‘We’re All Imperfect People.’ An Interview with Kung Fu Panda 4 Director Mike Mitchell

Director Mike Mitchell was a fan of the Kung Fu Panda franchise long before he ever started working on it. He told me that he loves the combination of kung-fu action and comedy. He says that star Jack Black is the embodiment of Po, the Kung Fu Panda (and can actually kick as high as Mitchell’s head). And he especially loves the franchise’s villains.

“They have created the best villains of all time out of any film,” he said. “Live action or animation. … I just think they’re spectacular. Their voices, their designs, their backstories—it’s always one of my favorite parts of these films.”

But the villain in Kung Fu Panda 4—voiced by Oscar winner Viola Davis—was a cut above. The “combo platter” of Davis’ voice, the character’s visual design and the score by Hans Zimmer and Steve Mazzaro made The Chameleon something special.

“She is a perfect villain for the Kung Fu Panda franchise,” Mitchell said. “She’s worse than all three of the [previous] villains put together. She’s also smarter than all the rest of them.”

And then there’s her ability to shape-shift—to change herself to look like anyone she wants.

That ability intentionally filtered into the movie’s bigger themes, Mitchell says. The whole movie was, essentially, about change.

Every character, besides Po himself, is not quite what he or she seems. Adorable bunnies can be ferocious fiends. An unassuming pelican hides a boat-piloting fish in its mouth. Outside The Chameleon, perhaps the greatest example might be Zhen—Po’s complicated sidekick. She’s both a thief and an ally. And you can see both of those elements, Mitchell says, in the character’s design.

“This sounds really arty, but you know how Po is black and white,” he says. “And he sees the world in black and white. There are heroes and there are villains, and no one in between. And then he teams up with Awkafina [who voices Zhen], who’s this gray corsac fox. Shades of gray. She’s his buddy and she’s helping him take down the villain, but she’s also a thief and she hangs out with a bunch of criminals.”

He compares Zhen to another interesting visual in the movie—a tavern teetering on the edge of a cliff, precariously balanced like a see-saw. “It’s just like the tilting tavern, tilting one way and the other,” Mitchell says. “It really keeps you off balance—wondering who these characters are.”

For Mitchell, the message behind those themes—how characters change and teeter from good to bad—is a timely one today.

“It’s a great message,” he says. “Like, ‘don’t judge a book by its cover,’ [and] ‘everyone’s capable of change.’ In this current internet world we live in, everyone wants to claim right away, ‘That person’s good. That person’s bad.’ And I think there’s shades of gray. I think no one’s perfect. We’re all imperfect people, and we shouldn’t be so quick to judge.”

I like that message, too—because, of course, it’s ultimately rooted in Scripture.

As creatures designed by our perfect Creator, we have an ability to mirror the goodness found in God. But as products of, and inhabitants in, a fallen world, we’re capable of pretty terrible things, too. As Mitchell says, we all are imperfect people.

In Kung Fu Panda 4, the very imperfect Zhen gets to hang out with the more black-and-white Po. She learns from him. And through his example, she learns what it means to be a better person—er, fox. She discovers that she, too, can change.

And maybe that’s a lesson we could draw from Mitchell’s film, as well. We don’t need a panda skilled at martial arts in our lives. But heroes? Role models? Examples? That’s something our kids need—and hopefully moms and dads can provide. And we adults could use our own role models, too. These are lessons we never outgrow.