Kung Fu Panda is a 2008 American computer-animated action comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It was directed by John Wayne Stevenson and Mark Osborne and produced by Melissa Cobb, and stars the voice of Jack Black along with Dustin Hoffman,Jackie Chan, Angelina Jolie, Ian McShane, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu, David Cross, Randall Duk Kim, James Hong, Dan Fogler and Michael Clarke Duncan. Set in a version of old China populated by humanoid talking animals, the plot revolves around a bumbling humanoid panda named Po who aspires to be akung fu master. When an evil humanoid kung fu warrior is foretold to escape from prison, Po is unwittingly named the chosen one destined to bring peace to the land, much to the chagrin of the resident kung fu warriors.[1]
Although the concept of a "kung fu panda" has been around since at least 2003, work on the film did not begin until 2004.[2] The idea for the film was conceived by Michael Lachance,[3] a DreamWorks Animation executive. The film was originally intended to be a parody, but director Stevenson decided instead to shoot an action comedy Wuxia film that incorporates the hero's journey narrative archetype for the lead character. The computer animation in the film was more complex than anything DreamWorks had done before. As with most DreamWorks animated films, Hans Zimmer (collaborating with John Powell this time) scored Kung Fu Panda. He visited China to absorb the culture and get to know the China National Symphony Orchestra as part of his preparation. A sequel, Kung Fu Panda 2, was released on May 26, 2011.
Kung Fu Panda premiered in the United States on June 6, 2008, and has since received very favorable reviews from critics and most of the movie-going public, including Chinese audiences who were impressed with the film's faithfulness to their culture. The film currently garners an 88% "Certified Fresh" approval rating from review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. Kung Fu Panda opened in 4,114 theaters, grossing $20.3 million on its opening day and $60.2 million on its opening weekend, resulting in the number one position at the box office. The film became DreamWorks's biggest opening for a non-sequel film, the highest grossing animated movie of the year worldwide, and also had the fourth-largest opening weekend for a DreamWorks animated film at the American and Canadian box office, behind Shrek 2, Shrek the Third, and Shrek Forever After.[4]
Plot
The story is set in the Valley of Peace, a fictional land in ancient China inhabited by anthropomorphic animals. Po (Jack Black), a young, clumsy panda, is a kung fu fanatic who idolizes the Furious Five – Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Monkey (Jackie Chan), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Viper (Lucy Liu), and Crane (David Cross) – a quintet of kung fu masters trained by Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) to protect the valley. Because he works in his goose[5] father Ping's (James Hong) noodle restaurant, Po is unable to achieve his dream of becoming a kung fu master himself.
One day, Shifu's mentor, the elderly tortoise Master Oogway (Randall Duk Kim), has a vision that Shifu's former student and foster son, the evil snow leopard Tai Lung, will escape from prison and return to the Valley of Peace to take revenge for being denied the Dragon Scroll, which is said to hold the secret to limitless power. Shifu holds a kung fu tournament for the Furious Five so that Oogway may identify the legendary Dragon Warrior, the one kung fu master worthy of receiving the Dragon Scroll and capable of defeating Tai Lung. Forced to take a cumbersome noodle cart to the tournament, Po arrives after the doors to the arena close and is unable to enter. Desperate to see the Dragon Warrior be chosen, Po straps himself to a set of fireworks and rockets into the sky. Po crashes into the middle of the arena at the moment when Oogway is to point out the Dragon Warrior, and to the surprise of everyone present, Oogway chooses Po.
Unwilling to believe that a "big fat panda" could be the Dragon Warrior, Shifu attempts to dispatch Po by berating and ridiculing him into quitting his training with the Furious Five, who similarly despise and mock Po for his lack of skill in kung fu. After receiving helpful advice from Oogway, however, Po endures his grueling training and slowly begins to endear himself to the Five with his tenacity, culinary skill, and good humor.
Meanwhile, Tai Lung (Ian McShane) escapes from prison as foreseen by Oogway, ironically picking his locks with the feather of Shifu's messenger Zeng (Dan Fogler), who had come to warn of Tai Lung's impending escape. Oogway makes Shifu promise to train Po before his ascension. Still unable to grasp the basics of kung fu and confessing a crippling self-loathing, Po despairs that he has no chance of defeating Tai Lung. Shifu, however, discovers that Po is capable of impressive physical feats when motivated by food. Using food as positive reinforcement, Shifu successfully trains Po to incorporate these feats into a makeshift yet quite effective kung fu style.
