KUNG FU PANDA

Kung Fu Panda is a 2008 animated film about a bungling panda who aspires to be a kung fuKung Fu Panda is directed by John Stevenson and Mark Osborne and produced by Melissa Cobb. Although the concept of a kung fu panda has been around since at least 1993, the idea for the film was conceived by Michael Lachance, a DreamWorks Animation executive.

Work on the film didn't begin until 2004 and the film premièred at the 61st Cannes Film Festival in May 2008. The film was released in the US on June 6, 2008 and will be released in the UK on July 4, 2008. The film 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 and Ian McShane. In the United States, it has been rated PG by the MPAA for sequences of martial arts action, and in the United Kingdom, PG by the BBFC.

Po (Jack Black) is a panda who works in the noodle shop owned by his goose father Mr. Ping (James Hong). He is also a kung fu fanatic with secret dreams of becoming a great master in the discipline, but he is so lazy and clumsy that fulfilling those dreams is unlikely at best. Mr. Ping hopes that Po will one day take over the shop.

The ancient tortoise Master Oogway (Randall Duk Kim) has a premonition that the evil snow leopard warrior Tai Lung (Ian McShane), the former student of his own protege Shifu (Dustin Hoffman), will escape from prison and return to menace 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 Warrior who can defeat Tai Lung. Everyone assumes that one of the Furious Five (Angelina Jolie as Tigress, Jackie Chan as Monkey, Seth Rogen as Mantis, Lucy Liu as Viper and David Cross as Crane), a quintet of supremely skilled martial artists trained by Shifu, will be chosen for this honor.