★★★★☆

94 min | PG | March 8, 2024 | Universal/DreamWorks Animation

Po gets a fourth adventure that he probably does not need but mostly earns. Awkwafina brings energy. The animation is gorgeous. The franchise treads water with style.

Po must become the Spiritual Leader of the Valley of Peace. That means giving up being the Dragon Warrior. That means finding a successor. He does not want to do either. Meanwhile a shapeshifting villain called the Chameleon is collecting the powers of fallen kung fu masters and threatens everything Po has built. The franchise has always been about Po accepting responsibility. The fourth film asks him to accept the next stage of it. The emotional arc is familiar but functional.

Jack Black voices Po with the same energy he has brought to three previous films. The performance has not gotten stale because Black commits to the character’s sincerity without irony. Awkwafina voices Zhen, a street-smart fox thief who becomes Po’s reluctant partner. She is the best new addition to the franchise since Tigress. Viola Davis voices the Chameleon with theatrical menace. Dustin Hoffman returns as Shifu with a few scenes that land. The Furious Five are conspicuously absent for most of the film, which is a loss the movie does not fully acknowledge.

Mike Mitchell directs with competence. The animation is a step forward from the previous entries. The action sequences are fluid and inventive. A fight scene involving shapeshifted versions of previous villains is a highlight that uses the franchise’s history creatively. The Juniper City setting gives the film a new visual palette that the series needed. The score does its job. The pacing is tight at ninety-four minutes.

The question with any fourth installment is whether the story has somewhere new to go. This one mostly does. The succession theme gives Po a genuine internal conflict. The Chameleon is not the strongest villain in the series but she serves the narrative. The film is slighter than the second and third entries. It is also tighter. DreamWorks Animation knows this franchise works and delivers a polished product. Whether that product needs to exist is a separate question the film wisely does not ask.