Kung Fu Panda (live action film)

Plot
In the Valley of Peace, a land in ancient China inhabited by anthropomorphic animals, Po Ping the giant panda is a kung fu fanatic who idolizes the Furious Five – Tigress, Monkey, Mantis, Viper, and Crane – a quintet of kung fu students trained by Master Shifu the red panda. However, Po is unable to pursue his dream of learning kung fu as he helps his adoptive father, Mr. Ping the goose, in his noodle restaurant.

Grand Master Oogway, an old tortoise and Shifu's mentor, has a vision that Shifu's former student, the evil snow leopard Tai Lung, will escape from prison and return to the valley to exact his revenge for being denied the Dragon Scroll, which is said to hold the secret to boundless power. Panicked, Shifu sends his messenger, Zeng the goose, with a request for the prison to tighten its security. He then holds a tournament for the Furious Five so that Oogway can identify the Dragon Warrior, the one kung fu master worthy of receiving the Dragon Scroll. While Po fails to arrive at the arena before the doors are closed; desperate to see the Dragon Warrior, Po straps himself to a set of fireworks, rockets into the sky, and crashes into the middle of the arena in front of Oogway as he points towards the Dragon Warrior. To the shock of everyone present, Oogway proclaims Po as the chosen warrior.

Unwilling to accept Oogway's decision, Shifu tries to dispose of Po with an excruciatingly harsh training regime, coupled with constant belittlement of his physique and personality. The Furious Five similarly berate Po as an enthusiast with no potential in the martial art. Po considers resigning, but after receiving encouragement from Oogway, he endures his training and gradually befriends the Five with his resilience, culinary skill, and good humor.

Meanwhile, Tai Lung escapes from prison, ironically picking his locks with Zeng's fallen feather, making Oogway's vision self-fulfilling. Shifu learns of Tai Lung's escape from Zeng and informs Oogway, who extracts a promise from Shifu to believe in Po, and then passes on to the heavens in a stream of peach blossoms. Still unable to grasp the basics of kung fu, Po despairingly admits that he has no chance of defeating Tai Lung; overhearing this, the Furious Five set out to stop Tai Lung themselves. However, Shifu discovers that Po is capable of impressive physical feats when motivated by food. Using food as positive reinforcement, Shifu successfully trains Po by incorporating these feats into an innovative kung fu style.

The Furious Five return after being defeated by Tai Lung's nerve strikes. Shifu decides that Po is ready to receive the Dragon Scroll, but the scroll reveals nothing but a blank, reflective surface. Believing the scroll to be useless, Shifu orders Po and the Five to evacuate the valley while he faces Tai Lung. As Tai Lung arrives and fights Shifu, a distraught Po finds Mr. Ping. In an attempt to console his son, Mr. Ping reveals that the secret ingredient to his famous "special noodle soup" is "nothing", explaining that things are special when believed to be. Po realizes that this is the message of the Dragon Scroll and goes back to confront Tai Lung.

Po becomes a formidable challenge for Tai Lung, frustrating him with confusing fighting techniques on top of his excessive body fat that renders him immune to Tai Lung's nerve strikes. Tai Lung momentarily bests Po and retrieves the scroll, but he is unable to understand it and continues attacking Po. Eventually, Po defeats Tai Lung in combat before using the mysterious Wuxi Finger Hold to vanquish him. 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.

Lord Shen, the scion of a peacock clan that rules Gongmen City in ancient China, seeks to weaponize his family's recently invented fireworks. After discovering from the court's goat soothsayer that "a warrior of black-and-white" will defeat him if he does not change his ways, Shen leads an army of wolves to exterminate the panda population to avert the prophecy. Shen's parents are horrified by this atrocity and exile him as punishment.

Thirty years later, Po is living his dream as the Dragon Warrior, protecting the Valley of Peace alongside his friends and fellow kung fu masters, the Furious Five. However, his teacher Shifu tells him that he has yet to achieve inner peace. While defending a village from wolf bandits who have been stealing metal for Shen, Po is distracted by a symbol on their leader's armor, which causes him to have a flashback of his mother and allows the wolves to escape. Po asks his goose father, Mr. Ping, about his origins; Ping reveals that he found Po as an infant in a radish crate and adopted him, but Po remains unsatisfied, wondering how and why he ended up in the valley.

Shifu learns that Shen has returned to Gongmen City and killed Thundering Rhino, the leader of the kung fu council protecting the City, and is plotting to conquer China with his newly developed cannon that was forged with the stolen metal. Shifu sends Po and the Furious Five to Gongmen City to stop Shen and destroy his weapon. They find the city occupied by Shen's forces, with the two surviving council members Storming Ox and Croc imprisoned, refusing to help liberate the city due to Shen's "unstoppable" weapon. Po and the Five are discovered by the wolf boss and give chase, only to be arrested in front of Shen's tower.

Upon being brought before Shen in his tower, Po and the Five escape and destroy Shen's weapon. However, Po is again distracted by a flashback upon seeing the same symbol as before on Shen's plumage, realizing Shen was there the last night Po saw his parents. This allows Shen to escape and destroy the tower with an arsenal of cannons. After Tigress demands to know why Po let Shen get away, he reveals that Shen knows something about his past and has to face him again. Though understanding, Tigress makes Po stay at the prison while she and the other Furious Five leave to stop further production of Shen's cannons. Po breaks into the factory to question Shen about his past, inadvertently foiling the Five's plan to destroy the factory and causing them to be captured. Shen claims that Po's parents abandoned him before blasting Po out of the factory with a cannon, where he is presumed dead.

