Kung Fu Panda

• 1. Introduction

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  Kung Fu Panda began on the 6th of June 2008, when DreamWorks Animation released a film about a giant panda who was never supposed to be a hero. His name is Po Ping. He is bumbling and gluttonous, and he is improbably named the prophesied Dragon Warrior. Jack Black and Mick Wingert are his main voices.

  The world around Po is a fantasy version of ancient China, built on the wuxia genre of martial arts adventure and populated by animals who talk and fight. At first, nobody believes in him, and Po himself doubts him most of all.

  That opening raises the questions this documentary follows. What does a hero need besides talent? How does one comic idea grow into four films, three television series and six short films? And why do audiences in China admire a Western studio's take on one of their own genres?

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• 2. A Blank Scroll

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  In the Valley of Peace, Po spends his days working in a noodle shop run by his goose father, Mr. Ping. He dreams of kung fu but has no way to learn it.

  The valley's elderly spiritual leader, Grand Master Oogway, holds a tournament to name the Dragon Warrior. That title belongs to the one master able to understand the Dragon Scroll, which is said to hold the key to limitless power. Everyone expects the winner to come from the Furious Five: Tigress, Monkey, Mantis, Viper and Crane. Master Shifu trained all five to protect the valley.

  Po arrives late, launched into the arena by a fireworks explosion, and Oogway points at him. Shifu refuses to accept the choice. He puts Po through punishing training, hoping the panda will give up and go home. Po stays. The Furious Five, who had mocked his lack of skill, slowly become his friends.

  Then word arrives that Tai Lung is coming. He is an evil kung fu warrior who escaped from prison to take revenge for being denied the Dragon Scroll. Po despairs. Shifu, however, notices that Po performs astonishing moves whenever food is the reward, and he builds the training around that discovery.

  When Po finally receives the scroll, he finds it completely blank. Staring at it, he realizes the limitless power was inside him all along, and that realization lets him defeat Tai Lung. The peace he restored would last only until a weapon called the cannon appeared on the horizon.

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• 3. Fathers and Villains

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  In 2011, Kung Fu Panda 2 opened with Po living his dream as a kung fu master, protecting the valley alongside the Furious Five. Then flashbacks of his mother begin to haunt him. Mr. Ping finally admits that Po was adopted as an infant.

  The Five are sent to stop Lord Shen, an evil peacock who wants to use the cannon to conquer all of China and destroy kung fu tradition. Shen had once learned of a prophecy that he would be defeated by "a warrior of black-and-white". In response, he set out to exterminate all pandas. Po's parents risked their lives to save their infant son from that campaign.

  A wise old soothsayer guides Po to embrace this painful past. Once he finds inner peace, he destroys the cannon, defeats Shen and accepts Mr. Ping as his father. The final scene shows Po's biological father realizing that his son is alive.

  That father, Li, turns up in Kung Fu Panda 3, released in 2016. Shifu has just handed his duties as master of the Jade Palace to Po, saying that overseeing the Furious Five's training is the next step in his own apprenticeship. Po rejoices at the reunion with Li, though Mr. Ping is far less pleased.

  The new threat is General Kai, a spirit warrior who has returned to the mortal realm. He is collecting kung fu masters, both living and dead, to serve in an army of Jade Zombies. A scroll left by Oogway reveals that only the power of Chi can defeat him, a technique known to the panda colonies.

  Po and Li travel to the secret Panda Valley so that Po can learn it. There Po discovers, to his horror, that Li had lied. The pandas had long ago forgotten how to wield Chi, and Li simply wanted to shield his son from Kai.

  After making amends with both fathers, Po joins Ping, Tigress and the pandas in a final stand. All of them master Chi and use it to destroy Kai for good. Back in the Valley of Peace, Po spends his days spreading the teachings of kung fu and Chi. But the next film begins with Shifu telling him to step aside.

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• 4. Passing the Title

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  On the 8th of March 2024, Kung Fu Panda 4 arrived with a hero facing an unusual order. Shifu tells Po to retire as Dragon Warrior and find a successor, because Shifu himself must advance to become the Spiritual Leader of the Valley of Peace. Po is disappointed, and his search for a candidate angers Shifu.

