This spring, for the first time in almost a decade, comedy icon Jack Black returns to his role as Po, the world’s most unlikely kung fu master, with a hilarious, butt-kicking new chapter in DreamWorks Animation’s beloved action-comedy franchise: Kung Fu Panda 4.
After three death-defying adventures defeating world-class villains with his unmatched courage and mad martial arts skills, Po, the Dragon Warrior (Golden Globe nominee Jack Black), is called upon by destiny to … give it a rest already. More specifically, he’s tapped to become the Spiritual Leader of the Valley of Peace. That poses a couple of obvious problems. First, Po knows as much about spiritual leadership as he does about the paleo diet, and second, he needs to quickly find and train a new Dragon Warrior before he can assume his new lofty position.
Even worse, there’s been a recent sighting of a wicked, powerful sorceress, Chameleon (Oscar® winner Viola Davis), a tiny lizard who can shapeshift into any creature, large or small. And Chameleon has her greedy, beady little eyes on Po’s Staff of Wisdom, which would give her the power to re-summon all the master villains whom Po has vanquished to the spirit realm. So, Po’s going to need some help. He finds it (kinda?) in the form of crafty, quick-witted thief Zhen (Golden Globe winner Awkwafina), a corsac fox who really gets under Po’s fur but whose skills will prove invaluable. In their quest to protect the Valley of Peace from Chameleon’s reptilian claws, this comedic odd-couple duo will have to work together. In the process, Po will discover that heroes can be found in the most unexpected places.
The film features the voice talent of returning stars Academy Award® winner Dustin Hoffman as Kung Fu master, Shifu; James Hong (Everything Everywhere All at Once)as Po’s adoptive father, Mr. Ping; Academy Award® nominee Bryan Cranston as Po’s birth father, Li, and Emmy Award nominee Ian McShane as Tai Lung, Shifu’s former student and arch-nemesis. Oscar® winner Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All at Once) joins the ensemble as a new character, Han, the leader of the Den of Thieves.
Kung Fu Panda 4 is directed by Mike Mitchell (DreamWorks Animation’s Trolls, Shrek Forever After) and produced by Rebecca Huntley (DreamWorks Animation’s The Bad Guys). The film’s co-director is Stephanie Ma Stine (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power). In 2008, the Academy Award®-nominated 2008 inaugural chapter, Kung Fu Panda, became DreamWorks Animation’s highest-grossing original animated film and launched a franchise that has earned more than $1.8 billion at the global box-office.
Nick: Mike! Rebecca! It’s a pleasure to meet you both! How are you today?
Mike Mitchell: Great!
Rebecca Huntley: I’m good. How are you?
Nick: I’m doing very well, and I appreciate you guys taking the time to chat. I was just thinking back this morning before this interview about the fact that I’ve had the chance to chat with so many great people from DreamWorks over the last 18 months, and the biggest takeaway I always have is how passionate you all are about the projects you work on.
Mike Mitchell: That’s awesome!
Nick: And I’m excited for today because I was 13 years old when the first Kung Fu Panda came out. So, it’s very much a part of my childhood and my love of movies growing up! I’m curious to find out the conversations you both have with each other, and with your team, when it comes to honouring the legacy of this character and world that’s now almost 15 years old, but also try and do something new with it in 2024?
Mike Mitchell: Well, that’s what was interesting, because the last one [Kung Fu Panda 3] was eight years ago. 2016. That’s probably why it took so long, because we didn’t just want to make another one. We wanted to make sure that we’re telling the right story. And personally, for this is one of my favourite franchises. I’ve worked on Shrek, Trolls – and this is one of my favourites specifically because it’s got the most kick-ass villains, I think, hands down for any DreamWorks movie.
And before I got involved, when I was developing it before I was directing, I didn’t want to do it unless we had the greatest story, and a story that deserved to be told on the big screen. You want to go to the theatre and see it. We had an evolution for Po, for Jack Black as the Kung Fu Panda. And then the last thing was: is the villain going to be as important and kick-ass as the previous ones? So, once that happened, that was my journey of getting involved in this.
Rebecca Huntley: For me, you know, my involvement was having not been a part of the prior three movies, and having this amazing franchise, and being given this opportunity to join part four! It was, for me, kind of a no brainer. It was, “you say Po, I say go”! [laughs] It was an exciting opportunity to be part of such a beloved franchise and it was great to be able to join Mike.
Nick: I’m glad you mentioned the villains of this franchise, because I haven’t seen any press releases as of yet, but I’m pretty sure I heard the voice of Viola Davis as Chameleon…
Mike Mitchell: Yes! You guessed it!
Rebecca Huntley: Yes it is!
Nick: What perfect casting! She’s incredible! How did Viola come on board this film?
