I would have KILLED for Tai lung to have escaped at the end of the film and be set up as the future villain of the new trilogy.

There is no Kung Fu Panda 4 in Ba Sing Se

9:50 Tai Lung bowing to Po would make sense if they established a redemption Arc. But Shen?? That guy will only bow down to a mirror.

I think we all own an apology to Kai. He was far greater than this movie's poor excuse of a villain.

My heart goes out to Chris Pine and Viola Davis. Despite the material they had to voice a villain for the first time, they gave it their all and I commend them for that.

Po is still young, why would he need to retired. This is not Batman Beyond where Bruce is so old he need to use a gun, if he want to continue fighting crime so he quit

What's sad is that the co director wanted this movie to be more like 1st and 2nd one's bit wasn't allowed to since the main director had the control.

Honestly the Furious Five's absence could have helped the story if there was a time skip; their role was no longer needed with Po being the dragon warrior protecting everyone, so they moved on and now had their own kung fu schools teaching the next generation. Could be part of Po realizing how much time has passed and how he needs to take the next step too.

Honestly, the idea of Tai Lung showing Po respect, isn't a bad idea. Him mellowing out, letting go of his obsession with the Dragon Warrior title and acknowledging that Po was better suited for it, that could've worked if maybe Tai Lung had teamed up with Po in the movie. The two forming a friendship together. I feel that him being summoned out of the Spirit Realm should've happened at the start of the movie. Not towards the end. Doing that at the start, would've given him and Po more time to interact. Maybe have him escape the Chameleon and reach the Valley of Peace. Which kickstarts him and Po having to work together to stop her. Would've also helped to have him and Shifu meet again after all this time too.

The worst part is that KFP 4 and Megamind 2 could have genuinely been masterpieces if DreamWorks had gone about it properly. The greed of money corrupts.

“there is no easter bunny, there is no tooth fairy, and there is no kung fu panda 4”

All I wanted from KFP 4 is the potential of a returned Tai Lung getting character development, and maybe a little redemption arc. Maybe he rediscovers through Po what it was that he loved about martial arts in the first place, and cap-off that arc with him being given the chance to assume the role of Dragon Warrior after helping to defeat the villain - which he now declines because, like Po and the dumplings in the first movie, he no longer wants/needs it. There is no secret ingredient, all that. Bring it full circle, put a bow on it, leave. I'm assuming that this is a pipe dream and nothing like that happens in the movie, though.

I hate the idea that kids movies don’t need depth. People defend a movie being full ADHD bait because “it’s a kids movie” all the time when we have the first three of these movies to show that kids movies can be so much more.

“There is no Pacific Rim Sequel, there is no Megamind 2, and there is no Kung Fu Panda 4.”

I feel like the Furious Five could've finally gotten their *moment* in 4. Po is giving up being the dragon warrior, the role THEY were passed up on. their last big adventure with him as the dragon warrior. There is so much potential, and we could've gotten, instead of a newcomer, more time with characters we know and love already.

Imagine if the movie was about a villain who has taken control over Po's body, kidnaps him, and the other characters have to step up to save him. That's the plot that makes sense considering how powerful Po is.

One of my biggest fears has come true. And it's that Puss in Boots 2 wasn't a sign of a new direction for DreamWorks, it was an anomaly.

Movie could've been great if say it focused on Po and Tai Lung working together to defeat a new enemy with Po actually proving his true skills as a teacher and mentor by managing to teach Tai Lung humility, something neither Shiru or Oogway were able to do.

9:37 nah, im fine with tai lung bowing. You know who im not fine with? LORD SHEN WOULD FUCKING NEVER. Tai lung could possibly get some level of redemption going by his backstory and events in the first film. Lord shen was literally given the chance to change, and out of sheer spite he chose to fight po knowing it wouldn’t accomplish anything. Shen was the one who said “i dont care what scars do”. Shen was the one who accepted his own death rather than change himself. Shen was the one who committed actual genocide instead of admit his own mistakes. The dude is literally the incarnation of hatred and spite in this series, and he would absolutely never respect anyone, let alone po. Also he isnt a kung fu master, and part of the entire reason why he’s so terrifying was he could use his weapon to overcome people who were way stronger than him. That, on top of the fact kai’s soul was supposedly obliterated, and that neither of them had any voice lines or were even especially used when the chameleon was turning into different people, made them feel so tacked on, and frankly I wouldve just stuck to chameleon bringing back tai lung

Yall remember tai lung nephew pei from legend of awesomeness they should’ve made him the new dragon warrior would’ve had depth weight and didn’t have to really introduce a new character

They should've made Tigress the new Dragon Warrior. She's always wanted it and has matured a lot since losing the title. I think it would have been a great conclusion to her relationship with Po and her character arc. From now on new sequels would be called Dragon Warrior or Kung Fu Tigress.

