Kung Fu Panda is a 2008 American animated comedy film. Although the concept of a 'kung fu panda' has been around since at least 1993, work on the film did not begin until 2004. The idea for the film was conceived by Michael Lachance, a Dream Works Animation executive. The computer animation in the film was more complex than anything Dream Works had done before. 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 has achieved DreamWorks's
biggest opening for a non-sequel film, highest grossing animated movie of the year, and the third largest weekend overall for a DreamWorks animated film, behind Shrek the Third and Shrek 2.
In an anthropomorphic China, the Valley of Peace is protected by the Furious Five - Tigress, Monkey, Mantis, Viper, and Crane - a quintet of warriors trained in kung fu by tortoise Master Oogway and his protégé, the red panda Master Shifu. One day, Master Oogway has a premonition that Shifu's former pupil and foster son, the snow leopard Tai Lung, will escape from prison and return to the Valley. Oogway instructs Shifu and the others to hold a tournament to choose the legendary Dragon Warrior - the one master worthy to receive the Dragon Scroll, which is said to hold the secret to limitless power. Tai Lung had been denied the Scroll years earlier, causing him to decimate the Valley in retaliation and resulting in his imprisonment. Po, a young Giant panda and kung fu fanatic who works in his goose father's noodle restaurant, is anxious to see the tournament, but is instead forced to take a noodle cart up the mountain to the Jade Temple. By the time he arrives, the gates are closed and the tournament has already started. Desperate to see the tournament, Po straps himself to a set of fireworks; he rockets into the sky and crashes into the middle of the arena just as Oogway is about to select the new Dragon Warrior. To the surprise of all, Oogway indicates that Po is the Dragon Warrior. Unwilling to believe that a clumsy, fat panda can be the Dragon Warrior, Shifu attempts to berate and humiliate Po into quitting, subjecting him to a grueling series of matches with the Five, all of whom despise Po as an upstart. Po is dejected after his first day of training, but after Master Oogway counsels him, he refuses to quit. Soon, he endears himself to the Five (except Tigress) with his impressive tenacity, culinary skill and good humor, though he is still unable to grasp the basics of kung fu.
Meanwhile, as Oogway had foreseen, Tai Lung escapes from his prison and heads for the Valley. Sensing his death is imminent, Oogway extracts a promise from Shifu that he will train Po and then disappears, ascending to heaven in a swirl of flower petals. Upon hearing that Tai Lung is coming, Po panics and tries to flee the Temple. Shifu refuses to let him go, insisting that he can change Po into the Dragon Warrior, but Po has lost all confidence and Shifu can not explain how he will turn Po into the Dragon Warrior. Seeing this argument, Tigress leads the Furious Five to stop Tai Lung themselves. The next morning, Shifu discovers that Po displays impressive agility when he is motivated by food; using the promise of food as a reward, Shifu trains Po into a skilled warrior.
The Five confront Tai Lung over a long rope bridge, but he sends them back to the Valley defeated. Feeling that Po is ready to fight, Shifu gives him the Dragon Scroll, which he opens to reveal nothing but a blank, reflective surface. Shifu, despairing, orders Po and the Five to evacuate the valley while he prepares to delay Tai Lung for as long as he can. During the evacuation, Po finds his father who, in an attempt to console him, reveals that the long-withheld secret ingredient of his famous "secret ingredient soup" is nothing except the belief in the soup's specialty. Po realizes this idea is the point of the Dragon Scroll and returns to face Tai Lung.
At the temple, Tai Lung confronts Master Shifu and demands the Scroll. When Shifu refuses, Tai Lung attacks Shifu and nearly kills him before Po arrives. Tai Lung can hardly believe that the Dragon Warrior is a "big, fat panda", but as he battles Po to take the Scroll, Po unexpectedly proves himself an equal. Tai Lung gains the upper hand and opens the Scroll, but cannot comprehend its symbolic value. Po explains that "there is no secret ingredient" other than the warrior's belief in himself, but Tai Lung fails to understand and attacks again. With the combination of his new understanding and his own natural resilience, Po counter-attacks with devastating effectiveness and finally defeats Tai Lung, destroying him with the secret "Wuxi Finger Hold".The deeply impressed Furious Five accept Po as a kung fu master and their superior. Po returns to Shifu and finds that he is exhausted but alive, and finally at peace now that Tai Lung has been defeated and peace restored to the Valley. In a post-credits sequence, Po and Shifu are seen eating dumplings under Oogway's favorite peach tree, where a peach seed Shifu had planted earlier has begun to sprout into a seedling.