Panda

By Lindsey Bahr | Associated Press “Kung Fu Panda 4” stayed at the top of the North American box office in its second weekend in theaters. The Universal and DreamWorks Animation movie earned $30 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday. The franchise featuring the voice of Jack Black is responsible for over $1.9 billion at the box office since it launched in 2008 and spawned several animated series, shorts, video games and a holiday special. The fourth installment, playing in 4,067 locations in North…

Film: Kung-Fu Panda 4Cast (voice): Jack Black, Awkwafina, Viola Davis, Dustin Hoffman, James Hong, Bryan CranstonDirector: Mike MitchellRating: 2.5/5Runtime: 94 min It’s been 8 years since the last in the Kung-Fu Panda series came and went so this one feels lie a brand reawakening with Gen Z in mind. Shifu believes that it’s time for Po (Jack Black) to go on to bigger things. By that he means Po must assume the role of a spiritual leader now and leave the fighting of evil to his successor. He tasks Po…

Awkwafina is not new to animated films. Also a rapper by profession, she's lent her voice to a number of franchises, from The Angry Birds Movie, The SpongeBob Movie, Raya and the Last Dragon, The Little Mermaid to Migration. However, playing Zhen, a corsac fox, alongside Jack Black's Po in Kung Fu Panda 4 hits at a deeper, more personal level for the actor. Also Read – Jack Black Kung Fu Panda 4 interview: 'We're definitely going to do 5,6,7,8, and 9 but who knows about 10’ Awkwafina interview: The actor plays a…

By Jake Coyle | Associated Press LOS ANGELES — As Universal Pictures prepared for a big night at the Academy Awards with “Oppenheimer,” the studio also celebrated the No. 1 debut of “Kung Fu Panda 4,” which collected $58.3 million in domestic theaters over the weekend, according to estimates Sunday. “Kung Fu Panda 4,” the first film in the DreamWorks Animation franchise since the third installment in 2016, got off to a better start than all but the 2008 original. That “Kung Fu Panda,” which began the mystical adventures…

As things have turned out, Mike Mitchell and Stephanie Ma Stine's Kung Fu Panda 4 and Denis Villeneuve's Dune: Part Two make a surprisingly great box office pair. Both movies are based on highly popular IP and have drawn big crowds, but the reason they work well together is because there isn't too much overlap in their respectively targeted audiences. Because of this, the former just had a terrific opening in its big screen debut, and the latter only had a relatively tiny weekend-to-weekend drop in its second…

When I interviewed the directors of Kung Fu Panda 4 last December, they reiterated the obvious: the lead character of Po is pretty much like the actor who plays it: Jack Black. “He's action-packed, he's enthusiastic, and he's a fanboy,” co-director Mike Mitchell told me. In an exclusive interview, I ask Jack if he agrees, and he strikes a Po-like Kung Fu pose. Jack Black interview: The actor reprises his role of Po in Kung Fu Panda 4(Instagram) (Also Read: Exclusive – Kung Fu Panda 4 makers open up on Jack…

Six Indian nationals were arrested at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport on Wednesday (March 6) after a red panda and dozens of other exotic animals and birds were seized from their checked luggage in a major wildlife trafficking bust.“We have found out that the animals include 29 black throat monitor lizards, 21 snakes, 15 birds, including parrots — a total of 87 animals. The animals were hidden inside the luggage,” Thailand’s Customs Department announced in a statement. Highlights 87 exotic animals were seized in…

By Mark Kennedy | Associated Press “Kung Fu Panda 4” finds our trusty, rotund hero Po at a career crossroads and he’s nervous. “Change doesn’t have to be a bad thing,” he is told. “Kung Fu Panda 4” also finds the franchise at an inflection point, but there’s no reason for us to be nervous. DreamWorks knows what it’s doing. The series’ first new installment in eight years is a reliably funny, sweet and wonderfully realized passing of the torch, with a paw in the past and another into the future — an elegant goodbye and a…

Traveling back in time on occasion to watch animation classics can sometimes feel like a fever dream, but when that one animated film becomes a four-movie deal, it almost feels unfathomable. And, of course, we’re talking about the much-anticipated Kung Fu Panda 4. Without a doubt, acclaimed actor Jack Black, who has voiced main character Po in each movie thus far, has been on the animation ride of a lifetime as of late, thanks to both The Super Mario Bros. Movie and now the fourth Kung Fu Panda project. And with Black’s…

Rare Brown Panda Mystery Solved after 40 YearsChinese researchers have found the gene responsible for the brown-and-white fur of a handful of giant pandasBy Xiaoying You & Nature magazineQizai, the world’s only captive brown-and-white panda. Credit: Heng Guoliang/Visual China Group via Getty ImagesNot everything in life is always black and white. Neither are giant pandas.For years, scientists — and the public — in China have been fascinated by Qizai, the only brown-and-white panda in captivity. Found abandoned in the…