‘Kung Fu Panda 4’ review: Fourth time’s the charm in excellent sequel

Movie review

Lovers of the big-screen movie experience, rejoice! In the past week we’ve been gifted with two — count ‘em, two — pictures of breathtaking visual opulence. One, of course, is “Dune: Part Two,” currently playing in all its sandwormy splendor at multiplexes just about everywhere. The other is, unexpectedly, “Kung Fu Panda 4.”

“Huh!” you might say. A kiddie cartoon about a pudgy protagonist voiced by an especially excitable Jack Black? 

Believe it.

Visual splendor is where you find it, and you’ll find plenty of it here. Gloriously colorful landscapes, bustling cityscapes, deep-focus interiors, all on view, demanding to be seen on the biggest screens one can find. As is the case with “Dune,” tiny phones and laptops can’t begin to do justice to what the filmmakers have conjured up. Leave the house, pay the parking, buy the popcorn, settle in and enjoy what movies at their best are truly all about.

The fourth time is truly the charm in this long-running franchise. For its first return in eight years, directors Mike Mitchell and Stephanie Stine, a trio of credited screenwriters and a vast army of technical specialists have recalibrated the “Panda” format. They’ve reassigned Po’s martial arts compatriots, the Furious Five (Tigress, Monkey, Mantis, Crane and Viper), to off-screen duties, briefly acknowledging their absence early in the movie. In their place, they’ve brought aboard a fox named Zhen. It’s a good trade because said fox is voiced by the inimitable Awkwafina. 

Note to Hollywood: Cast her in every animated movie henceforth. She’s one of the best features in a smallish role in “Migration” and she’s an artful scene-stealer in “Panda 4.” Credit writers Jonathan Aibel, Glenn Berger and Darren Lemke with her clever, snappy dialogue. Credit Awkwafina with her quick-lipped, humor-laden delivery.

The character is a light-fingered thief who badgers, bothers and bewilders Po as the two of them venture forth to match wits and martial arts skills with a shape-shifting lizard villainess impressively, menacingly, voiced by the redoubtable Viola Davis. The character’s split-second transformations are masterpieces of the animators’ skills.

From the genial, gluttonous doofus he played in the original “Kung Fu Panda” in 2008, Po has gradually graduated to more significant duties over the course of the movies, a battler for justice and a popular leader of critters in his home valley. Now his mentor-master, the red panda Master Shifu (again voiced by Dustin Hoffman), demands Po take the next step and become the Spiritual Leader in the Valley of Peace. That’s not for him, he tells his master. He’s a more grounded, gluttonous kind of guy. This, as usual, induces heartburn in the mentor. It’s a conflicted relationship.

Before he can graduate to the higher spiritual plane, Po has to recruit a replacement. Finagling her way into contention is Zhen. 

Prodded by Shifu, paired with Zhen, propelled cross-country to a city of sinful types (beware the teeny bunnies with bad attitudes and fearsome fangs), Po goes forth, battling often in impressively choreographed fight scenes. Armed with his unreliable wits, his pluck and his personal magic word, “Skadoosh!,” he takes on a variety of challenges in this funny, fast-paced picture. 

“Skadoosh!” indeed.