In “Kung Fu Panda 4,” releasing today from Dreamworks Animation and Universal Pictures, the beloved martial arts hero Po (Jack Black) tackles a new challenge, which includes a face-off with The Chameleon (Viola Davis) and a budding mentorship with Zhen (Awkwafina).
Mike Mitchell, known for animated classic “Trolls,” “Shrek Forever After” and “The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part,” steps in as director, guiding the production to a new level of intensity. In this interview with Reel Faith, he explains what drew him to the franchise and talks about the hidden and not-so-hidden themes in the new film.
I know that you have your thumbprint all over a lot of these movies that many kids watching and that I even enjoyed as, as an adult. What was it that made you think, “I think I wanna put my hat in the ring and do this Kung Fu Panda Four?”
For one, I’m a huge fan of the franchise and my favorite things about it, first and foremost is Jack Black. Jack Black as this panda. He’s so funny. He’s very much like this panda in real life. Jack Black could do a big kung fu kick and kick you right in the head. And he’s a Fanboy, he’s enthusiastic and he’s really funny. The second thing is I think this franchise has the best villains I’ve ever seen in any film. I just love the villains that they created for the Kung Fu Panda movies. They’re so cool. And then the third thing is —I can’t think of any other movie that combines kung fu action with humor. Kung fu action alone is so much fun and cool and then to make it funny is just the best. So as soon as we found the story we wanted to tell, man, I was in.
Is something special about making movies where the whole family comes together and watches it?
Yeah. I mean, that’s my favorite thing. I never make a film for just adults or just kids. I think these films are for everyone and I think they work at their best when you make it for the whole family. And my favorite thing is to see like a father laughing at a joke and he looks down at his eight-year-old daughter and she’s laughing at the same joke. That’s just a magic trick to me and I love it. And then another thing, I don’t know if anyone notices, but we work really hard on the themes, the underlying themes, like even in “Trolls” just seems like a movie about singing and dancing. But we got into “What is the movie about?” And for this one, we figured it was a great message about change, because Po needs to change and move on and level up. And I think that’s a great message for kids because you know, kids go from grade school to junior high to high school. And that could be really scary. And then even adults, you know, to go from one job to the next or to move, move locations, it can be really stressful and filled with anxiety. What Po learns and what I hope an audience feels is moving on and change doesn’t mean you’re losing anyone of any part of who you used to be. If anything, you are just gaining more experience and perhaps moving forward and becoming someone even better than you already are. So that’s something that I hope and I think is pretty in this day and age for everyone to feel really good and really positive about change moving forward.
Something else I picked up about it is I felt like there’s a theme of forgiveness in this too.
Yeah. Oh, that’s great. That’s a subtheme. If you don’t mind me getting a little arty for a second here, we always figure, Po is black and white like a panda and he sees the world in black and white. There are heroes and there are villains. Well, Awkwafina, she plays a gray Corsa fox, shades of gray, and she’s a friend of Po’s and she’s helping him find the villain, but she’s also a thief and she’s also hangs out with a bunch of criminals. Po needs to learn that this person capable of change and not to judge a book by its cover. And in this internet world we live in where people wanna say, “Well, that’s bad. and that’s good,” I think it’s nice to recognize that all of us are imperfect and maybe that there are shades of gray and no one is perfect and anyone is capable of change and for us to really give each other a break, and not be so quick to judge. So I’m so happy and excited that you picked up on that.
Also, I caught some Monty Python references that were in there.
There you go. Yes. The rabbits, the, the rabbit attack from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I think the characters even say “Run away!” We did a shot for shot of the rabbit attack and we put those shots in our film. So, so you got a sharp eye or you’re just a Monty Python super fan one or the other,
Great to talk to you. Thanks for all the great entertainment through the years, “Trolls” and “Shrek Forever After” and all the things that you’ve done and, and this one is another great one.
Well, thank you very much. I wanna’ thank you because you know, our artists worked so hard to make this for the big screen and it’s interviews like this that you really help people get interested to leave their house and to leave streaming and to go out with their families and watch this movie in a theater. I think it helps when the whole family goes together, then you guys can talk about it and learn about it and that’s our goal. So, thank you so much.
“Kung Fu Panda,” directed Mike Mitchell and starring Jack Black, Awkwafina, Viola Davis, and James Hong, is currently in theaters.
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