By Lindsey Bahr, Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — With just a few days to go until the 96th Academy Awards on Sunday, the show’s producers are feeling good about what they’ve put together.

The nominees are some of the best the Oscars have seen, including some true blockbusters like “Oppenheimer” and “Barbie.” Ryan Gosling is singing “I’m Just Ken” during the show. There will be a live orchestra in the theater. And the ever-reliable Jimmy Kimmel is back to host the proceedings for the fourth time.

Oscar statuettes are displayed during the Governors Ball press preview for the 96th Academy Awards, Tuesday, March 5, 2024, in Los Angeles. The Academy Awards will be held on Sunday, March 10. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

“We’re really excited about this year,” said Molly McNearney, who is executive producing the show for the fourth time. “It’s a phenomenal year of movies. And we have great movies that the home audience is familiar with, which makes our jobs easier.”

The producers were hired earlier than usual, meaning they’ve had more time to plan and study past Oscars broadcasts to try to home in on what works and what doesn’t. One thing they’ve learned is that if the room is laughing, the audience at home is usually laughing too.

McNearney, who is married to Kimmel, said that they’re focusing on jokes over big, highly produced comedy bits. Kimmel will do his 10-minute monologue to kick off the show and will be sprinkled throughout.

Junghoon Pak presents a chocolate statue during the Governors Ball press preview for the 96th Academy Awards, Tuesday, March 5, 2024, in Los Angeles. The Academy Awards will be held on Sunday, March 10. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

“I think an evening that just makes people feel good is a win,” McNearney said. “Our job as producers is to keep that feeling good moving quickly because it is a long show and we want to make sure people are staying throughout.”

Another thing that works: When the speeches are good and people feel invested in the winners. Last year there were a lot of great comeback and underdog stories, from Brendan Fraser to Ke Huy Quan, which helped. This is not something the producers have any control over, but they are optimistic about the nominees and setting up scenarios with presenters who have a genuine connection either with each other or people in the audience.

“We want everybody to feel included, that they are part of our story,” said executive producer and showrunner Raj Kapoor. “I hope that we have put another kind of modern take on it that really focuses on storytelling and connection and that the audience in the theater and at home will just feel immersed in the experience all throughout the evening.”

Crew members prepare the red carpet area on Wednesday, March 6, 2024, for Sunday’s 96th Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Kapoor noted that the live performances of the Oscar-nominated original songs should be a real highlight of the show too, from the Osage singers to Gosling. They’ve also re-designed the stage so that an orchestra of 42 musicians can be in the Dolby Theatre and seen on camera. And Kapoor teased that the In Memoriam sequence is something they’ve put a lot of time and thought into and that it is poised to tug at audience heartstrings.

“There’s going to be entertainment and lots of surprises and a few cameos and things that haven’t been announced yet. We’re just really excited for everybody to come watch with us,” Katy Mullan said. “The Oscars is one of those last giant tentpole pop culture moments that everybody looks forward to and gathers around that TV set. It’s co-viewing at its best. And we’re in this moment where there’s more interest around these big live moments than there has been in years.”

Their main concern at the moment is that the global audience remembers that the broadcast begins an hour earlier than normal, at 7 p.m. EDT. It’s also the first day of daylight saving time.

“I think people are going to bed earlier and people are very excited, hopefully, that it’s starting at 7,” Mullan said. “It won’t be so late for everyone hanging on for the best picture announcement.”

The 96th Oscars will be broadcast live on ABC from the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on March 10 with the pre-show beginning at 6:30 p.m. EDT.

American pianist Jeremy Denk, Greek violinist Leonidas Kavakos and Swiss flutist Emmanuel Pahud are among the guest artists who will perform during the newly announced 2024-25 Schubert Club International Artist Series.

“Once again, Schubert Club’s artistic committee and I have had the fascinating experience of reviewing dozens of artists and ensembles,” said artistic and executive director Barry Kempton in a news release. “Of particular importance to us this year has been encouraging artists to offer programs which include less familiar music that they believe deserves greater prominence.”

Now in its 142nd year, the Schubert Club is Minnesota’s oldest arts organization. The upcoming season includes both the International Artist Series, held at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in downtown St. Paul, and Music in the Park, which features more intimate chamber music concerts at St. Paul’s St. Anthony Park United Church of Christ.

Subscriptions are priced from $280 to $105 for the International Artist Series and $125 for Music in the Park. They are on sale now via schubert.org or by phone at 651-292-3268. Single ticket sales open in August.

In a special presentation, the Arts Partnership (Minnesota Opera, the Ordway, Schubert Club and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra) will host the Midwest premiere of seven time Grammy Award-winner Terence Blanchard’s “Fire Shut Up in My Bones” at 2 p.m. Feb. 23. The work premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in 2021 and was the first opera written by a Black composer to be performed at the Met.