Po as mentor already _happened:_ in "Secrets of Furious Five", where he teaches cute rabbit kids kung fu moves and tells them stories about the Five; _and_ in a third movie. Also! Wasn't a Dragon Warrior a special title? Didn't we see a kung fu master who took a child in and raised him with certain expectations?

Tai Lung should’ve had a redemption story in KFP4. I’m sure while in the spirit world he could have realized & accepted that he wasn’t meant to be the dragon warrior with some guidance from Oogway. He would make amends with Shifu then fight side by side with Po, Shifu’s greatest student & Dragon Warrior, against the chameleon.

"You need to become the spiritual leader of the valley" I thought he had already done this at the end of the third film, at least that was the impression I got when he mastered chi and during the final sequence with him teaching everyone how to use chi to send a wave of peace throughout the valley.

1. The villain lacks presence 2.The villain motivation is a big question mark on the franchise as a whole 3. Why is Shifu so hellbent on finding a replacement when Po himself isn't even his prime 4. Since when was the dragon warrior title just something you could hand down 5. Zhen has no reason to become the dragon warrior 1) tai lung wanted to make Shifu proud 2) tigress didn't want to fail her master 3)Po wanted to be something more 6.I can see tai lung bowing, but not Shen and Kai 7. Why is Kai even back wasn't his soul erased 8. Ping and li side plot while amusing serves no purpose as previous films show li being brave when need be 9. Outside of Kai and Li this film pretends the 3rd movie doesn't exist 10. They went out of there way to hype up Tai Lung just to give him a minute of screentime and forceful dialogue 11. I know this is Kung Fu Panda but this movie has a ton of comedy but little to no emotional moments And this is just some of the problems I have with this movie.

The chameleon could’ve been a student who didn’t want to put in the work and thought she was the victim.

I love how the chameleon is so shallow they didn’t even give her a name. Tai lung, shen, and Kai are all actual names while the chameleon sounds like a character concept.

The fact Po had to retire is ridiculous, i see Zhen being a worthy new member of the furious five instead of the new dragon warrior. The writers really weren't thinking straight.

Chameleon was turned away for being too small when Mantis, a much smaller character, is one of the most respected warriors in china Also I think this could have been a great redemption story for tai lung where he is the one who reluctantly needs help after his chi is stolen and goes in the journey with them

I appreciate you not dunking on 3, it’s been the worst for a while, but only by process of elimination. Well I mean it’s not the worst NOW but still.

Honestly, if not for the voice cast, a Furious 5 solo movie adventure or prequel where they get to focus solely on them and flesh out their relationships, personalities, flaws, etc., would be a cool idea.

Remember when Puss in Boots made everyone think Dreamworks was the second coming of Christ of animation studios. Since then all we’ve gotten is that Kraken movie nobody watched, more Trolls, that shitty ass Megamind thing, and now this.

Dawg. The Tai Lung looking upset at a computer screen is my new meme format. Almost choked on my water when I saw that 🤣🤣

They should've built up more on how Po is growing older. I would have loved to have seen a story where the previous furious five become masters themselves and Po is the last member left and he realizes he needs to move onto the next chapter. Now that there's other pandas they could even give him a story arc where he wants to retire to learn what it's like to be a panda or something.

From what I got to hear, this film suffered a lot of executive meddling. Like, one concept I heard was Shifu was kidnapped and Po had to go save him, and that he and Tai Lung were planned to have a reuinion, which I would've loved to have seen. For me, this film was fun, but it was definitely more for kids and didn't exactly have the same heart or weight to it, and it honestly felt like it was more of a movie for a spin off show than an actual movie tied to the franchise. And it's a shame as I can see the potential there. I also hope that maybe one day the Furious Five could get their own movie, just like Puss did.