At the same time, the Furious Five set out to stop Tai Lung themselves, only to be overwhelmed and defeated. Shifu decides Po is ready to receive the Dragon Scroll, but the scroll reveals nothing but a blank, reflective gold surface. In despair, Shifu orders Po and the Five to evacuate the valley while he delays Tai Lung as long as possible in a fight to the death. The dejected Po finds his father who, in an attempt to console him, reveals that the long-withheld secret ingredient to his famous "secret ingredient soup" is nothing, explaining that things become special if people believe them to be. Realizing that this concept is the entire point of the Dragon Scroll, Po returns to the Jade Palace to confront Tai Lung, who has reached the Palace and nearly killed Shifu. Po proves to be a formidable challenge for Tai Lung as he tries to protect the Dragon Scroll; though the Dragon Scroll eventually falls into Tai Lung's grasp, he is unable to understand or accept its symbolic meaning, and Po ultimately defeats him using the secret Wuxi Finger Hold. Po is praised by the Valley of Peace and earns the respect of the Furious Five, who fully acknowledge him as a true kung fu master. Shifu, exhausted but alive after his fight with Tai Lung, is finally at peace with himself now that peace has returned to the valley. Po gets worried that Shifu is dead, so he runs back to the Jade Palace and finds Shifu resting on the floor. Po decides to rest with Shifu and gets hungry. Master Shifu agrees that they should eat. There is a post-credit scene showing Po and Master Shifu eating, while a new peach tree grows from the peach Master Shifu dug up quickly in the scene when he and Oogway makes him promise to train Po.
Production
"...we love martial arts movies. I wasn't interested in making fun of them, because I really think martial arts movies can be great films, they can be as good as any genre movie when they're done properly […]
Let's try to make it a real martial arts movie albeit one with a comic character and let's take our action seriously. Let's not give anything up to the big summer movies. Let's really make sure that our kung fu is as cool as any kung fu ever done, so that we can take our place in that canon and make sure it's a beautiful movie, because great martial arts movies are really beautiful-looking movies and then let's see if we can imbue it with real heart and emotion."
—co-director John Stevenson on the comedic approach to the martial arts film.[7]
Publicized work on the film began before October 2004.[8] In September 2005, DreamWorks Animation announced the film alongside Jack Black, who was selected to be the main voice star.[9] In November 2005, DreamWorks Animation announced that Dustin Hoffman, Jackie Chan, Lucy Liu and Ian McShane would join Jack Black in the cast.[10]
Initially, the idea for the film was to make it a spoof, but co-director John Stevenson was not particularly keen on the idea so instead chose the direction of simplistic comedy.[7] Reportedly inspired by Stephen Chow's 2004martial arts action comedy, Kung Fu Hustle,[11] the co-directors wanted to make sure the film also had an authentic Chinese and kung fu feel to it. Production designer Raymond Zibach and art director Tang Heng spent years researching Chinese painting, sculpture, architecture and kung fu movies to help create the look of the film.[12] Zibach said some of the biggest influence of him are the more artful martial arts films such as Hero, House of Flying Daggers and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.[12] The aim for the film, which took four years to make, was to have a good blend of the two, as well as to give it an "epic" feel, unlike other DreamWorks animated features which resorted to "pop songs and celebrity references."[13]
"We've had some productions that were stressful, but this one ran very smoothly and DreamWorks is [sic] this production as a template on how they would like future productions to run. We lucked out, and there really was a sense of harmony on the animation. Even the production people. We all seemed like we were on the same page, believing in the film. That doesn’t happen very often. I tell animators, you will be working on dumpers for most of your career, but every once in a while you get a gem. Kung Fu Panda was a gem."
—Dan Wagner, Head of Character Animation.[14]
The hand-drawn animation sequence at the beginning of the film was made to resemble Chinese shadow puppetry.[15] The opening, which was directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson and produced by James Baxter, was praised by The New York Times reviewer Manohla Dargis as "striking" and "visually different from most mainstream American animations".[16] Other reviewers have compared the opening to the evocative style of Genndy Tartakovsky's Samurai Jack.[17][18] The rest of the film is modern computer animation, which uses bright, offbeat colors to evoke the natural landscape of China.[15] The end credit sequence also features hand-drawn characters and still paintings in the background.[15]
The computer animation used throughout the film was more complex than anything DreamWorks had done before. When the head of production handed the script to VFX Supervisor Markus Manninen, she reportedly laughed and wished him "good luck". "When we started talking," said Manninen, "the movie was still a high concept. But for everyone that looked at it, it screamed complexity. We launched off saying, how can you make this movie tangible? How can you find smart ways to bring this world to life in a way that makes it a great movie and not feel like the complexity becomes the driver of the story, but the story and the emotion being the driver?"[19] In preparation, the animators took a six hour kung fu class.[20]
Producer Melissa Cobb said that originally Po was "more of a jerk," but that the character changed after they heard Jack Black.[20] According to Jack Black, he mostly worked "in isolation", although he and Dustin Hoffman did spend a day together, which Cobb said helped with the scene where their characters face off.[20] Lucy Liu said that the film "was quite different because it was such a long process."[21] Liu said that when she was presented with the project they already had artwork of her character as well as a "short computerized video version of what she would look like when she moved."[21]
Release
The film held its worldwide premiere at the 61st Cannes Film Festival on May 15, 2008, where it received massive and sustained applause at the end of the film's screening.[22][23] Kung Fu Panda later had national premieres in the United States on June 1, 2008 at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California,[24] and on June 26, 2008 at Leicester Square in London, for the United Kingdom.[25]
Kung Fu Panda was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on November 9, 2008. The special features include a Kung Fu Fighting music video by Cee-Lo Green and Jack Black, a tutorial on how to use chopsticks, sound, The Tech of Kung Fu Panda, The Cast of Kung Fu Panda, cast interviews and biographies with Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Ian McShane, Jackie Chan, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu and David Cross, The Premiere of Kung Fu Panda, interactive games and more.
