This movie feels out of time and out of step when the Kung Fu Panda series in its day was one of the freshest and exciting movies in the CGI scene. Kung Fu Panda 3 could come out today and visually many of its sequences could stand with today’s movies, and Kung Fu Panda 2’s have enough artistry to still stand up. There’s neither of those things here, or even Kung Fu Panda 1’s stellar execution of a basic hero’s journey. 4 is formulaic with no spark, and the things that made KFP stand out are sanded down.

The Furious Five are functionally absent, most keenly felt with Tigress and the understated bond she had with Po that buoyed 2 and 3, and when the plot is about a new Dragon Warrior them not even being candidates is a bit glaring. They’re replaced with Awkafina’s Zhen, and her performance is Awkaward. She rarely improves a movie, and this is no exception. There’s no energy or commitment to her performance. Jack Black is fine, but the script for Po is entirely rote and beat by beat. The whole script is like that. There’s no surprises and no killer lines, no big laughs. It’s feels exactly like a fourth movie produced years after a finished trilogy in stakes and tone and energy.

The Chameleon has nothing to her. Viola Davis does her able best, but her big establishing moment is throwing a guy down some stairs? Non lethally? There’s no hook to her. Tai Lung had the tragic fall and relationship with Shifu (who is purely perfunctory here with no moments of heart or depth to soften him or make him more realized). Chen had his ambition, his fear of the prophecy, and his self destruction by refusing every chance to let go of his hate and power. Kai had his relationship with Oogway and tie to the spirit realm. The Chameleon has… kung fu masters being mean to her? And the thing is that could really work if played right! A dark mirror of Po in the first movie, locked out of something they love for not being the right ‘type’, that longing turned to bitterness. But the Chameleon doesn’t really get that space to be an ex ultra fan or anything. And her relationship with Zhen is just as underplayed and flat.

And speaking of the previous villains, Tai Lung’s arc does not hit at all. It’s not given the time to be believable. So imagine how flat it is when Kai and Chen bow respectfully to Po after having no lines in the movie at all. With context of the previous movies the moments aren’t believable. Without it, they mean nothing at all. The action scenes are serviceable but nothing exciting, and compared to KFP3’s radiant and vibrant spirit world sequences and style, this one’s visual identity is. Action lines? For some reason? Even swings like a shilouetted fight in the fog are so flat.

Hong is as endearing as ever, and Cranston is a treat, and they have a fun gay dad’s dynamic, but it’s not enough. I’d give it a 2.5 as a completely mediocre kids movie, but the kids I saw it with didn’t even like it that much! There were no big laughs or gasps or anything. It’s not even a funny movie. If you’ve lost the kids, you’ve lost everything. I don’t especially have faith they’ll turn it around with Zhen as the next generation, either. Maybe it’s time to just let Kung Fu Panda take the next step into memory.