Panda Plan: The Magical Tribe

熊猫计划之部落奇遇记

China, 2026, coliyr, 2.35:1, 99 mins.

Director: Xu Hongyu 许宏宇 [Derek Hui].

Rating: 3/10.

An equally feeble follow-up to the first film, with Cheng Long [Jackie Chan], a cuddly CGI panda and lots of over-acting and padding.

STORY

Somewhere in Sichuan province, southwest China, the present day. International action star Cheng Long [Jackie Chan] (Cheng Long) is on his way to visit the Panda Conservation Base with his adopted panda Huhu when the convoy of cars enters a misty area in the forest 10 kilometres from the base. Getting out of his car, Cheng Long sees that Huhu has gone. He follows it through a tunnel and gets trapped in an uncharted area where a previously unknown Stone Age tribe, the Panda 潘达, lives. As Huhu and Cheng Long enter the forest, rival groups are engaged in the Boar Chase competition; they get caught up in it and are taken back to the Pandas’ village. The tribal chieftain (Ma Li) declares her warrior daughter Shayi (Wang Yinglu) the winner, much to the chagrin of Shayi’s useless elder brother Tulu (Yu Yang) and his three equally useless pals, Ba (Wang Chengsi), Ben (Ke Da) and Bo (Song Muzi). The chieftain then notices that Huhu is the spitting image of a mythical animal mentioned in the tribe’s ancient chronicles whose giant statue is in the village. The chronicles note that, after the animal appears, there will be a clamity from heaven; to avert it, the animal must choose an emissary with whom it must then climb to the top of the Big High Summit, an almost impossible task due to the mountain’s overhangs. When Huhu sees Cheng Long bound and captured by the villagers, it naturally chooses him as his emissary. Cheng Long is forced to agree to the plan. Meanwhile, Tulu is persuaded by the high priest (Zhang Zidong) that an outsider mustn’t be allowed to take the role. Unable to do it himself, Tulu selects warrior Qiangshan (Qiao Shan) to take his place, and ensure that Cheng Long dies in the attempt. That night, while trying to secretly escape from the village with Huhu, Cheng Long bumps into Qiangshan, who’s been caught in one of his own traps in the forest. Qiangshan, whose mood can switch from warrior-like to wimpy and back again if hit on the head, dubs Cheng Long his “benefactor” 恩公 and immediately befriends him, forcing Cheng Long and Huhu to return to the village. Before setting out on the mountain climb, Cheng Long and Huhu have to perform a pole-climbing ritual that every villager must do at the age of six, after which they become independent of their parents. Following this, the chieftain and Cheng Long spend time together, with the former becoming enamoured of the latter during a drunken evening. The night before seeting out for the mountain climb, Cheng Long and Huhu managed to escape from the village by boat, helped by the friendly Qiangshan. However, Tulu and his pals are on their trail.

REVIEW

Just as feeble as its 2024 predecessor – though in different ways – Panda Plan: The Magical Tribe 熊猫计划之部落奇遇记 again finds Hong Kong superstar Cheng Long 成龙 [Jackie Chan] taking second billing to a cuddly CGI animal in another glorified plug for panda conservation that has little going for it (beyond the kiddie market) as entertainment. Though he looks slightly less tired and aged this time round, Cheng, 71 at the time of shooting, often has a “what am I doing in this?” look that works against the efforts of his co-players to at least try to energise the thinly scripted comedy-fantasy. So full of padding that it barely manages to fill out its 90-odd-minute running time, the film was (unwisely) released during the Chinese New Year box-office race, taking a face-losing fourth place with a mere RMB287 million – almost a fifth of the third placer, spy drama Scare Out 惊蛰无声 (dir. Zhang Yimou 张艺谋), and a microscopic one-fifteenth of the CNY champion, car-racing comedy Pegasus 3 飞驰人生3 (dir. Han Han 韩寒).