The movie can be purchased as a stand-alone DVD or as part of a two-disc pack that includes the companion story Secrets of the Furious Five.[26] On its first week (ending Nov. 19, 2008) it sold 2,667,861 units ($42,530,240) and 9,029,480 units in total, becoming the second highest-grossing animated film of 2008, behind WALL-E (9,034,425 DVD units).[27]
[edit]Reception and box office
Kung Fu Panda has received positive reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes reported that 88% of 163 critics gave the film a positive review. The film has an approval rating of 76% from a select group of critics and an approval rating of 83% from users of the site.[28] Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 73 out of 100, based on 33 reviews.[29]
Richard Corliss of Time Magazine gave the film a positive review, stating the picture "provides a master course in cunning visual art and ultra-satisfying entertainment".[30] The New York Times said, "At once fuzzy-wuzzy and industrial strength, the tacky-sounding Kung Fu Panda is high concept with a heart," and the review called the film "consistently diverting" and "visually arresting".[16] Chris Barsanti of Filmcritic.com commented, "Blazing across the screen with eye-popping, sublime artwork, Kung Fu Panda sets itself apart from the modern domestic animation trend with its sheer beauty [...] the film enters instant classic status as some of the most gorgeous animation Hollywood has produced since the golden age of Disney."[31] Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune called the film "one of the few comedies of 2008 in any style or genre that knows what it’s doing".[32] However, Tom Charity of CNN criticized the action for "[tending] to blur into a whirlwind of slapstick chaos" and considered the character of Po similar to others played by Black.[33] Peter Howell of The Toronto Star awarded the film two and a half stars, considering it to have a "lack of story" that "frequently manages to amuse, if not entirely to delight".[34]
The film topped the box office in its opening weekend, grossing $60,239,130 for a $14,642 average from 4,114 theaters[35] and performing much better than analysts had been expecting.[36] It also was the highest-grossing opening for a non-sequel DreamWorks Animation film at the time.[36] In its second weekend, the film retreated 44% to second place behind The Incredible Hulk grossing $33,612,594 for a $8,127 average from expanding to 4,136 theaters.[37] It closed on October 9, 2008 after 125 days of release, grossing $215,434,591 in the United States and Canada and $416,309,969 overseas for a worldwide total of $631,744,560.[38] Kung Fu Panda was the highest-grossing non-Shrek film from DreamWorks Animation in the United States and Canada, before being surpassed by How to Train Your Dragon in 2010.[39]
Kung Fu Panda was also well-received in China.[40] It made nearly 110 million Chinese Yuan by July 2, 2008, becoming the first animated film to make more than 100 million Yuan in Chinese box offices.[41][42] The Chinese director Lu Chuan commented, "From a production standpoint, the movie is nearly perfect. Its American creators showed a very sincere attitude about Chinese culture."[43][44] With the film's success at the Chinese box office, some people within China have questioned the quality of China's domestic animations. The fact that such a successful film based on Chinese culture was created by the American movie industry has led to some Chinese introspection.[45][46][47]
[edit]Awards
Kung Fu Panda had been shortlisted for nomination for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature[48] and the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film.[49] However, both awards were won by Pixar's WALL-E instead. This was parodied by the film's main voice actor, Jack Black, at the 81st Academy Awards, saying "Each year I do one DreamWorks project, then I take all the money to the Oscars and bet it on Pixar."[50]
By contrast, Kung Fu Panda won 11 Annie Awards (including Best Picture) out of 16 nominations, albeit amid controversy.[51]
| Awards | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Award | Category | Name | Outcome |
| Academy Awards | Academy Award for Best Animated Feature | John Stevenson Mark Osborne | Nominated |
| 36th Annie Awards | Annie Award for Best Animated Effects in an Animated Production | Li-Ming 'Lawrence' Lee | Won |
| Annie Award for Best Animated Feature | Won | ||
| Annie Award for Best Character Animation in a Feature Production | James Baxter | Won | |
| Philippe Le Brun | Nominated | ||
| Dan Wagner | Nominated | ||
| Annie Award for Best Character Design in an Animated Feature Production | Nico Marlet | Won | |
