In May 2008 Kung Fu Panda Premiered at the Cannes Film Festival – yes, Angelina Jolie was pregnant with twins Knox and Vivienne – and in June, the animated film, dubbed by Jack Black and starring a panda, delighted cinema lovers big and small. Here are 10 fun, weird, or informative numbers to celebrate this anniversary.
1 – The friendly Po (voiced by Jack Black in the original version), a somewhat clumsy panda, is chosen to protect the Valley of Peace. Under the auspices of Master Shifu (voice of Dustin Hoffman) and with the help of the Five Cyclones – Tigress (voice of Angelina Jolie), Crane (voice of David Cross), Monkey (voice of Jackie Chan), Mantis (voice of Seth). Rogen) and Viper (voiced by Lucy Liu) – he must stop Tai Lung (voiced by Ian McShane) from sowing evil. Animator Michael Lachance initially envisioned the film as a parody of martial arts films, but co-director John Stevenson gave him the impetus for a feature film called wuxia, a literary genre in which the heroes are wandering knights. It will take the two men four years to refine the first draft of what they call “Dreamworks’ most beautiful film ever”.
Photo courtesy of DreamWorks Animation
2 – In total, “Kung Fu Panda” required 857,680 man-hours from 448 different people, including the actors.
3 – To encourage the animation teams, the production gave them a fortune cookie as soon as a scene was complete. And yes, the message in the cookies was personalised.
4 – The Valley of Peace has 1,478 different villagers and none of them are human. Kung Fu Panda is also Dreamworks’ second non-human feature film, following 2004’s Gang of Sharks – which also co-dubed Jack Black and Angelina Jolie.
Photo courtesy of DreamWorks Animation
5 – During production the idea was discussed that the five Cyclones were too many and the team wanted to remove one to make the Furious Four (Quatre Cyclones). But everyone was so attached to the five heroes that no one at Dreamworks could reduce their number. In addition, special attention was paid to the appearance of Cyclones. Thus, Crane has 6,019 feathers and the Viper’s skeleton has 120 bones.
6 – Pandas spend between 10 and 16 hours a day eating bamboo. So the animators enlarged Po’s cheeks so he could stuff himself. Additionally, Jack Black began all of his voiceover sessions with koo koo roo chicken — a special recipe from this Santa Monica restaurant that closed in 2014 — and creamed spinach. As for the meals, when Po eats with the Five Cyclones, there are exactly 64 noodles in each bowl.
7 – When Tai Lung escapes from prison, the guards shoot 1,500 arrows at him. Then, when the villain dives into Po and causes an explosion, the animators created about 33,588,526 dust particles.
Photo courtesy of DreamWorks Animation
8 – The Jade Palace consists of 88,100 different parts and surfaces.
9 – There are no less than 22,388 scrolls in the palace.
10 – The co-directors don’t hide their love for martial arts movies and wanted to pay tribute to them. For example, the rooftop chase scene is a nod to tigers and dragons, while the interior of the palace pays homage to the king in Heroes.