Kung Fu Panda has been one of the most fan-loved film franchises ever. If you didn’t watch this movie in childhood, you missed out on the action-packed, comedic, and wholesome moments that this movie creates. One thing for certain is that you have to watch the first three movies to figure out the plot of the new movie.

It took eight years for the filmmakers of the franchise to come out with Kung Fu Panda 4. The movie focuses on the growth of the Dragon Warrior Po and how he has to give up being the Dragon Warrior.  The movie wouldn’t be a Kung Fu Panda movie if there wasn’t another villain trying to take over the world.

Throughout the film, you can see the struggles Po goes through trying to pick the new Dragon Warrior and accepting the fact that he won’t be the Dragon Warrior anymore. In the movie, we are also introduced to some new characters that many people didn’t expect and there is a surprise in the movie that many fans didn’t expect. The movie also shows us all the improvements Po has made throughout the years of being the Dragon Warrior. Many fans were shocked that the Furious Five weren’t in the movie because many people thought that all the main characters would be together for this film.

The film was released on March 8, 2024. This movie made $59 million in the opening three days domestically and globally, it made $95 million. The first three movies made less than this film and this was a huge accomplishment by the filmmakers. It’s crazy to see how much more successful this movie was compared to the first three because it doesn’t give us the wholesome moments of the first three movies. This was probably the most important key component missing from this film as there weren’t many wholesome moments in the movie.

I went on to interview BCCHS students Ximena Ulterars (12), and Daisy Rafael (12). I asked their opinions on what they thought about the movie. They both seemed to have different opinions about the movie which made our conversation pretty interesting. I asked them what they thought about the movie overall. Rafael (12) stated, “I will give it a 5.4 because it was missing Po. I was there for the Furious Five and they wanted to take his title of the Dragon Warrior away from him.” This is a pretty good statement because many fans were disappointed that the filmmakers were trying to change the story timeline a lot.  Ultretras (12) stated, “I would give it a 6 because I wanted to see more old characters.”

Based on their responses, it seems that many fans just wanted to see the old characters throughout this new sequel.