Kung Fu Panda 2008 trailer animated film bungling kung fu warrior Jack Black Jac...

Kung Fu P&a is a 2008 animated film about a bungling p&a who aspires to be a kung fu warrior. Kung Fu P&a is directed by John Stevenson & Mark Osborne & produced by Melissa Cobb. Although the concept of a kung fu p&a has been around since at least 1993, the idea fo. the film was conceived by Michael Lachance, a DreamWorks Animation executive. Work on the film did not begin until 2004 & the film premièred at the 61st Cannes Film Festival in May 2008. The film was released internationally on June 6, 2008, & was released in the United Kingdom on July 4, 2008. The film was animated by Dreamworks Animation's studio in Glendale, California, & is distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film stars the voices of Jack Black, Jackie Chan, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Lucy Liu, Seth Rogen, David Cross, & Ian McShane. In the United States, it has been rated PG by the MPAA fo. sequences of martial arts action & mild blood, & in the United Kingdom, PG by the BBFC.Plot Po (Jack Black) is a p&a who works in a noodle restaurant owned by his goose father Mr. Ping (James Hong). He is a kung fu fanatic with secret dreams of becoming a great master in the discipline, however his weight & clumsiness seem to make his goal unattainable; Mr. Ping hopes instead that Po will one day take over the restaurant, & waits fo. the perfect opportunity to disclose the secret ingredient to his family's noodle recipe. The tortoise Master Oogway (R&all Duk Kim) has a premonition that the evil snow leopard warrio. Tai Lung (Ian McShane), the former student of his own protégé, the red p&a Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman), will escape from prison & return to threaten the Valley of Peace. While Shifu sends Zeng (Dan Fogler), a messenger goose, to Chorh-Gom Prison to have the security increased, Oogway orders a formal ceremony to choose the mighty Dragon Warrio. who can defeat Tai Lung. Everyone assumes that one of the Furious Five — Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Monkey (Jackie Chan), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Viper (Lucy Liu), & Crane (David Cross) — a quintet of supremely skilled martial artists trained by Shifu, will be chosen fo. this honor. While the Five demonstrate their skills at the ceremony, Po arrives too late & finds himself locked outside the walled palace square. As a last-ditch attempt to get in, he ties several fireworks to a chair & ignites them, which sends him crashing into the center of the arena. Inspired by this sudden appearance, Oogway designates Po the Dragon Warrior. Despite Po's protests & Shifu's pleas to reconsider, Oogway st&s by his decision. Revolted at having Po under his tutelage, Shifu attempts to make him quit by berating & humiliating him. The Five similarly dismiss Po as a worthless interloper. Although he becomes aware of Shifu's true intentions & is deeply hurt by his heroes' disdain fo. him, Po endures their abuse willingly fo. the dream to become something more than the failure he thinks he is. Master Oogway, still certain that Po is the right choice, gives him sage advice to believe in himself. Eventually, Po endears himself to the Five (except fo. Tigress) with his tenacity, good cooking, & sense of humor. At this time Tigress reveals to Po how Tai Lung came to be so evil. Shifu raised him from a cub & treated him like a son. When Oogway refused to make Tai Lung the Dragon Warrior, he became enraged & laid waste to the Valley. He then tried to take the dragon scroll. Shifu tried to stop him, but could not bear to destroy what he had created. Tai Lung was defeated by Master Oogway & imprisoned. Tigress ends her story by saying that Shifu loved Tai Lung like he never had before, o. since. Meanwhile, Zeng's err& backfires when a tour of the prison given to him by the overly confident head of security, Comm&er Vachir (Michael Clarke Duncan), inadvertently enables Tai Lung to escape. Tai Lung orders Zeng to send word of his arrival to Shifu. In the Valley of Peace, Oogway passes away & ascends to the heavens, leaving his final wish that Shifu train Po. However, upon learning of Tai Lung's return, & realizing that he has to face the evil warrior, Po attempts to flee. Shifu stops the p&a & promises to train him if he is truly destined to be the Dragon Warrior. When Po confesses his belief that he may never be a match fo. Tai Lung, Shifu is at a loss fo. a solution. Overhearing this argument, Tigress takes it upon herself to intercept Tai Lung, & the rest of The Five follow her to assist. The following morning, Shifu discovers that Po is capable of impressive physical feats when motivated by food. He leads Po to the