Though he’s never referred to this time by name, international celebrity Cheng finds himself on the way to a panda conservation centre in China when he and his adopted Huhu are enveloped in a mist and find themselves trapped in a world inhabited by a Stone Age tribe called the Panda 潘达. The good news is that Huhu resembles a mythological animal the tribe worships; the bad news is that its appearance heralds a celestial calamity that can only be averted by the animal and its chosen emissary scaling a deadly mountain face. Thanks to a pre-credits dream sequence, the audience already knows that Cheng finds this impossible. But is the whole story just a dream sequence anyway?

Where the first film at least had the semblance of a forward-moving plot – thin as it was – this one gives up after the first 15 minutes and spends the next hour going round in comic circles – notably 15 minutes of goofing around by Mainland comic Qiao Shan 乔杉 as a warrior with a split personality, and an 8-minute section where Mainland comedienne Ma Li 马丽 gets to earn her high billing as the tribe’s lovelorn chieftain. A handful of animated inserts, plus a lot of soundtrack songs, also try to disguise the fact that nothing is happening in the movie until the the mountain climb in the final 10 minutes. The movie’s messages are then hammered home: the importance of family and communal effort, not to mention hugging (in a tribe where emotional ties are never expressed after the age of six). It’s all very icky.

Much of Magical Tribe is a painfully unfunny slog that, given some of the talent involved (Ma, Qiao), is often embarrassing. It’s better packaged than the first film – with experienced Hong Kong editor Xu Hongyu 许宏宇 [Derek Hui}, 43, in his third outing as a feature director after This Is Not What I Expected 喜欢你 (2017) and Coffee or Tea? 一点就到家 (2020) – but there’s no disguising the fact that the screenplay is an empty vehicle going nowhere. The action sequences are just okay but often so rapidly edited that their content can’t be properly appreciated. The running joke of the first film – that Cheng is an action star who can’t really fight – is not pursued here.

Performances are either self-conscious or neutral, with Ma never quite managing to inhabit the role of the tribal chieftain and other comics like Qiao, Yu Yang 于洋 and Zhang Zidong 张子栋 just over-acting, with plenty of campy humour by all concerned. Talented young Sichuan actress Wang Yinglu 王影璐 (The Woman in the Storm 我经过风暴, 2023; Welcome to My Side 欢迎来到我身边, 2024) promises much in the role of the chieftain’s warrior daughter but is sidelined by the script, which consistently favours Yu as her hopelessly inept, very louche brother. The film was shot during Apr-Jun 2025, largely in the southern province of Yunnan.

CREDITS

Presented by Emei Film Group (CN), Shanghai Maoyan Pictures (CN), Chengdu Maoyan Pictures (CN), Beijing Unimedia (CN), Beijing Enlight Pictures (CN), Huaxia Film Distribution (CN), Chengdu Kandao Culture Communication (CN). Produced by Xiangshan Shihui Film & TV Culture (CN).

Script: Pan Keyang, Li Heng, He Facai, Bai Bing. Photography: Zhao Xiaoshi. Editing: Lin Zhuangyu. Music: Luan Hui, Meng Lingda. Art direction: Wang Shuo. Costumes: Zhu Yanhong. Styling: Zheng Junjian. Sound: Lin Siyu, Ma Yi. Action: Lv Shijia, Li Lei, Su Hang. Special effects: Liang Beixing. Visual effects: Liu Qin, Yang Yuejuan, Wang Shaoshuai. Visual creative design: Meng Fanzhuo. Executive directors: Li Jiaqian, Huang Hao.

Cast: Huhu (itself), Cheng Long [Jackie Chan] (himself), Ma Li (Panda tribal chief), Qiao Shan (Qiangshan), Yu Yang (Tulu, tribal chief’s son), Wang Yinglu (Shayi, tribal chief’s daughter), Zhang Zidong (high priest), Wang Chengsi (Ba), Ke Da (Ben), Song Muzi (Bo), Feng Man (historiographer), Wang Xing (stargazer), Pan Binlong (Pan, villager), Yu Rongguang (Italian godfather), Hu Xiaoyuan (Hu, villager), Lin Junjie (himself), Ma Chi (Ma, driver), Long Meishan (young tribal chief), Long Jiayin (young Tulu).

Release: China, 17 Feb 2026.