It is like they just cannot great franchises end. It was like that with Toy Story 4 and now with this. It's frustrating to say the least.

I can’t believe Cars 3 did a better passing of the torch story than Kung Fu Panada 4

I can’t believe that Cars was able to do a better job of the main character giving his position to someone else to create a legacy than Kung Fu Panda lol

I really thought we were gonna get a Tai Lung redemption, it was literally RIGHT THERE and they missed it.

When I heard that the movie would be about Po passing on the title to someone else, I thought it was when he would be older.

...Wasn't Po already a spiritual leader at the end of movie 3, and a teacher in the TV show? You could probably write a plot where Po, through Dragon Warrior work, meets and bonds with an orphaned street child. Have his arc be about becoming a dad, and not making the mistakes that the last generation did re: expectations. Maybe the kid wants to learn kung fu because their parents were killed and they want revenge, but Po wants a better life for them than that. While also knowing that the temple is the safest place for them and they'll be around kung fu, and it was stifling to him to not be able to learn. Have him struggle with the line between a teacher and a father. And then at the end you could have a reveal that the kid is actually not an orphan, but the child of the antagonist who's been tasked with learning the secrets of the Dragon Warrior. And now Po has to grapple with that betrayal, compared to how much he's come to care for this kid, while also putting it into context of this being the only family the kid had.

I would have found it so much better if somehow the Chameleon was behind Shen going after the pandas, like having it revealed that she said that pandas matched the description of black and white to Shen

this movie feels like those quests you do in games where your already finished with the main story, so you just waltz in there and finish it like "ok, thats one off the list" po is literally that, and his roadtrip buddy Zhen is player 2 being invited for a co-op session lmao

You could literally just- have the Chameleon be LAZY and not want to have to actually do the work of training, which is why she sucks out the power of the other villains. That way she can just skip steps and be skilled right away, and you could like make a message about how you need to work hard in order to earn power or something IDK. Like sure that’s still a bit of a boring motivation, but it’s way better than her being “TOO SMALL” 💀💀

For me it felt like it was a netflix show idea turned into a movie instead

They should have written this story for The Cameleon; Her shapeshifting powers were taken advantage of since she was little and she was forced to work in a circus under cruel greedy keepers until one day when her captors got lazy and didn't check the locks on her magic chackles and she gained the freedom to rampage and DESTROY, then we would have had some violence and weight to her as a person. And then her elephant form could actually be more scary. Bringing some much needed thematical weight and emotion and a great message about trying to tame wild animals/someone's spirit against their will. I was sotra interested in the pharallel between her and Aquafina's character, like both were supposedly poor as kids and never got what they wanted or needed, but it just didn't make sense when you look at how Viper or Mantis joined The Furious Five.

I agree, animation studios recently don’t know how to properly end series or franchises

it fells like they ignored 4 and 5 and went straight to 6 (for context they apparently had 6 movies planed out from very beginning)

If I were in the writers room I would have had it been Tai Lung being brought back after the spirit realm battle in the last film, but having calmed down from his time there. Po is forced to think of how his teachers failed Tai Lung, realize when to say he’s wrong, and how being careless can harm someone. It also could be forgiveness, Tai Lung realizing his mistakes, and Po choosing to give Tai Lung another chance. They want a mentorship plot? Have Po fear fucking up his apprentice like Oogway and Shifu fucked over Tai Lung. Have a moment between Tai Lung and Po where Tai Lung tells Po he can do better because he’s willing to learn from his predecessors mistakes. In the end the two work together to train someone, Tai Lung and Po willingly giving up being dragon warrior so someone can else can take over. Maybe age them up, have Po’s injuries from his time as dragon warrior be catching up to him, forcing him to retire sometime in his early thirties.

I would've killed for the movie to be about Tai Lung's redemption arc after getting nerfed by the Chameleon woven with someone like Tigress, who has already learned a lot from Po, becoming the next Dragon Warrior and is someone we already care about.

