Kung Fu Panda

Kung Fu Panda is a 2008 American animated martial arts comedy film directed by John Stevenson and Mark Osborne and written by Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger from a story by Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris. Produced by DreamWorks Animation, it is the first installment in the Kung Fu Panda franchise and stars Jack Black as the voice of the titular character. The film, set in an ancient China populated by anthropomorphic animals, centers on a bumbling giant panda named Po, a kung fu enthusiast living in the Valley of Peace. When the savage snow leopard Tai Lung is foretold to escape imprisonment and attack the Valley, Po is unwittingly named the "Dragon Warrior", a prophesied hero worthy of reading a scroll intended to grant its reader limitless power.

The film began development in October 2004, and was initially conceived as a parody of martial arts films. However, director Stevenson decided instead to make an action-comedy wuxia film that incorporated the hero's journey narrative for the lead character. The project was announced in September 2005. As with most DreamWorks Animation films, the score for Kung Fu Panda was composed by Hans Zimmer, on this occasion collaborating with John Powell. Zimmer visited China to absorb the culture, and used the China National Symphony Orchestra as part of the scoring process.