| Annie Award for Best Directing in an Animated Feature Production | John Stevenson Mark Osborne | Won | |
| Annie Award for Best Music in an Animated Feature Production | Hans Zimmer John Powell | Won | |
| Annie Award for Production Design in an Animated Feature Production | Tang Kheng Heng | Won | |
| Raymond Zibach | Nominated | ||
| Annie Award for Best Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production | Jennifer Yuh Nelson | Won | |
| Alessandro Carloni | Nominated | ||
| Annie Award for Best Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production | Dustin Hoffman | Won | |
| James Hong | Nominated | ||
| Ian McShane | Nominated | ||
| Annie Award for Best Writing in an Animated Feature Production | Jonathan Aibel Glenn Berger | Won | |
| Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards | Best Animated Feature | Nominated | |
| Chicago Film Critics Association Awards | Best Animated Feature | Nominated | |
| Golden Globe Awards | Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film | Nominated | |
| Golden Reel Awards | Best Sound Editing - Sound Effects, Foley, Dialogue and ADR Animation in a Feature Film | Ethan Van Der Ryn Erik Aadahl Mike Hopkins Jonathan Klein Adam Milo Smalley Peter Oso Snell Wayne Lemmer Paul Pirola P.K. Hooker Dan O'Connell John Cucci | Nominated |
| Golden Trailer Awards | Best Animation/Family | Nominated | |
| Huabiao Awards | Outstanding Translated Film | Won | |
| National Movie Awards | Best Family Film | Nominated | |
| Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards | Favorite Voice from an Animated Movie | Jack Black | Won |
| Favorite Animated Movie | Nominated | ||
| Online Film Critics Society | Best Animated Film | Nominated | |
| Producers Guild of America | Animated Motion Picture | Melissa Cobb | Nominated |
| People's Choice Awards | Favorite Family Movie | Nominated | |
| Teen Choice Awards | Choice Summer Movie: Comedy | Nominated | |
| Visual Effects Society | Outstanding Animated Character in an Animated Motion Picture | Jack Black Dan Wagner Nico Marlet Peter Farson | Nominated |
| Outstanding Animation in an Animated Motion Picture | Markus Manninen Dan Wagner Alex Parkinson Raymond Zibach | Nominated | |
| Outstanding Effects Animation in an Animated Motion Picture | Markus Manninen Alex Parkinson Amaury Aubel Li-Ming 'Lawrence' Lee | Nominated | |
[edit]Soundtrack
Main article: Kung Fu Panda (soundtrack)
As with most DreamWorks animated films, composer Hans Zimmer scored the film. Zimmer visited China in order to absorb the culture and got to know the Chinese National Symphony as part of his preparation; in addition, Timbaland also contributed to the soundtrack.[52] The soundtrack also includes a partially rewritten version of the classic song, "Kung Fu Fighting", performed by Cee-Lo Greenand Jack Black for the end credits. Furthermore, in some versions, the ending credit was sung by Rain. Although Zimmer was originally announced as the main composer of the film, during a test screening, CEO of DreamWorks Animation SKG Jeffrey Katzenberg announced that composer John Powell would also be contributing to the score. This marked the first collaboration in eight years for the two, who had previously worked together on DreamWorks' The Road to El Dorado and the action thriller Chill Factor. A soundtrack album was released by Interscope Records on June 3, 2008.[53]
[edit]Sequel
Main article: Kung Fu Panda 2
A sequel, Kung Fu Panda 2, was released on Thursday May 26, 2011,[54] to good reviews (Rotten Tomatoes rating of 83%). It was released in 3-D and was directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson (who directed the 2-D opening sequence of Kung Fu Panda 1) with the original cast returning. The story features a new villain with a mysterious weapon so powerful it threatens the very existence of kung fu, and Po must additionally confront his past.
[edit]Manga
A manga based on the film has been released in Japan in Kerokero Ace magazine's September 2008 issue.[55] It is written by Hanten Okuma and illustrated by Takafumi Adachi.[56] In the manga, a new character named Jun is introduced.
[edit]Television Series
Main article: Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness
A television series in development for Nickelodeon titled Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness is set to premiere sometime in 2011. This will be Nickelodeon's second DreamWorks deal, the first being The Penguins of Madagascar.[57][58] A total of 52 episodes have been ordered; an initial order of 26 followed by an additional 26 ordered in April 2011 according to Brown Johnson, president for animation of Nickelodeon.[59] Several finished and unfinished scenes were shown at the 2010 San Diego Comic Con.[60]
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