Funny thing is, they planned to have 2 trilogies like years ago, one with poh as the student and now this one as a master, so really is not about letting the franchise dying but rather not starting the new trilogy with the right foot

I agree with you on the Furious Five, I am still surprised how many people seemed so upset about their absence when they had never been that relevant, the best you could argue is Tigress in movie 2, but that's her being supportive of Po not even having her own arc. It kind of reminds me of how to train your dragon and the teens of the first movie, on the series they are very important characters you get to love, but in the movies, I would be surprised if you get to remember their names.

Anyone else think Zhen was kind of a nothing character? It felt like her existence was solely to give Po a companion and to further the plot and nothing else. Didn’t help that Awkwafina can only play herself.

Why the fuck is no one talking about the simple fact that KFP 3 literally ended with Shifu bowing down to Po. Po is the fucking Dragon Warrior. He is LITERALLY Shifu’s master and boss. He does whatever the fuck he wants to do. If he doesn’t want to get an apprentice, he doesn’t need to. Simple as that. Not to mention how Shifu’s character himself was murdered.

1:Learning to master body 2:Learning to master mind 3:Learning to teach 4:Learning nothing If there had to be a 4th one, I guess I have 1 idea Instead of the Chameleon being an evil teacher she is another one of Po’s students. He encourages her to use her talents, but her only talent is copying others. She becomes the student he failed and when she becomes a villain, copying cruel and uneccesarily violent techniques, Po has to fight her.

Would've been cool if we got like an Older Po, like 20+ years after 3 or something, causing him to be something more than a Dragon Warrior and then the Spiritual leader that they were trying to make him be

"Hehehe silly panda.. I didn't show up in the 4th movie because I didn't have anymore stories to be told, I didn't show up because I was waiting for the credits; the best part of the movie is the one that satisfying and earned and the credits were what helped me ascend enough to where now I am able to sit out of the series for at least one more movie." - Master Oogway

Tigress should have bin the dragon warrior fallowup

Imagine if the movie was about how things don't come easy? Which is a 100% something that has been part of KFP since the first movie. Po was forced into being the dragon warrior, but with training and for the good of his Village he becomes the dragon warrior by training and suffering. Meanwhile, Tai-lung, Chen and Kai, never wanted to train, they just wanted to be the best, by any means possible. Which led to Po beating them. This also works for Aquafina, Make her become one of his Students as if to say "she won't become the dragon warrior, but she'll try". Or give it to Trigress

I grew up with Kung fu panda like other kids grew up with how to train your dragon. When I took my sisters to see this the other day I remember sighing out loud as soon as the exposition of the filmed dropped, saying “yup. The next dragon warriors’ gonna be the fox” and that’s all the film does for you. “Kung fu fox”

DreamWorks movies have always followed this rule for me:2nd, 1st, 3rd (in that order)are amazing and we don't talk about the 4th one.

I totally respect you taking a grain of salt with the behind the scenes twitter post. But with how many bad calls we've seen made in the behind the scenes of animated films in the last 5 or so years, I highly doubt that all those notes on Twitter aren't legit. One thing is for sure, I'm dreading what we'll see in KFP4's home video bonus features and how much it'll make the finished film look even worse. Not unlike what we've seen in the deleted scenes of Wish, Lightyear, as well as the Incredibles and Frozen sequels.

KFP 2 is a cinema masterpiece

My biggest issue is they undo Pos growth from the 2nd and 3rd movies Where he grew to knowagle who he was Po wasnt just the Dragon Warrior he was Po For him to say "Im the dragon warrior thats who i am" Was a spit on what the og trilogy did for him

How in the world did Tai Lung and Shifu not interact in this movie?!

They should make it so when the chameleon takes you’re chi your whole physical body gets absorbed into her soul and pocket dimension or something that you need to overcome your inner demons in order to escape. Therefor they can make pos lack of development be the reason he loses to her and gets his chi stolen. This is the event that’ll force po to change, Tai Lung who lost hope witnesses this and we see a crack in his armor as he begins to doubt his own mind set. When po escapes the chameleon will use tai lung, po and then she’ll say something only tai lung would never say causing po to realize the consciousness have been merged. Then we could see the results of po having evolved into a spiritual leader when he lays down some hard lines that make Tai lung doubt himself and eventually makes the choice of acceptance of being great without having to be the dragon warrior. This makes chameleon fit into the pure evil villain archetype which I think can work since she’d literally be the inner demon Po needs to both overcome and learn to teach tai lung how to overcome.

