Kung Fu Panda is a 2008 American computer-animated martial arts comedy
film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The first installment in the Kung Fu Panda franchise, it was directed by John Stevenson, in his feature directorial debut, co-directed by Mark Osborne and written by Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger, from a story by Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris. The film, set in a version of ancient China populated by anthropomorphic animals, centers on a bumbling panda named Po, a kung-fu enthusiast. When a notorious snow-leopard named Tai Lung is foretold to escape at Chorh-Gom Prison, Po is unwittingly named the "Dragon Warrior"—a prophesied hero worthy of reading a scroll that has been intended to grant its reader limitless power.
Plot[]
In an alternate China (populated entirely by anthropomorphic animals), a panda named Poawoke from a dream in which he had been heroically fighting alongside the Furious Five—Tigress, Monkey, Mantis, Viper, and Crane—a quintet of warriors trained in kung fu whom Po had idolized since childhood. In reality, Po was the son of a goose named Mr. Ping and worked in the family noodle shop. Though clumsy and portly, he was a kung fu fanatic who dearly hoped to become a kung fu warrior himself. However, his father was proud of their "noodle folk" heritage and wished for Po to some day run the restaurant in his place and was unaware of his son's true aspiration.
Elsewhere in the Jade Palace, the master of the Furious Five, Master Shifu, was told by Master Oogway about a premonition that Shifu's former pupil and son, the snow leopard Tai Lung, who was imprisoned after attacking the Valley of Peace, would escape from his high-security prison and return. Shifu immediately sent a palace goose named Zeng to fly all the way to Chorh-Gom Prisonto double everything in order to prevent Oogway's vision from coming true. Oogway relayed to Shifu that it was time to choose the legendary Dragon Warrior, one who would be worthy to receive the power of the Dragon Scroll, said to give supreme power to whoever would read it. A tournament was to be held to determine which of the Furious Five would be chosen.
Once aware of the tournament, Po became anxious to attend it, but was swayed by his father to take a noodle cart up the giant staircase to the Jade Palace arena. After a long struggle, he eventually abandoned the cart and climbed the stairs himself, which exhausted him. When he arrived at the top, the gates closed on him and the tournament had already started. Desperate to see the tournament, Po tried several ways to get inside, all ending in disaster. In a final attempt, Po strapped fireworks to a chair and lit them, only to be spotted by his father, who panicked seeing the stunt. After declaring that he loved kung fu, the fireworks soon sparked and Po shot up into the sky. Po eventually fell down into the middle of the arena in front of Oogway, who was about to point to the Dragon Warrior. The tortoise indicated that the Dragon Warrior was, in fact, the panda who had fallen before him.
After failing to persuade Oogway that a "flabby panda" couldn't possibly be the true Dragon Warrior, Shifu met Po in the Jade Palace and tried to berate and humiliate the panda, even threatening him with the Wuxi Finger Hold. The red panda later tried to pressure Po into quitting, subjecting him to the dangers of the Training Hall and a grueling series of matches with the Furious Five, all of whom (especially Tigress) thought little of him and joked about his incompetence. That night, Po was dejected after his first day of training, more so after being coldly told off by Tigress, and subjected himself to overeating, stuffing his mouth with peaches picked from the Peach Tree of Heavenly Wisdom. When discovered by Master Oogway, who understood his troubles, the tortoise gave him the advice to focus on his present situation instead of worrying about the failures of the past or future.
Meanwhile, Tai Lung had escaped from his Mongolian prison, using one of the loose feathers from the very messenger goose Shifu had sent to assure the prison's security, and was able to pick the lock of the acupuncture restraint he was held in. After fighting and defeating the guards of the prison, the snow leopard grasped the messenger and told him to tell those at the Jade Palace that "the real Dragon Warrior is coming home." Anxious to have the Dragon Scroll himself, he began his return to the Valley of Peace.
Taking Oogway's advice to heart, Po had arrived early in the courtyard to practice, surprising Shifu and Five, who had been convinced he had quit. Soon, Po endeared himself to most of the Five (sans Tigress) with his impressive tenacity, culinary skill, and good humor, even though he was still unable to grasp the basics of kung fu.
Meanwhile, Oogway exacted a promise from Shifu that the latter would believe in and train Po, and then ascended to the heavens in a swirl of flower petals, conferring his guardianship of the Valley of Peace upon Shifu. Upon hearing that Tai Lung was coming, Po panicked and tried to flee from the palace. Shifu refused to let him go, insisting that Oogway's advice must be followed, but Po had lost all confidence and the red panda was at a complete loss for a solution. After witnessing this argument on the roof of the Palace, Tigress led the Furious Five in an attempt to stop Tai Lung themselves.
