Some animators working on ‘Kung Fu Panda 4’ were kids when 1st movie came out

Mumbai (IANS) The upcoming film ‘Kung Fu Panda 4’ has many artistes in its team of animators who were kids when the first part of the franchise came out, revealed the director, Mike Mitchell.

The makers also hired action stunt choreographers for the first time in order to lend perfection to motion capture.

‘Kung Fu Panda 4’ follows the journey of Po, who must train a new warrior when he is chosen to become the spiritual leader of the Valley of Peace. However, when a powerful shape-shifting sorceress sets her eyes on his Staff of Wisdom, he realises he needs reinforcement. Teaming up with a quick-witted corsac fox, Po soon discovers that heroes can be found in the most unexpected places.

Talking about the fourth installment coming after eight years, Mike Mitchell said: "It's a good problem to have. We took so long to get back to the theatres, eight years, because we made sure we had the perfect story to tell. We wanted this to be the evolution of Jack Black playing Po, and we had a whole lot of new artists in the film. Some of them were kids watching the first one in theatres and now getting to animate ‘Kung Fu Panda’, and they had tears in their eyes and were so happy to work on it.”

When asked about the action in Kung Fu Panda 4 and how it is better than the previous ‘Kung Fu Panda’ movies, Mike said: "We hired action stunt choreographers for the first time. They recorded themselves performing a variety of moves with authentic weapons because Po has the Staff of Wisdom that he acquired from the previous film, from Oogway. Then, we had our set coordinators incorporate these moves, and some of them even attached fox tails to the back of the performers. This allowed the animators to observe the movement of the tails as they executed their Kung Fu moves. Not only has the technology evolved, but Kung Fu itself has evolved as well. The stunt choreographer who portrayed Po is big, just like Po."

The film is set to release on March 15 in PVR INOX cinemas.