Po is back and we love to see it! It helps that Kung Fu Panda 4 absolutely rules and reunites one of our favorite musical duos to sing a song for Po’s latest adventure. Director Mike Mitchell (The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part) shared how that moment made it into the film.
Talking with Mitchell, his love for Po’s story is infectious and you can sense just how much he loves this franchise. “I’m a huge Kung Fu Panda fan and I’ve worked on the previous films in different capacities. So the only thing I was concerned about, and it’s probably what took us so long to get to the big screen, I wanted to make sure we were telling a great story” Mitchell said.
“We didn’t just want to just make another one. This had to be a kick-ass story. It had to be a great journey for Po. It had to have a good theme, but most importantly it had to have the greatest villain. Just because in my mind, this franchise has created the best villains of any animated franchise, the best villains of all time. I just love these villains. So that was a big one for me. And once we got past that, it was easy. Because I got Jack Black on my side. I inherited a great cast and I’m surrounded by the greatest artists of all time.”
This led to us talking about Jack Black, because how can you talk about Kung Fu Panda and not praise Black’s performance? Mitchell revealed that Tenacious D member Kyle Gass joins Black in singing a cover of “Baby One More Time” by Britney Spears. “I went crazy when I found out that Tenacious D agreed to do this,” Mitchell said. “I mean, I asked him almost as a joke, I was like, ‘Do you think the D might give us a song?’ And Jack’s like ‘Yeah’. And I think it helped that I already put some Ozzy Osborne in the movie. So, he was willing to take my suggestion.”
Leveling Po up
Kung Fu Panda 4 works so well because the film understands what Po needs to grow and evolve. It isn’t just a wash and repeat of something we’ve already seen. Po has power, but this story takes his journey to a whole new level.
“We knew that he had leveled up and we couldn’t repeat what we’d done, even though there’s a lot of callbacks to the first movie. We knew we just couldn’t repeat that. And we landed on this theme,” Mitchell said. He went on to talk about how this movie can relate to the younger audience. “One of our themes is change, which I think a kid can relate to. Going from grade school to junior high could be a scary time, but also grown-ups too, when we go from one job to the next, that’s a lot of anxiety. And I hope that what Po learns and what we could all learn is change should be embraced. We should face it with enthusiasm because you’re not losing who you were or losing anything. You’re gaining something and moving on, and it’s okay to level up. You’re not gonna leave anything behind. You’ll just gain something more.”
Turning Ke Huy Quan bad
You know what I never expected to see? Ke Huy Quan as a bad guy! The Oscar winner plays Han, a Sunda pangolin who leads a pack of thieves. According to Mitchell, Quan was beyond excited to play a different kind of role in the film. Trust me, it was hard to watch my king not be on Po’s side.
“I’ll be honest, when he agreed that he’d do this role for us, we were so happy because that character was all bad,” Mitchell said. “And then he was kind of funny and we kind of couldn’t find our way. And then when Ke agreed to do the voice, he was the one that found this really funny mix, his voice is naturally charming. You just love his voice right away. But when he gets evil, there it is. That’s so funny. So he helped us discover that character. He did more heavy lifting than even the design did on that guy. And I’m so thankful that he decided to do it. And by the way, he was hesitant. He was like, ‘I’m the bad guy? This is the bad guy.’ And I was like, ‘You got this man, you can do it.’ And I just think he did such a terrific job.”
The love for Po
Kung Fu Panda 4 also focuses on Po’s two dads, Mr. Ping (James Hong) and Li Shan (Bryan Cranston), who put their differences aside for their boy. For Mitchell, the success of those characters comes down to casting.
“Those two performers are so great together. And I always thought that James Hong was the heart and the humor of all these Kung Fu Panda movies. It’s so funny. And the first one, he just wants his son to cook noodles. He doesn’t want him to be a Kung Fu master. At one point, my favorite gag is he hugs Po at the end of that movie and then he leans back and he wasn’t hugging him, he was just tying an apron around his waist. It’s one of my favorite things, I just go crazy for it.”
And what does Mitchell hope we all learn from Po in Kung Fu Panda 4? “I hope they go with that theme. The two things of everyone’s imperfect, everyone’s capable of change. And when you do change, it doesn’t have to be faced with any sort of anxiety or fear. That even though these are fun, silly, funny cartoons with a bunch of kung fu action, we really try to put a message in there and a story that people can think about later.”
Kung Fu Panda 4 is in theaters now!
(featured image: Universal Pictures)