  Then a corsac fox and thief named Zhen slips into the Jade Palace, and Po sends her to prison. Soon he hears that Tai Lung has returned. Zhen reveals the truth: it was not Tai Lung at all, but a shapeshifting sorceress called the Chameleon. Zhen agrees to lead Po to the Chameleon in exchange for a shorter sentence.

  The pair head for Juniper City, where Po learns that Zhen is a wanted criminal. Both are arrested, and both escape to the Den of Thieves. There Zhen reunites with her old mentor Han, who lets them stay for one day.

  In the Chameleon's lair, Zhen betrays Po. She takes the Staff of Wisdom and hands it to the Chameleon, who turns out to be her master. Po escapes without the staff. The Chameleon, now shapeshifted into Zhen, throws him off a cliff, but his adoptive and biological fathers catch him.

  With the staff, the Chameleon summons every martial arts master from the Spirit Realm, steals their kung fu and locks them in cages. Zhen turns away from her master and rejoins Po. She also persuades the Den of Thieves to help.

  Together, Zhen and Po defeat the Chameleon and return the stolen kung fu to its owners. Po sends the masters back to the spirit realm, and Tai Lung takes the Chameleon with him. In the Valley of Peace, Po names Zhen the next Dragon Warrior, and the Furious Five join him in training her.

  In May 2024, director Mike Mitchell suggested that a fifth film could happen. He said it would likely not arrive until at least 2027, because production takes so long.

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• 5. Small Screens, Short Films

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  On the 7th of November 2011, Nickelodeon launched Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness, a series set between the first two films. It was first meant to premiere in 2010 but was delayed. Of the film cast, only Lucy Liu as Viper, Randall Duk Kim as Oogway and James Hong as Mr. Ping returned.

  The first season ran 26 episodes and ended on the 5th of April 2012. A second season of 26 episodes aired from the 6th of April 2012 to the 21st of June 2013. A third season of 28 episodes began on the 24th of June 2013 and went on extended hiatus after the 22nd of June 2014. Its last 10 episodes aired from the 15th of February to the 29th of June 2016, timed to the theatrical run of Kung Fu Panda 3.

  The Paws of Destiny, set after the third film, came from DreamWorks Animation Television with Amazon Studios and streamed on Amazon Prime Video. Its 26 episodes arrived in two halves of 13, on the 16th of November 2018 and the 4th of July 2019. Po mentors four young pandas named Nu Hai, Jing, Bao and Fan Tong. They find a mystical cave beneath the Panda Village and accidentally absorb the chi of ancient warriors known as the four constellations.

  On the 14th of July 2022, Netflix premiered The Dragon Knight, with Jack Black back as Po. This time Po leaves home for a globe-trotting quest for redemption and justice. His partner is a no-nonsense English knight called the Wandering Blade, voiced by Rita Ora, and James Hong again plays Mr. Ping.

  Six short films fill the gaps around these stories. Secrets of the Furious Five, from 2008, appeared on a companion disc of the first film's deluxe DVD and aired on NBC on the 26th of February 2009. Po, in computer animation, narrates tales of the Furious Five that are drawn in 2D cel animation.

  Kung Fu Panda Holiday premiered on NBC on the 24th of November 2010. Master Shifu assigns Po to host the annual Winter Feast, even though Po would rather spend the holiday with Mr. Ping. On the 13th of December 2011, Secrets of the Masters came with the second film's DVD and Blu-ray. It tells the backgrounds of three masters of Gongmen City: Thundering Rhino, Storming Ox and Croc.

  Secrets of the Scroll, released in January 2016, shows how the Furious Five formed and fought their first common enemy. Panda Paws, also from 2016, pits Mei Mei, voiced by Kate Hudson, against Bao at the Spring Festival. An earlier version played in theaters before the film Home in 2015, with Rebel Wilson voicing Mei Mei before her firing from Kung Fu Panda 3.

  Dueling Dumplings, from 2024, takes place after the fourth film. Po and Zhen offer each other dumplings from their home regions, argue over which are better and end up liking both. The people who gave all these characters their voices are the next piece of the story.

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• 6. Voices and Crew

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  Dustin Hoffman gave Master Shifu his gravelly authority, while Angelina Jolie voiced Tigress and Seth Rogen voiced Mantis. Jackie Chan played Monkey, Lucy Liu played Viper and David Cross played Crane. James Hong spoke for Mr. Ping and Randall Duk Kim for Oogway. Ian McShane played the villain Tai Lung.