I don't think replacing the Furious Five's voice actors would've been too hard.

When I found out that Awkwardfina AKA Scuttlebutt from live action Little Mermaid was voicing a leading role for this film, I knew then it was all over for me. She was God awful in that, literal nails on chalkboard. I'm never watching this film unless it was streaming free or something and I got nothing better to do. The 1st film was ok, the 2nd one was the best one, I can't even remember the 3rd one it was that forgettable. I'm willing to bet I won't be missing much by not watching the 4th one

So let me get this straight Oogway chose Po and foresaw his many achievements; as well as his influence on the Kungfu world, only for his whole plan to be retconned?! WTF?! 😮

This is the equivalent of finally retiring ash from Pokemon honestly

At least we got Jack Black's cover of baby one more time

Fun fact, which I figured I'd bring up since you mentioned how much you like Kai's theme a few times. Kai's theme was actually an adaptation from an imagine dragons song called 'I'm so sorry'. I got so excited when I heard it in theaters and actually watched the credits to see they were in fact credited in the instrumentals. Wonderful video as usual :)

Loved it when Kai willingly goes back to the spirit realm. Totally in character for him

Love your content! Keep up the good work!You're the Legend

In case you didn't know, there will still be 2 more films, yes, two more, the directors confirmed in an interview that the franchise was always envisioned as a saga of 6 films, however some plot points and stories that were discarded ended up being used in the animated series (there are 2) so wait because there will be two more coming

Hm, fair enough, I wonder what actually happened behind the Scenes? I hope the Next Movie, if there will be one, makes up for this one. Speaking of which, how about a Movie that more or less deconstructs Oogway as the Wise Old Master he has been portrayed as throughout these Movies and Franchise? Would that be interesting? Also, would anyone like a Furious Five Movie?

I feel like the movie was good but not great. It definitely could’ve been GREAT but there wasn’t enough time and the villain needed to have more time shown to be a threatening menace. And of course Tai Lung should’ve had more screen time with him getting a better redemption possibly forgiving Shifu which would’ve been so wholesome.

Nah. I could see Tai Lung bow with proper setup. Shen tho is the real WTF. Bit apparently they added Shen and Kai too late into production to add their VAs

I will gaslight myself into believing this movie does not exist

The only reason I would've watched this movie for is to see if my ship of Po and Tigress that I had ever since Kung Fu Panda 2 is finally gonna set sail😂

was gonna watch the new invincible vid but that shit got copyright stricken

You're not wrong about the pacing thing, I was able to keep up with the Mario Bros Movie despite feeling like I was watching a speedrun and I'm telling you that I could barely eat my popcorn because I was trying to keep up with the movie.

My pet peeve was that LORD SHEN was bunched in with kung fu masters. Shen was everything kung fu was not. His whole arc was to eliminate Po and kung fu with his weapons. Also Po should have been aged up - yep. I would have killed to have Po babbling on and on weather or not he should grow a beard to become a spiritual leader.

The only way I could argue for The Chameleons back story is that where ever she is from, Kung Fu masters are just worse/more stubborn than they are in the Valley of Peace. Po does off handedly mention in confusion how his exploits are actually very regional, so maybe not all Kung Fu masters are all on the same page.

2 issues are how they portray that Po needs to become a spiritual guide. He already did that and my main issue is that like everyone. We wanted a Tai Lung Redemption arc, all we goy was him being confused and somewhat reflecting the entire time. I kinda was hoping instead Tai Lung finally became the Dragon warrior and has Jin as his apprentice. Someone to learn is unique techniques with Po as like the Grand Master.

Instead of I’m too small for Kung fu maybe have the villain have a deep evil in her that feeds off the power of each Kung fu masters and every time she steals a fighting style it grows stronger. I have more but then it will end up becoming a long essay of what I think should’ve happened instead for it to be a better storyline for audiences.

This movie doesnt exist it ended at 3. They need to stop milking it when they made a proper ending at 3.

There is a solution to the problem of the Furious Five, and that's just to recast them with people who aren't A-list. I'm sure the original voice actors did as well as they could, but no offense to them there wasn't anything about their voices that made me feel like they were irreplaceable in the way that Black and Hoffman were. And you know, there's plenty of people who exclusively do voice acting who'd likely do a way better job with them, and it's always been a personal bugbear of mine that, when it comes to movies, those talents are so often shoved to the side in favour of more recognisable names 😟

Love your work!

