John Stevenson and Mike Osborne’s 2008 film “Kung Fu Panda,” on its most basic level, serves as a spoof of a certain type of martial arts film made in Hong Kong in the 1970s. Many of the tropes of martial arts cinema infiltrated American cinemas in the 1990s and 2000s thanks to the stateside releases of Jackie Chan’s Hong Kong movies, the success of the wuxia film “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” and the constant bolstering of the genre by mega-fan Quentin Tarantino.
By 2008, so many American filmmakers had borrowed from Hong King cinema (including Tarantino himself with his “Kill Bill” movies), that even small children could recreate their tropes and clichés on the playground. Every kid could spot the characters: ancient wizened masters, a team of martial arts monks, and a feisty young comedic hotshot who seems ill-equipped for the asceticism of kung fu, but ultimately proves to be a champion. “Kung Fu Panda” merely inserted those tropes into a brightly-colored, kid-friendly animated adventure starring anthropomorphic animals. Jack Black voiced Po, the titular Kung Fu Panda, who is trained by Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) to join the Furious Five and defeat an evil snow leopard played by Ian McShane.
The first “Kung Fu Panda” cost a hefty $130 million to make, yet it earned a boffo $631.9 million. It immediately spawned a massive entertainment franchise that includes three direct sequels, five short films, a Christmas special, three TV shows, five video games, and a (sadly canceled) live stage spectacular. Like all modern kid-friendly commercial entertainments, the sheer volume of “Kung Fu Panda” media is going to be overwhelming to the casual observer, and one might even be threatened to suss out the varied chapters of the franchise.
Luckily, we here at /Film are ready to help. Read below for a chronological list and brief rundown on the sprawling “Kung Fu Panda” property.
The release order of all the films and TV shows
The below list includes all of the “Kung Fu Panda” movies, shorts, and TV shows. The films will be presented in bold, and the shorts and TV shows will be marked accordingly:
- “Kung Fu Panda” (May 15, 2008)
- “Secrets of the Furious Five” (November 11, 2008) (Short)
- “Kung Fu Panda Holiday” (2010) (Short)
- “Kung Fu Panda 2” (May 22, 2011)
- “Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness” (2011 — 2016) (TV series)
- “Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Masters” (December 13, 2011) (Short)
- “Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Scroll” (2015) (Short)
- “Kung Fu Panda 3” (January 29, 2016)
- “Panda Paws” (May 13, 2016) (Short)
- “Kung Fu Panda: The Paws of Destiny” (2018 — 2019) (TV series)
- “Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight” (2022 — 2023) (TV series)
- “Kung Fu Panda 4” (March 3, 2024)
- “Dueling Dumplings” (April 9, 2024) (Short)
As one might intuit, the short films (“Holiday” notwithstanding) were all released in conjunction with the home video editions of the features. All of them were also included as special features on DVD and Blu-ray. Meanwhile, the first TV series, “Legends of Awesomeness” broadcasted on Nickelodeon, while “The Paws of Destiny” was a Prime Video show and “The Dragon Knight” migrated over to Netflix. The constant migration of the “Kung Fu Panda” might serve as an example of how the Streaming Wars fractured mass media.
A fun piece of trivia: “Kung Fu Panda 2” was, when it was released in 2011, the highest-grossing film ever to be solo directed by a woman, Jennifer Yuh Nelson. The record wouldn’t be broken until the release of Patty Jenkins’ “Wonder Woman” in 2017.
Sadly, “Kung Fu Panda: Arena Spectacular” was canceled for unclear reasons. It was meant to open in 2011 in conjunction with “Kung Fu Panda 2,” Widespread auditions were held for dancers and trained martial artists, but the show abruptly shut down. No word has been uttered since.
The first two “Panda” movies were nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Academy Awards, but the first lost to “WALL-E” and the second lost to “Rango.” Even if one loves “Kung Fu Panda,” we may agree that those wins are hardly injustices.