Po survives and is rescued by the soothsayer, who takes him to the ruins of the nearby village where Po was born. Guided by the soothsayer to embrace his past, Po remembers that when he was an infant, his parents had sacrificed themselves to save him from Shen's army, his mother hiding him in a radish crate and luring Shen's forces away from him. Po attains inner peace, realizing that he has lived a happy and fulfilling life despite this early tragedy.

Po returns to Gongmen City to save the captive Five and prevent Shen's conquest of China. A battle ensues between Shen's armada and Po, the Five, Shifu, Ox, and Croc. Po modifies the movements used during his inner peace training to manipulate and redirect Shen's cannonballs against his own armada, destroying them. Po then urges Shen to let go of his own past, but Shen attacks Po until Shen slashes the ropes holding up his last cannon, which falls and crushes Shen. Victorious, Po returns to the Valley of Peace and reunites with Mr. Ping, lovingly declaring the goose to be his father. At the same time, Po's birth father is revealed to be alive in a hidden village inhabited by surviving pandas, and senses that his son is still alive.

In the spirit realm, Oogway fights against a bull adversary named Kai, who has defeated all the other kung fu masters in the realm and taken their chi. Oogway too is ensnared and has his chi stolen, but warns Kai that the Dragon Warrior, Po, will stop him. Kai takes this as a challenge to steal the Dragon Warrior's chi and returns to the mortal realm.

Meanwhile, Master Shifu announces his retirement from teaching and passes the role of teacher to Po. An initially excited Po realizes that teaching kung fu is not as easy as anticipated, and the Furious Five are injured as a result. Po is demoralized because of his failure, but Shifu advises Po that instead of trying to be a teacher, he should try to be himself. Po returns home where he meets a panda, Li Shan, whom they both realize is his long-lost biological father. They quickly bond with each other, much to the jealousy of Po's adoptive father, Mr. Ping.

After introducing Li to Shifu and his friends, Po and the Five defend the Valley of Peace from jade zombies that Kai has created from the chi of past kung fu masters. The team learns through research that Oogway and Kai were once brothers-in-arms. After Oogway was injured in battle, Kai carried him to a village of pandas who healed him with their mastery of chi. The pandas then taught Oogway how to utilize chi to help others. However, Kai wanted the power for himself and tried to steal the pandas' chi, forcing Oogway to banish him to the spirit realm. In order to defeat Kai, Po must learn to master the use of chi himself. Li offers to teach him by taking him to his secret panda village. Po and Li travel to the village while Shifu and the Furious Five stay behind to deal with Kai; Mr. Ping follows the pandas, worried that he will lose Po's affections to Li. Although Po is eager to learn chi, Li tells him he must first learn the relaxed life of a panda in the village. They travel to the village with Mr. Ping as a stowaway.

Kai takes the chi of nearly every kung fu master in China, including Shifu and the Furious Five, except Tigress, who warns the pandas of Kai's intentions, and Po. Afraid, Li and the pandas prepare to run away. When Po demands that Li teach him how to use chi, Li confesses that he does not know how, and that he lied out of fear of losing his son again. Po is hurt over his father's misdirection and isolates himself to train vigorously in preparation for fighting Kai; Mr. Ping, who realizes Po has become happier with Li in his life, encourages Li and the other pandas to stay and ask Po to train them so they can fight back. Tigress confronts Po and tells him that he has no other way of defeating Kai. Realizing what had previously made him fail as a teacher, Po agrees and teaches them to use their everyday activities as kung fu skills.

Kai arrives and sends his minions to capture Po, who sets the pandas, Ping, and Tigress upon them, distracting Kai. They defeat the jade zombie army, but when Po tries to use his signature Wuxi Finger Hold on Kai to send him back to the spirit realm, Kai reveals that it only works on mortals, not a spirit warrior like himself. Kai gains the upper hand in their fight, but Po uses the Wuxi Finger Hold on himself while gripping Kai around the neck, transporting them both to the spirit realm. They fight again, and Kai subdues Po and begins to steal his chi. Using what they learned from Po, his friends and family use their chi to empower him. Po harnesses their chi to create a giant dragon figure with which he overloads Kai, killing him and restoring all of the fallen masters to normal.

In an ethereal golden pond, Oogway appears to Po and informs him that his journey as the Dragon Warrior has come full circle, declaring Po to be his successor. He reveals that he sent Li to find Po. By choice, Po wields a mystic jade yin-yang staff bestowed by Oogway to return to the mortal world. He and his extended family all return to the valley, where they continue practicing kung fu.

Cast

 * Jeff Garlin as Po
 * Denis Leary as Master Shifu
 * Ed Asner as Grand Master Oogway
 * David Koechner as Tai Lung
 * Sia as Master Tigress
 * Rihanna as Master Viper
 * Trey Parker as Master Monkey
 * Hugh Jackman as Master Crane
 * Chris Pine as Master Mantis
 * Chris Pratt as Mr. Ping
 * Bob Peterson as Zeng
 * Mr. T as Commander Vachir
 * Bill Hader as Lord Shen
 * Emily Blunt as Soothsayer
 * Ray Romano as Wolf Boss
 * Danny Glover as Master Ox
 * Jean-Claude Van Damme as Master Croc
 * Christopher Plummer as Master Rhino
 * Robert De Niro as Li Shan
 * Hugo Weaving as Kai
 * Beyonce Knowles as Mei Mei
 * Asher Blinkoff as Bao
 * Kaley Cuoco as Grandma Panda
 * Benedict Cumberbatch as Master Bear
 * Ken Jeong as Master Chicken
 * Seth Rogen as Dim
 * Jonah Hill as Sum