I feel KP4's story is good as a barebones concept but handled with atrocious execution. I don't really like the kungfu stealing powers being so easy to use. Personally, I'd reimagine her skills to be more like a blend between the Chameleon and Taskmaster from the Spiderman comics. She doesn't literally steal someone's kungfu as she perfectly imitates it, just like how a chameleon would. Her actual spiritual powers then I would also retool as a kind of "chi lock" instead of a "chi steal" so her moveset doesn't plagiarize too much over Kai. This move basically blocks chi pathways in your body, making you lethargic, weak, and ultimately unable to use kungfu at all. They could also make a more interesting plot by playing up the Trickster aspect. Maybe, idk, hear me out, making Zhen and the Chameleon one in the same. Zhen is a fake persona made by the big bad so she could more easily study Po's moves and defeat him. By building a student-master relation with the dragon warrior, she can learn his habits, his technique, and completely mimic his character. Which would lead to my last change, changing Chameleon's entire characer motivation into **REPLACING** Po as the dragon warrior. She has the cunning of Shen, the motivation of Tai Lung, and the supernatural-like powers similar to Kai As a chameleon, all she could be is a mimic, living in the shadows, but as the dragon warrior, she could finally get the reverence and respect she deserves. The reason Zhen informed Po of the Chameleon was not to defeat her, but to make him go on a fake Hero's Journey and walk him to his own death, then taking his place with no one the wiser. Not Shi Fu, not The Five, _NO ONE!!!_ Idk, for me that's how I'd salvage the movie's story but to fit all this in, it'd probably have to be at least almost 2 hours long. Probably would work better as an animated series arc than a movie plotline, or if it was gonna be a movie plotline, it's going to be a two-parter. TL:DR, this could've been great if it was retooled a bit and extended into a 3-5 episode arc in a KP animated series

To me it seemed like the main message this film was that you don't need to define yourself by what others say you are/should be

I feel like there was a lot of missed potential in the chameleon not being allowed to learn Kung Fu because of her natural physique, Po needing to find an apprentice and having become the Dragon Warrior with a similar stigma surrounding him, and then not having Po win by empathizing with her and offering to teach her Kung Fu as his successor. If Po was weaker because of his age, to the point of no longer being a match for most of the previous villains, that could have also cemented his need for a successor and his need to find a more spiritual path to victory than the outright violence he grown accustomed to using until now. I think that would have been more interesting and thematic than what we got.

easy fixes honestly 1) suggest to Po about finding someone to teach, not just for their benefit, but his benefit 2) Make the Villain the Bitter Teacher archetype, Her ability lends itself more to teaching then being taught. 1 master now working for her.. but she could have learned from training multiple students. until she gets the wrong idea of taking her student's work. a literal "my student's accomplishments are my accomplishments" symbolism. 3) while the message becomes, you never stop learning, even when you begin teaching 4) if they ever want to do a Protagonist switch, it has to be a Red Panda

Shen wouldn’t bow to Po, even after he was defeated on his destroyed shipwreck, he fought till he died trying to kill Po. Ain’t no way he’s bowing down to Po

I have'nt seen the move, but I think I know what their doing with this new trilogy. In the first trilogy, it was about mind, body, and soul. KFP1 is a battle of body, KFP2 is a battle of mind, and KFP3 is a battle of the soul and spiruality. So what if the new trilogy is about the past, present, and future? KFP4 is the battle of past with The Camelion using Po's old foes to fight him.

I think calling Kai the 'worst' is disrespectful, all 3 villains were great and badass, kai especially had the best theme and the best voice actor

I think it’s safe to say that if this movie was about the redemption of tai lung and him becoming the Dragon Warrior we would all like it better

Po becoming a mentor to train someon sounds good but what is the reason he needs to be replaced

It's been years since I watched it, but I honestly loved Kung Fu Panda Legends of Awesomeness. Surprisingly great world building and character building. I like 2 (maybe 3) as an ending and then Legends of Awesomeness or a show like it as the after party. The very concept of a 4th was pushing it.

I hope the next 2 kung fu panda movies will be better