“KUNG FU PANDA 4”, RECORD BREAKER ANIMATION SERIES IS BACK
Cinema Writer/Film Critic Efe TEKSOY; wrote the comedy, adventure and fantastic animation “KUNG FU PANDA 4”, for America’s Los Angeles-based Internet Newspaper @alaturkanews.
MASTER PO, PURSUES ADVENTURE
DreamWorks Animation’s original animated series Kung Fu Panda, which has been running for nearly 16 years and grossed almost $2 billion worldwide, is back with its fourth installment. Directed by impressive and experienced filmmaker Mike Mitchell, who has directed iconic film franchises such as Shrek and Trolls and worked on previous Kung Fu Panda films, Kung Fu Panda 4 features original music by legendary Oscar-winning composer HANS ZIMMER (Dune, Dunkirk) and STEVE While MAZARRO (The Boss Baby films) is producing, the film is edited by CHRISTOPHER KNIGHTS (Spirit Untamed). Kung Fu Panda 4, which premiered at the AMC 14 Theater at The Grove in Los Angeles on March 3, 2024, continues to fascinate audiences from every country by breathing new life into martial arts movies. The film series essentially tells the story of a cute panda named Po. While Kung Fu Panda Po learns and embraces important lessons about self-discovery, he overcomes his fears and believes in the power of teamwork. 
BRINGING DYNAMIC ENERGY TO THE WORLD OF ANIMATION
As the animated series enters a new era with this production, the story evolves to an interesting point and we witness Po’s spiritual development and change adventure. “The world of Kung Fu Panda is always evolving and expanding,” says DreamWorks Animation President Margie Cohn. Margie Cohn; “Of all Po’s journeys, this one; It will be the most emotional and exciting one. “This film will take him and the audience on a fantastic new adventure as Po will encounter new characters and new challenges like Zhen, and face one of the fiercest enemies the Valley of Peace has ever seen, the Chameleon.” To ensure the continued success of this important film series, the mastery of a director who would understand this world very well was required. At this point, master director Mike Mitchell comes into play. Director Mitchell’s dream was to recapture the feelings that viewers experienced when they first met the character of Po in 2008, but in the meantime, raise the excitement and visual feast of this film series to new levels. For this reason, he wanted to discover new camera techniques that had not been used before. He wanted to bring dynamic energy to the world of animation, with the kind of action you only see in live-action movies shot with a GoPro. The director’s aim in this movie was to create the best and biggest movie in the series, with a larger scale, funnier and best action scenes.
TOPIC OF THE ANIMATION
Dragon Warrior Po, who faced the evils threatening the world with his courage and martial arts skills in three different adventures, is asked by fate to stop and become the Spiritual Leader of the Valley of Peace. Meanwhile, a malicious wizard named Chameleon wants to possess Po’s Staff of Wisdom. Thanks to the staff, he will have the power to bring back all the master villains that Po sent to the Spirit World. When Po needs great help, he finds this help in the quick and clever thief Zhen. Zhen is a Karsak fox who gets on Po’s nerves, but whose skills are invaluable. This hilarious misfit duo will have to work together on their mission to save the Valley of Peace from the clutches of the Chameleon. In the process, Po will discover that heroes can emerge from unexpected places.
Stars; JACK BLACK, AWKWAFINA, BRYAN CRANSTON, JAMES HONG, IAN McSHANE, KE HUY QUAN, RONNY CHIENG, LORI TAN CHINN, DUSTIN HOFFMAN, VIOLA DAVIS and DUSTIN HOFFMAN.
MUSIC
The animation’s music comes courtesy of legendary Academy Award-winning composer Hans Zimmer and his esteemed collaborator, Steve Mazzaro. Zimmer, who has two Academy Awards and ten nominations for films such as Rain Man, Dune, Sherlock Holmes, Gladiator and The Lion King, is a creative force that was also present in Kung Fu Panda’s previous films. For the final film, Zimmer chose Mazzaro as his partner. Zimmer has a long history with him, the two have worked together on iconic films like DreamWorks Animation’s Boss Baby and Interstellar, The Dark Knight Rises and Dunkirk, with Zimmer being the composer and Mazzaro doing the drum programming. The journey that would lead to Mazarro’s partnership with Zimmer began at Silva Screen Production, where Zimmer noticed his work and offered him a job at his company, Remote Control Productions. Zimmer is very excited to return to the world of Kung Fu Panda with Mazzaro. According to Zimmer, “Kung Fu Panda 4 was a great opportunity to work with my partner Steve Mzazaro again. It was also great to be able to work with my favorite fluffy Panda again, my friend Jack Black. We are so lucky to be able to work with incredible musicians like Pedro Eustache, Karen Han, and Bei Bei to bring the score to this film to life. “We did our best to glorify Chinese culture.” For Mazzaro, every project he worked on with Zimmer felt very special. According to Mazzaro, “If there’s one thing I learned from Hans, it’s that there’s no single way to compose music for a movie. Composing film music is not just writing music for a frame, there are many problems you need to deal with and solve in order to evoke the right emotion in a movie. Hans and I have been exchanging ideas throughout the production process to understand how best to do this. Usually, when we start a film together, we talk concepts and ideas, then go into our dark, glassless rooms and start playing around with ideas, motifs, sounds, and themes, sending them back and forth until we find something that works. These ideas develop during the filming process, and as we continue to write, we encounter new and interesting ideas.