The next morning, Shifu discovered that Po displayed incredible and impressive agility when he is motivated by food. He therefore takes Po for solitary training in the mountains and, by promising food as a reward for learning his lessons well, trained Po into a skilled and capable warrior.
Tigress and the other members of the Furious Five arrived at a long rope bridge over a misty canyon, in which the Five confronted Tai Lung, to whom they engaged in battle. Though the Five initially seemed to win, Tai Lung ultimately defeated them with the use of nerve attacks. Crane managed to fly back to the Jade Palace carrying the rest of the Five, who have been paralyzed. Feeling that Po was ready to beat Tai Lung, Shifu gave him the Dragon Scroll — which opened to reveal nothing but a blank, golden reflective surface.
Stricken with at the scroll's apparent worthlessness, Po and the Five were ordered by Shifu to evacuate the Valley while he prepared to delay Tai Lung for as long as he could, knowing this attempt would likely lead to his death. During the evacuation, Po found his father, who was busy preparing to escape, already sharing ideas for a new noodle shop. Po, however, ruefully paused, his hopes of following his dreams dashed. In an attempt to console him, Mr. Ping revealed that the long-withheld secret ingredient of his famous secret ingredient soup was "nothing"—except the power of conviction. Taking this in, Po then took out the Dragon Scroll; he realized that this idea applied to himself and his own destiny, and set out to return to the palace and face Tai Lung.
At the palace, Tai Lung confronted Shifu and demanded the scroll, letting out his anger at being rejected from becoming the Dragon Warrior himself and blaming Shifu for not speaking up for him at the determining moment. After fighting him off and being beaten, Shifu eventually offered an apology to Tai Lung for his mistake in not seeing what he had turned him into. When Shifu refused to hand him the scroll, Tai Lung attacked and nearly killed him. After a hesitant moment, Tai Lung declared he didn't want an apology, he wanted his scroll, which he noticed was missing. Enraged, he demanded Shifu to tell him where its whereabouts, pinning the old master to the floor by his throat. Shifu managed to choke out that Po had already taken the scroll halfway across China and out of Tai Lung's reach. Before Tai Lung was about to strike a blow to his former master with his claws, an exhausted Po arrived, proclaiming to be the Dragon Warrior.
Tai Lung, taken aback, chuckled at the notion that the "big, fat panda" was the Dragon Warrior of legend, but when Po pulled out the Dragon Scroll, he was swiftly attacked by the leopard. Soon the two began a battle over possession of the scroll, in which Po unexpectedly proved himself an equal, which the leopard concluded could only be possible through the scroll's power. After a frustrating struggle that dragged down the palace steps and into a village of the Valley, Tai Lung gained the upper hand, pummeling Po to the ground, and finally opened the scroll only to be was met with confusion, unable to comprehend its symbolic meaning.
Po then offered an explanation, interpreting that: "There is no secret ingredient... It's just you." Furious at this, Tai Lung attacked the panda again; however, Po's body-mass made Tai Lung's nerve attacks useless, only managing to tickle him. Po followed this defense with counter-attacks of devastating effectiveness, and eventually captured an exhausted Tai Lung with the Wuxi Finger Hold, claiming to have figured out the mysterious move himself. With the bending of his pinkie and the word "skadoosh", Po performed the hold, bringing about a golden, misty shockwave throughout the Valley and defeating the snow leopard.
The Furious Five soon returned to the village with the Valley's citizens, finding Po, dazed but victorious. Mr. Ping, moved by his son's brave actions, proudly declared to all that the kung fu warrior before him was his son, and he and Po embraced. Tigress, deeply impressed, then led the Furious Five in their acceptance of Po as a fellow kung fu Master. Po was humbled and overjoyed, but remembered that Shifu was critically wounded, and hurried back to the palace.
Po found the old red panda barely conscious. Shifu told Po that he had brought peace to the Valley, and to him, and thanked him, trailing off and closing his eyes. Po then pleaded for the master not to die, only for Shifu to yell that he wasn't dying, but was simply at peace. After the two rested in a tranquil moment, Po broke the silence by asking Shifu if he wants to get something to eat, to which the red panda eventually answered he did.
In a post-credits scene, Po and Shifu are seen sharing a meal of dumplings next to the blooming peach tree, while the peach seed Oogway planted earlier is shown to have sprouted into a small sapling.
Voice Cast[]
Trivia[]
- It aired on Cartoon Network on September 7, 2015. It had aired again on September 27, 2015.
- It aired on Nickelodeon on October 22, 2015. It had aired again on December 30, 2023.
Gallery[]