countryside fo. an intensive training regime in which Po is offered food as a reward fo. learning his lessons. As Shifu hopes, Po swiftly becomes a skilled combatant. The Five battle Tai Lung but are eventually defeated with a specialized nerve-striking technique, & they retreat to the valley. When they return, Shifu decides Po is ready to face the villain & gives him the sacred Dragon Scroll, which promises great power to the possessor. When Po opens it, he finds nothing but a blank reflective surface. Stricken with despair at the scroll's apparent worthlessness, Shifu orders his students to lead the villagers to safety while he stays to delay Tai Lung fo. as long as he can. As Po participates in the evacuation, he meets his father, who tries to cheer him up by telling him the secret ingredient of the family's noodle soup: nothing. Things become special, he explains, because people believe them to be special. Realizing that is the very point of the Dragon Scroll, Po rushes off to help Shifu. At this time, Tai Lung arrives at the palace. He blames Shifu fo. not granting him the title of Dragon Warrio. just because Master Oogway did not choose him, & the two begin to fight. Fo. his part, Shifu is crippled by his profound feelings of guilt & responsibility fo. his former protégé, whom he loved & raised like a son, turning to darkness. When Tai Lung discovers that the Dragon Scroll is gone, he attempts to kill Shifu in anger. But before he can, Po finally arrives & challenges him. Although Tai Lung scoffs at Po's abilities, the ensuing fight proves Po to be a formidable opponent. Despite Po's skill, Tai Lung temporarily stuns him & gains the Dragon Scroll, but is unable to underst& its symbolism. Po tries to explain the wisdom of the scroll to Tai Lung, but the frustrated leopard tries to subdue Po with his nerve strikes. The attack proves useless on the p&a, as his nerves are difficult to find due to his body fat. Emboldened, Po counter-attacks with an improvised combat style that takes advantage of his girth to absorb & deflect the force from Tai Lung's attacks back at him. In the end, Po uses the Wuxi Finger Hold on Tai Lung (a technique Shifu had previously threatened to use on Po), destroying him in a large explosion of golden light that ripples through the valley. The Five return to the valley to investigate & find a slightly dazed but triumphant Po. Deeply impressed by Po's victory, Tigress leads the Five to acknowledge him as a Kung Fu master. Po suddenly remembers that his teacher is badly wounded, & rushes back to Shifu. At first the master appears to be dying, & Po panics. But it turns out that he is only resting after such a terrible battle with Tai Lung. At the end of the credits, Shifu & Po are seen eating together by the sacred peach tree. A peach seed planted by Shifu before Oogway's passing has sprouted into a new plant. Cast Main article: List of characters from Kung Fu P&a Voice Acto. Role Animal Jack Black Po Giant P&a Dustin Hoffman Master Shifu Red P&a Angelina Jolie Tigress South China Tiger Jackie Chan Monkey Golden Langur Lucy Liu Viper Green Tree Viper David Cross Crane Red-crowned Crane Seth Rogen Mantis Praying Mantis Ian McShane Tai Lung Snow Leopard Dan Fogler Zeng Goose R&all Duk Kim Gr& Master Oogway Tortoise James Hong Mr. Ping Goose Michael Clarke Duncan Comm&er Vachir Javan Rhinoceros Production Development "...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 & 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 & make sure it's a beautiful movie, because great martial arts movies are really beautiful-looking movies & then let's see if we can imbue it with real heart & emotion." —co-directo. John Stevenson on the comedic approach to the martial arts film. Publicized work on the film began before October 2004 at about the same time the PlayStation 2 videogame Ribbit King was released with its kung fu p&a character, "Pan-Pan." In September 2005, DreamWorks Animation announced the film alongside Jack Black, who was selected to be the main voice star. Initially, the idea fo. the film was to make it a parody & spoof, but co-directo. John Stevenson was not particularly keen on the idea so instead chose the direction of simplistic comedy. Reportedly inspired by Stephen Chow's 2004 martial arts action comedy, Kung Fu Hustle, the co-directors wanted to make sure the film also had an authentic Chinese & kung fu feel to it. Production designer Raymond Zibach & art directo. Tang Heng spent years researching Chinese painting, sculpture, architecture & kung fu movies to help create the look of the film. Zibach said some of the biggest influence of him are the more artful martial-arts films such as Hero, & House of Flying Daggers & Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The