 4 will also be the latest beneficiary of the post-Spider-Verse push for more experimental imagery in mainstream American animation. ‘We had our cake and ate it,’ Mitchell explains. ‘This is one of the fuzziest and furriest of DreamWorks movies and, at the same time, we did take a page from Spider-Verse. When a fight happens we have a face-off moment where we do a swipe – almost like an inkbrush paint – in the background. And we really went to town with the spirit realm, and this transforming Chameleon. But all in the film language of an ancient China fantasy animal world, which is already crazy.’