Mike Mitchell: Well, it was because we had such a formidable villain. We created the smallest villain that Po has ever gone up against, and it’s also the first female villain. She’s more smart and supernatural than any of the previous villains. She’s got weird, witchy skills that she uses. And it was so interesting because she was so small. It’s kind of what makes her similar to Po, by the way. She was a small character that was underestimated, and Po was a portly panda that was underestimated. And it’s when we got Viola’s voice in there, that suddenly you don’t think of how small she is anymore.
It’s really interesting because that used to be something we played with. We were playing with the comedy of that aspect. We threw it all away because with Viola, the voice is so big and so commanding. And Viola does have some funny moments, but mostly… she’s terrifying! She’s like, a really scary and freaky villain!
Rebecca Huntley: She’s so smart and she’s calculating. You know, you look at this diminutive size chameleon, and yeah, you would underestimate her. And then you hear Viola, and you’re shaking in your boots!
Mike Mitchell: That’s what Viola really brought to it. Like, she really commands your attention and really sells this villain in a much similar way to how Ian McShane did for Tai Lung. It’s very similar.
Nick: Talking more about the character of Chameleon – I can only imagine how much fun it is creatively to have a villain who can shape shift, and then have those transitions presented in different, unique animation styles. Was that part of the appeal of having this type of character in the film?
Mike Mitchell: Yeah totally! Let’s crank it all the way up to 11! I always tell Rebecca that it’s a bummer that it took so long for us to get the story right. But the silver lining was all the technology was just getting better and better the longer we were taking. So now, we’ve got this incredible technology to do these transformations, and all effects in the spirit realm. We’ve also got all this camera work, like this crazy GoPro style camera work that you’ve never seen in a Kung Fu Panda movie before, but we have seen in live action films.
All these neat tricks we ready for us once we got the story right. And then furthermore, for the animators to get to work on it—like you said, you saw this film when you were a kid. A lot of our artists, this was their favourite franchise as a child, and they’ve come in to work on it. And they would be in tears getting to work on specific parts of this film. They couldn’t believe they were working on their favourite franchise, and it made me feel extremely old! [laughs] But it made me so happy that people are so emotional and intense about this franchise.
Rebecca Huntley: I think that love and that passion come through on the screen. When you have artists working on something that means so much to them, it comes through in their work.
Nick: I honestly feel like we will see that on screen when the movie comes out! And look, speaking of passions – there is one thing that I am very passionate about, and that is great cinematic farts…
Mike and Rebecca: [laughs]
Mike Mitchell: Never say no to any joke! If you can do it a new and unique way!
Nick: So, what’s the key? How do you pull of a great fart joke?
Mike Mitchell: It’s so funny that you said that because the guys who did our fart—we had a whole team of fart people!
Rebecca Huntley: The ‘Art of the Fart’ department! It was a whole fart task force!
Mike Mitchell: The fart task force! They were presented with no less than, like 23 different farts to choose from, with all these different designs. It was ridiculous. You have no idea!
Rebecca Huntley: Oh, what you saw in the trailer, it’s a very stylised fart.
Mike Mitchell: Oh, we picked the perfect one. We really work on it. We weren’t just doing any old fart for the big screen. It had to be the best.
Nick: I love that there was a whole task force for this!
Mike Mitchell: They wore lab coats and they had lasers [laughs]. It was very impressive.
Rebecca Huntley: It’s one of those moment where you go home, and you’re like, “What did you do at work today?” And you have to say, “I had serious discussions about farts!” [laughs]
Nick: Oh my god, this is incredible. I’m going to have to start wrapping up our chat sadly! But I’m so excited to see this movie on the big screen!
Mike Mitchell: We want people in the theatre to watch it. We’re not making this for streaming. We’re not making it for the small screen for you to watch on your phone. This is the most important franchise, along with Madagascar, Dragons, and Shrek. This is the big one! We made it as epic as we possibly can and made sure that it’s going to look incredible when everyone goes to see it on the big screen.
And Nick, this is why we’re thankful for you to do this. We worked for years on this film, really hard. And you’re the one who is getting people interested and wanting to see this in the theatre. And I can’t tell you how important that is to us. We put a lot of effort into this.
Nick: Well, I appreciate that very much. And I’m thankful to you guys for making it, because I love this franchise and I can’t wait to see where you’ve taken it! Hopefully we can all chat again once the film is out!
Mike Mitchell: Alright! Thanks Nick.
Rebecca Huntley: Thank you, Nick. Lovely to meet you!
Thank you to Mike and Rebecca for their time, and the awesome team at Universal Pictures for organising the interview! You can watch the trailer for Kung Fu Panda 4 now, and the film will hit Australian cinemas in March 2024.
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