aim fo. the film, which took four years to make, was to make it 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 & celebrity references." In November 2005, Dreamworks Animation announced that Dustin Hoffman, Jackie Chan, Lucy Liu, Seth Rogen, David Cross & Ian McShane would join Jack Black in the cast. Music Main article: Kung Fu P&a (soundtrack) As with most DreamWorks animated films, composer Hans Zimmer scored the film. Zimmer visited China in order to absorb the culture & got to know the Chinese National Symphony as part of his preparation; in addition, Timbal& also contributed to the soundtrack. The soundtrack also includes a partially rewritten version of the classic song, "Kung Fu Fighting", performed by Cee-Lo Green & Jack Black fo. the end credits. Though Zimmer was originally announced as the main composer of the film, during a test screening Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks Animation SKG, announced that composer John Powell would also be contributing to the score. This marked the first collaboration in eight years fo. these two, having previously worked together on Dreamworks' The Road to El Dorado & the action thriller Chill Factor. The film's music was performed by the China National Symphony Orchestra. A soundtrack album was released by Interscope Records on June 3, 2008. Animation The h&-drawn animation sequence at the beginning of the film was made to resemble Chinese shadow puppetry. The opening, which was directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson & animated by James Baxter, was praised by New York Times reviewer Manohla Dargis as "striking" & "visually different from most mainstream American animations." Other reviewers have compared the opening to the evocative style of Genndy Tartakovsky's Samurai Jack. The rest of the film is modern computer animation, which uses bright, offbeat colors to evoke the natural l&scape of China. Release Reception & performance Kung Fu P&a has received very good reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes reported that 88% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 134 reviews. The film has a rating of 75% from select top critics & a rating of 89% from users of the site. Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 73 out of 100, based on 12 reviews. The film premiered at the 61st Cannes Film Festival, where it received massive & sustained applause at the end of the film's screening. Zhao B&i, a Chinese artist & fashion designer who specializes in p&a-related designs, launched an online petition suggesting that the film should be boycotted. Of the reasons Zhao B&i claimed in his petition includes that Hollywood is seeking to profit from Chinese culture especially right after the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake, the film was in poo. taste to be released after the Earthquake (given that p&as live in the quake zone), & protested against the fact that the film was produced by DreamWorks, which is owned by Steven Spielberg, who withdrew from his role as an adviser to the 2008 Summer Olympics over concerns about China’s role in Sudan (although Spielberg is not one of the producers of Kung Fu P&a). Zhao B&i also admitted that he had not seen the film himself prio. to the petition. However, while postings on his website both praised & criticized the film, many others said there was no reason to boycott it & Zhao's complaints have prompted a backlash online asserting that an entertaining film paying tribute to Chinese heritage would be welcome at this difficult time , & some even questioned whether this is just a publicity stunt by the artist. Regardless of the controversy, the film's opening was enthusiastically received in China . With the film such a blockbuster success, many Chinese are questioning their own artistic creativity. The fact that such a successful film based on Chinese culture was created by the American movie industry has lead to some Chinese introspection. Award-winning directo. Lu Chuan is quoted as saying "I cannot help wondering when China will be able to produce a movie of this caliber". The film has shown that the Western media has been far more successful at using cultural cross-pollination. Inquiries have arisen over various aspects of Chinese culture; including the exam-driven education system, the appreciation of its own cultural heritage, & censorship in the media. The film was released in 4,114 theaters, & grossed $20.3 million on its opening day, & $60.2 million fo. the weekend, ranking #1 at the box office. It is also DreamWorks Animation's biggest opening fo. a non-sequel film, & the third-largest opening weekend overall fo. a DreamWorks animated film (behind Shrek the Third & Shrek 2). Franchise development Jeffrey Katzenberg has