Kung Fu Panda/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Please add anything related to Kung Fu Panda 2 on its own page.


  • Award Snub: Averted, as it beat out Pixar's WALL-E in every category they competed in during the 2008 Annie Awards (and it won pretty much every category it was nominated in as well), much to everyone's surprise.
  • Awesome Music: Courtesy of Hans Zimmer and John Powell.
  • China Loves Kung Fu Panda: Similarly to Disney's Mulan, Kung Fu Panda and its sequel were very popular in China.
  • Evil Is Cool: Tai Lung.
  • Furry Fandom: A well written story that respects the setting, lavishly animated with excellent fight choreography with well thought out furry characters that played with Animal Stereotypes played by some of the finest actors in Hollywood.
  • God Mode Sue: Po, at least whenever he gets his act together. This is later remarked upon in the TV series when he pulls off an incredibly rare and powerful legendary kung fu maneuver, only to have never heard of it, thinking he made it up himself -- with this, he was instantly recognized as the most powerful one in the Jade Palace, which in turned unsettled everyone else because of the tendency for the most powerful of the Furious Five to turn evil. He fails to turn evil though -- as a technicality, Po is not actually one of the Furious Five, but just lives and trains with them.
  • He Really Can Act: Thanks to Dustin Hoffman's tutoring, Jack Black surprised a lot of people with how good he was as Po.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: Seth Rogen and green insects are inseparable now.
  • I Am Not Shazam: His name is Po, not Kung Fu Panda. Got that, Seltzer and Friedberg?
  • Jerkass Woobie: Tigress and Tai Lung's back stories make them this.
  • Memetic Sex God: Tigress, according to most fans. Having Angelina Jolie as her voice actress only accentuates this further. Many fans seem to think Tai Lung is this too, either because of (or in spite of) his voice actor as well as the obvious reasons.
  • Moral Event Horizon: When Tai Lung confesses to Shifu that all he ever wanted was to make him proud, only to find out that he had Shifu's pride and love all along, he only spends one moment looking genuinely affected before he's right back to demanding the scroll, saying he doesn't care about apologies. Since he's basically thrown away any sort of redemption that might have been offered to him, that moment signals that he deserves everything that happens to him afterward.
    • At this point Tai Lung probably did not believe that Shifu was sincere (indeed he had little reason to) and was past reasoning with him anyway, his last speech during the battle only meant to hurt. That's why they made Po offer him Last Second Chance later.
  • The Problem with Licensed Games: Averted. Kung Fu Panda the game is actually a well-made, fun Devil May Cry-style game, even though it departs from the film's story quite a bit. The sequel's game, on the other hand, plays this straight.
  • Tear Jerker: This exchange in Secrets of the Furious Five.

Shifu: I am -
Young Tigress: Afraid?
Shifu: (closes the door) No.
Young Tigress: Well, you should be! I am Tigress! Tigress the monster! ...A monster no one wants.
Shifu: You are not a monster. You're just a little girl.

Shifu: Then why didn't you quit? You knew I was trying to get rid of you, yet you stayed!
Po: Yeah, I stayed. I stayed because everytime you threw a brick at my head or said I smelled; it hurt, but it could never hurt more than everyday of my life just being me. I stayed because I thought if anyone can change me, can make me not me, it was you! The greatest kung fu teacher in all of China!

  • Unintentionally Sympathetic: Stated almost word for word in the directors' commentary about Tai Lung. Although, considering his writeup in Art of Kung Fu Panda, maybe not.
  • Values Dissonance: Despite not being actually made by the Chinese, if one actually were to look at things from a traditionalist Confucian perspective, Tai Lung becomes an even more perfect villain. He's guilty of filial impiety; a very, VERY severe sin in Confucianism. What Shifu did to him doesn't enter into it; Tai Lung still strove against him, and that is considered the greater evil.