MUSICAL STYLE AND INSTRUMENTS
Mazzaro explains the process of how they developed the foundation of the previous three Kung Fu Panda films while also incorporating new ideas. According to Mazzaro, “Luckily, our job becomes much easier thanks to the musical style and instruments used in the previous three films. New themes are carefully written in the same style so that both old and new themes can pass between each other without clashing, and in some cases can even play simultaneously. It also happened when we took another theme and used it as a melody while another theme was at the center. Thanks to this, we can reveal the necessary emotion without distorting the character of the music.”
Zimmer and Mazzaro encountered some problems creating a soundtrack that was both new and familiar. According to Mazzaro, “That’s always the most challenging part of sequels. We went through a lot of good and bad things with these characters over the course of three films. “Most people who watch them associate a soundtrack with these characters, and we thought we should put it in certain scenes to have the most nostalgic effect without overusing the original themes.”
SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP
Kung Fu Panda 4 explores themes such as spiritual leadership and self-discovery, which are brought to life through the film’s soundtrack. According to Mazzaro, “There are certain sounds in the movies that sound spiritual. The first thing that comes to mind is of course the choir, but we added small things such as curved metal, glass, wind chimes and strengthened this feeling even more. The best part about changing instruments for a theme is that you can give it the emotion you want. This is the most fun part for me; to see what you can do by bending each note in a theme. Can the theme evoke a spiritual feeling? Can it evoke feelings of betrayal? A good theme should be one that has an understandable melody and is recognizable to the audience, while also being able to transform into whatever you want.”
JOURNEY MELODY
One of the most successful soundtracks in Kung Fu Panda 4 is the Journey melody, representing the adventure of Zhen and Po. According to Mazzaro, “This had to be something very emotionally intense, but it also had to fit into a fast-paced action scene. There are multiple prominent motifs in this theme, and as you begin to hear pieces of it throughout the journey, you hear the full version of the theme towards the end of the film. “This felt even more appropriate since Zhen and Po’s journey is also constantly evolving.”
PRODUCTION
Character Development
- Pandas, geese, rams, pigs and rabbits live in the Valley of Peace. In addition, in the crowded city known as Juniper City, rabbits that look cute like puppies can suddenly turn into scary monsters, inspired by the evil rabbit in the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail and animals such as wolves and badgers in real life. Lead animator TYLER PHILLIPS was in charge of the team, highlighting how hilarious the difference was between their sweet looks and wild natures.
- To capture authentic Kung Fu moves, character animator SEAN SEXTON, who also has a background in Taekwondo and Hapkido, added real-world mechanics to Po’s movements. A stuntman, choreographer and artists provided Sexton’s team with the reference footage they needed to bring to animation.
ART AND ANIMATION TECHNIQUES
- While looking for inspiration for camera movements, character animations and action scenes, the team asked stuntman and martial artist DON THAI THEERATHADA to be their Kung Fu mentor. Theerathada and his stunt team selected and performed fight scenes from some of the best action movies. Additionally, the stunt team recorded references for the animators, using props to show how things moved, such as characters’ clothing, costumes, horns, or tails.
- Animation technology has reached a considerable point as the Kung Fu Panda film series continues. These technological advancements have enabled dynamic camera movements, improvements in lighting, and numerous options for facial muscle control for Kung Fu Panda 4.
- Despite advances in technology, animators preferred hand-drawn pencil sketches for action scenes, thus combining old-school techniques with new-school techniques.
CHAMELON’S DESIGON AND TRANSFORMATIONS
- This movie follows biologist and paleontologist Dr. to create the Chameleon and his army of komodo dragons. STUART SUMIDA’s information was consulted. The characters were designed considering their physiology, movements and the fact that their eyes move independently of each other. • Creating the Chameleon’s physical transformations was a very complex process, inspired by movies such as The Ring, X-Men, Night Crawler, and Minions. The character models have more than 8000 controls for detailed transformations. To solve the clothing problem in Chameleon’s transformations, his design was designed to make his clothes disappear from his skin unnoticed.
EFE TEKSOY