publicly stated since that the film's premiere exceeded expectations, a Kung Fu P&a series of up to six films is likely depending on the overall performance of the initial film's release. With the subsequent strong box office performance of the film, preproduction of the first sequel is underway. Merch&ising Video game Main article: Kung Fu P&a (video game) A video game adaptation of the film was developed & published by Activision on June 3, 2008. Trivia - Master Oogway's name is a transcription of the Chinese word 乌龟/烏龜 wūguī, which means "tortoise". - Master Shifu's name is a transcription of the Chinese word 师父/師父 shīfu, which means "master". The fact that the name Shifu itself means Master can be ridiculous fo. Chinese people. - "Wuxi" in the Wuxi Finger Hold is a transcription of the Chinese word 巫师/巫師 wūshī, which means "wizard". - The character Crane was writing when Po was getting acupunctured is 禅/禪 chán, o. Zen in English. References 1. "Kung Fu P&a". The Numbers. Retrieved on 2008-06-11. 2. Brown, Geoff. (October 19, 1993) The Times Who framed the animator's artistry?. Section: Features; Page 31: "In studios stretching from California to Irel& & the Far East, craftsmen sit bent over drawing boards, computer screens o. lumps of plasticine, bringing to life everything from square-jawed superheroes & kids on the block to little blue aliens & a cuddly pawsome called the Incredible Kung Fu P&a." 3. PR Newswire, "Imagi Announces Strategic Alliance fo. Gatchaman & Astro Boy Toy Development", IT news, August 7, 2007. 4. The Furious Five are homages to the Crane, Snake, Monkey, Praying Mantis, & Tiger styles of Chinese martial arts. (Fu P&a Official Site - Production - Five Fighting Warriors Retrieved on 11 July 2008.) 5. a b Edward Douglas (2008-06-02). "EXCL: Kung Fu P&a Co-Directo. John Stevenson". ComingSoon.net. Retrieved on 2008-06-05. 6. Aggerholm, Barbara. (October 5, 2004) Kitchener Record Giving a shark some bite; Local animato. swims with the big boys. Section: Front; Page A1. (writing, "Although working on yet another movie -- Kung Fu P&a, slated fo. release in 2007 -- Galda was called back fo. the final stage of the Shark Tale project as one of a skilled group of animators who fixes imperfections.") 7. Buchanan, Levi. (June 24, 2004) Chicago Tribune "Ribbit King" hits our fairway. Section: Tempo. Page 5. 8. "Dreamworks Animation Plans Kung Fu P&a". Empire (2005-09-21). Retrieved on 2008-06-05. 9. Gaul, Lou. (November 4, 2005) Bucks County Courier Times. 1104 Film Clips. Section: ToDo; Page 2E. 10. a b "'Kung Fu P&a' gets cuddly". New York Daily News (2008-05-31). Retrieved on 2008-06-05. 11. Colin Covert (2008-06-03). "'Kung Fu P&a' pushes boundaries of cartoon art". The News & Observer. Retrieved on 2008-06-05. 12. UPI Entertainment News. (November 9, 2005) DreamWorks Announces the Cast of "Kung Fu P&a" 13. Stephanie DuBois & Emily Feimster (2007-09-18). "The Big Screen Scene". National Ledger. Retrieved on 2008-06-07. 14. 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Retrieved on 2008-06-01. 25. "Chinese artists can't bear "P&a"". Variety Asia online. Retrieved on 2008-06-23. 26. "Is ‘Kung Fu P&a’ Ready fo. the China Challenge?". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved on 2008-06-22. 27. a b 28. ""P&a" bounces back at China B.O.". Variety Asia online. Retrieved on 2008-06-24. 29. ""Kung Fu P&a" Received with Enthusiasm in Asia". Toonzone. Retrieved on 2008-06-24. 30. Bernstein, Richard (2008-07-20). "The P&a That Roared". New York Times. Retrieved on 2008-07-23. 31. Fan, Maureen (2008-07-12). "'Kung Fu P&a' Hits A Sore Spot in China". Washington Post. Retrieved on 2008-07-23. 32. Carl DiOrio (2008-06-08). "'Kung Fu P&a' beats projections". Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved on 2008-06-08. 33. "'P&a' beats S&ler with $60 million weekend". Yahoo! Movies (2008-06-08). Retrieved on 2008-06-08. 34. "P&a kicks S&ler at U.S. box office". Yahoo! Movies (2008-06-08). Retrieved on 2008-06-08. 35. CShannon Harvey (2008-06-10). "'Kung Fu P&a to become franchise". PerthNow. Retrieved on 2008-06-22. 36. James Cook (2008-06-26). "Kung Fu P&a 2 Moves Forward". The Moving Picture. Retrieved on 2008-06-27. 37. "Are you sitting down? Kung fu P&a revealed!." Xbox360Fanboy.com. This page uses content from the movies page on the English version of Wikipedia & is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. This list of authors can be seen in the page history. Wildscreen.tv disclaims any & all warranties as to the accuracy o.reliability of the content. Permission is granted to copy, distribute &/o.modify the biographical information on this page under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 o.any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.