  The sequels brought in a new wave of villains. Gary Oldman voiced Lord Shen, and Michelle Yeoh played the soothsayer. J. K. Simmons voiced General Kai in the third film. In the fourth, Awkwafina became Zhen and Viola Davis voiced the Chameleon, while Ke Huy Quan played Han.

  Behind the microphones, the directing chair changed with almost every film. John Stevenson and Mark Osborne directed the first. Jennifer Yuh Nelson directed the second alone, then shared the third with Alessandro Carloni. Mike Mitchell took over for the fourth. Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger wrote the screenplays for all four, and Melissa Cobb produced the first.

  Hans Zimmer is credited as composer across the films. John Powell and Steve Mazzaro are credited alongside him on some of them. Distribution moved too: Paramount Pictures handled the first two films, 20th Century Fox the third and Universal Pictures the fourth. Running times stay tight, from 90 to 95 minutes.

  The second film also earned a record. Nelson's film became the highest-grossing film worldwide directed solely by a woman, and it held that title until Wonder Woman in 2017. The numbers behind that record come next.

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• 7. Box Office and Acclaim

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  The first film cost $130 million to make and opened in North America with just over $60 million. It finished with about $632 million worldwide. The second film had a $150 million budget and an opening weekend of roughly $47.7 million. It climbed to about $666 million worldwide, the highest total in the series.

  Kung Fu Panda 3 cost $145 million and earned about $521 million worldwide after a $41 million opening. The fourth film was made for a much smaller $85 million. It opened with nearly $58 million in North America and ended near $548 million worldwide.

  Added together, the four films grossed well over $2 billion. That places the series among the highest-grossing animated franchises, and it is DreamWorks Animation's second biggest, behind Shrek. Critics often praised the animation, voice acting and character development. For the fourth film, Rotten Tomatoes recorded 71% positive from 160 reviews, while Metacritic gave it 54 from 33 reviews.

  The first two films were both nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, along with numerous Annie Awards. The television side won too. The first series took home 11 Emmy Awards, and the third series won two.

  The series also found a loyal audience in China, where people see it as an outstanding Western interpretation of the wuxia film genre. Beyond screens, the success reached games, a stalled arena show and theme park rides. The first game launched on the 3rd of June 2008.

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• 8. Games and Parks

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  On the 3rd of June 2008, Activision published a Kung Fu Panda video game loosely based on the first film. It reached Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii and Nintendo DS, and then Mac OS X on the 18th of March 2009. A sequel, Legendary Warriors, followed for Nintendo DS on the 5th of November 2008 and Wii on the 5th of December 2008.

  Kung Fu Panda World, a browser game, appeared on the 12th of April 2010. THQ published a Kung Fu Panda 2 game set after the film on the 23rd of May 2011. Vicious Cycle Software developed Showdown of Legendary Legends, which Little Orbit released on the 1st of December 2015. Crossovers followed. Brawlhalla added Po, Tigress and Tai Lung as playable characters on the 24th of March 2021, and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang added skins on the 20th of August 2022.

  An arcade machine, Dojo Mojo, was revealed at the IAAPA trade show in 2014 and shipped in early 2015. It surrounds the player with six illuminated pads that must be hit to match targets on screen, across three difficulty levels. Sega Amusements distributes it internationally.

  Director Franco Dragone planned something grander. Kung Fu Panda: Arena Spectacular was meant to combine circus and Chinese acrobatics with arena show effects, around the time of the second film. After a multi-city casting tour in 2010, new audition dates were announced for January 2012. Shortly before them, Dragone and DreamWorks postponed the opening and canceled every audition. No further announcements have come.

  Theme parks proved easier. Po's Kung Fu Garden opened in 2012 at Dreamworld in Australia, starting as a small photo opportunity before rides were added late that year. A multi-sensory attraction opened at the DreamWorks Theatre at Universal Studios Hollywood on the 15th of June 2018. A children's play area opened at DreamWorks Water Park on the 1st of October 2020. Universal Studios Beijing opened Kung Fu Panda Land of Awesomeness alongside the park in September 2021.

  The next step is planned for Florida, where DreamWorks Land at Universal Studios Florida will include a play area called Po's Kung Fu Training Camp. It will also offer a digital meet-and-greet named Po Live!

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