I watched every single piece of Kung Fu Panda media in preparation for Kung Fu Panda 4 so you wouldn’t have to. Here is short review of each thing in order by release.
Kung Fu Panda (2008)
The first movie was what I’d still to this day call the best one. It has a pretty good and unique plot, pretty great visuals (especially for the time) and likable characters. Po, the main character, played by Jack Black, is a panda who learns Kung Fu. The movie has many comedic and action-packed scenes but never feels too on the nose.
Secrets of The Furious Five (2008)
This one unfortunately wasn’t very memorable, but it’s a short film showing the adventures of the Furious Five, the superhero group that Po becomes part of, going on a mission and fighting some villains. It’s formatted as Po telling a story, and overall, was perfectly fine as a short film.
Kung Fu Panda Holiday (2010)
Unsure why they released a Christmas special in November, but I appreciate the 25-minute duration. I feel some of the characters are mischaracterized in this, however, like the Furious Five.
Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)
The second movie might be the most forgettable but most beautiful one. I enjoyed the visuals of this one a lot more than some of the others. Released in 2016, after some of Dreamworks’ best work, it had a lot to live up to for many people and seems to have performed acceptably. However, a thing I found out with the franchise is how hit or miss the plots are. They’re either very unique and interesting, or the most generic movie plots you could imagine.
Secrets of the Masters (2011)
This thing is 24 minutes. 7 minutes of which were intros and credits. I remember this due to it introducing a bunch of characters only to barely really do anything with them, along with some actors not returning to reprise their characters’ roles (reasonably), so some characters just sounded off, but it isn’t the worst thing to come out of this franchise.
Legends of Awesomeness (TV series) (2011)
GREAT NAME! 80 episodes. I felt like my brain and life were both drained out of me in one swoop. I understand that this franchise and show were both for kids, but at some point, you can’t keep using the same punchlines for as long as they do in this show. I also understand that shows have much smaller budgets for animation and writing than for movies, but there were genuine animation errors at least once every three episodes. I was on autopilot for most of it, watching it in two times speed in order to be able to fully get through it in time, so I barely can recall most of it, but the word “fart” was written down on my ‘notes’ app, which I assume refers to the unbelievable number of times it’s used as a punchline. If I were to regret some part of this, I feel it’d be this show. But it only seems to go downhill from here.
Secrets of the Scroll (2015)
This one feel like it has the least impact out of any of them. The entire thing could not exist and there would be quite literally no impact to the plot of the next movie. But it’s revolved around Ping (Po’s dad) which was pretty nice.
Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016)
Despite the short films and TV series going down in quality, this movie is the second-best one, only being beaten by the first one. It is also one of the few things I actually have memories of. The plot is still predictable, aside from the weird ending. I understand why wanting to have a nice ending due to the fact it’s a kid’s movie, and that they need to be open for more sequels, but it really felt too on the nose when Po just magically reappeared.
EVERY OTHER SHORT FILM (2016-2019)
All of these are interchangeable in the way that they have no impact since it wouldn’t make sense to make something like a small Christmas film lore relevant. However, I do really enjoy that for almost everything, they don’t recast Jack Black as someone else; it helps connect him more to his character Po.
Kung Fu Panda 4
Kung Fu Panda 4 had close to no advertising and seemed to be overlooked by most people. The movie also has close to no original plot points and is just kind of a mix of things you’ve seen ten times all put into one movie that’s longer than it should be. I don’t hate it, but the only reason I remember it is because it’s the most recent thing I watched. The Awkwafina character is not very interesting and feels like it was pushed out in order to manufacture a McDonalds toys of it, and the snake villain is the least threatening villain I’ve seen from this series. I felt it was also very apparent that they couldn’t get many of the old voice actors to reprise their roles because characters that would’ve naturally said something or been important to helping the plot just get glossed over or just don’t talk. But at the end of the day, all of these are kids movies, and I’m almost an adult watching these. The kids in the movie theatre seemed to have fun, but I felt the series got worse as it kept going.
