Kung Fu Panda 4 was disappointing; The plot was extremely one-dimensional and overall just meh. It starts with Master Shifu telling Po that there needs to be a new dragon warrior. It doesn’t say much about why and if it’s really necessary. The movie then introduces a new character named Zhen, a fox who grew up on the wrong side of the tracks and is a thief. Zhen’s character felt very basic and plain with the classic ex-bad guy turning good character arc. Po is also trying to figure out who he is and be spiritual within himself, but he had no real character development and almost felt like he wasn’t needed in the movie anymore as he felt more like a background character. The chameleon could have been a better villain, but the concept of her being able to shape-shift was interesting.

In the end, the chameleon was confusing as her motive was solely due to her being upset she was too small to be a Kung Fu master. Rebecca Hernandez says “How is it that Mantis and Viper are smaller than her but she felt the need to have ‘revenge’ because they said she wasn’t good enough.” It was cool seeing the past villains, but they felt so dull and like background characters that seemed out of place. Mark Magno agrees by saying “The villains were sympathetic at the end [but] they had none of their actual personalities.” The humor aspect in the movie also felt very forced a lot of the time. Kyle Hoang states something similar and says “I thought the jokes were unfunny and they tried hard at being funny but it was just really cheesy.” Although the movie is called Kung Fu Panda, it was also disappointing since we didn’t see the Furious 5 at all except during the 15-second at the end. Overall the movie lacked a lot and couldn’t compare to the other movies as the only thing that carried it was the nostalgia, animation, and soundtrack.