The International Artist Series includes:

American pianist Jeremy Denk, whose program will celebrate works for solo piano by women composers spanning several centuries and will conclude with works by Schumann and Brahms; 3 p.m. Oct. 13, 7:30 p.m. Oct. 15.
Greek violinist Leonidas Kavakos will perform all of Johann Sebastian Bach’s solo violin sonatas and partitas over the course of two different programs; 2 p.m. Nov. 12, 7:30 p.m. Nov. 13.
Swiss flutist Emmanuel Pahud will make his Schubert Club debut in a rare Midwest appearance; 7:30 p.m. Jan. 22.
Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes will perform the works of two Norwegian composers, Edvard Grieg and Geirr Tveitt; 7:30 p.m. March 28, 2025.
British saxophonist Jess Gillam will make her Schubert Club debut with a program of works by baroque composers alongside masters of the modern era, including Philip Glass, Meredith Monk and Astor Piazzolla; 7:30 p.m. April 16, 2 p.m. April 17, 2025.

The Music in the Park Series concerts take place at 4 p.m. and include:

The Chiaroscuro Quartet will perform music of the Classical and early Romantic periods on gut strings and with historical bows; Oct. 27.
New piano quintet Espressivo! will make their Music in the Park Series debut; Nov. 24.
Cellist Tommy Mesa will make his Twin Cities recital debut with pianist Michelle Cann; Jan. 26.
The Jerusalem Quartet will perform the string quartets of Shostakovich; March 23 and April 27, 2025. (The quartet will also perform three 7:30 p.m. shows on March 24-25 and April 25, offering all 15 Shostakovich quartets across five concerts. Subscribers have the option of adding the three nights.)

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“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 hello. Many other filmmakers — ahem, Marvel and DC — might learn a thing.

When we meet him, Po — voiced as always by a lively Jack Black — is being asked to give up his dream role as Dragon Warrior and pick a successor. He’s being kicked upstairs to be Spiritual Leader of the Valley of Peace. (This is basically the Peter Principle illustrated in animation.)

Except Po doesn’t want to go into management. He loves smashing skulls and still has that lovable imposter syndrome he’s had since the franchise began. He tries to short-circuit any succession plans, change being too frightening.

A new enemy threatening an existential crisis offers a reprieve — The Chameleon — a wicked, powerful sorceress voiced by Viola Davis — looks like the lizard from the GEICO commercials who spent too much time at Graceland.

Po teams up with a new character — a Corsac fox named Zhen voiced by Awkwafina — who is an orphan-turned-thief and teaches the too-trusting panda to trust no one. The movie then becomes a buddy road movie as these two hunt The Chameleon and a chance to bundle their home and auto insurance.

Wait a minute, you might be asking: Where are The Furious Five — Tigress, Viper, Monkey, Crane and Mantis — who have been in each “Kung Fu Panda” iteration so far? They’re not really in “Kung Fu Panda 4,” but the film reaches back to the first installment to bring back the snow leopard, Tai Lung, voiced by the sonorous Ian McShane.

Bryan Cranston is also back to voice Po’s goofy biological father and James Hong returns as his spirited adoptive goose dad, while Dustin Hoffman reprises his role as eye-rolling master Shifu.

It’s a good balance of new and old characters but a masterstroke is coming: The Chameleon finds a way of accessing the spirit realm and bringing back every villain Po has ever faced. That results in a greatest hits-like fight scene that may be hard to top if there’s a “Kung Fu Panda 5.”

The third installment’s writers, Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger, are also back this time, joined by Darren Lemke. The film is helmed by “The Lego Movie 2” director Mike Mitchell and co-directed by Stephanie Ma Stine, who worked on “Raya and the Last Dragon.”

The last three movies have largely stuck to the rural Valley of Peace, so the filmmakers change it up this time and take Po and Zhen to an urban environment, Juniper City, packed with busy animals, rickshaws, and bulls as police officers (watch for a hilarious bull-in-a-jade-shop joke).

As always, it’s the animators who are the real heroes here. From the thick fur on the pandas, to clay tiles smashing on roofs to rain splashing on stones, barroom brawls and petals wafting from cherry trees, this is a visual delight.

Creating The Chameleon — and her scary Komodo dragon guards — gives the animators a chance to show a tiny lizard metamorphosize into an elephant in a few seconds and they relish it. They also sometimes dip into different animation styles, giving a viewer a visual break.

There are some missteps, like a pelican character controlled by a fish in its mouth and three cute bunnies who appear adorable and yet are deeply psychotic. (“Violence makes my tummy tingle,” one says.) Plus, the teaming up again of Po’s dads, while welcome, is also sort of pointless here.

But, as Po would say, “Skadoosh!” The filmmaker have managed a very tricky assignment: Pave the way for a new franchise direction, find new ways to entertain us, remind us of lessons like “It’s never too late to do the right thing” and end the whole thing with the Black-led cover by Tenacious D of “…Baby One More Time” by Britney Spears. Embrace the change.

“Kung Fu Panda 4,” a DreamWorks Animation release that hits theaters Friday, is rated PG for “for mild violence, martial arts action, scary images and some mild rude humor.” Running time: 94 minutes. Three stars out of four.

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