#Kung fu panda professional
#Kung fu panda series

He eventually fights Tai Lung with the Furious Five, but they are all paralyzed with the nerve attack (Monkey being the first one to get paralyzed). He is shocked when Po becomes the Dragon Warrior, and he, along with the other members of the Furious Five, attempt to make Po quit, but he refuses. Monkey is training to be the Dragon Warrior. Before she passed away, however, she made Monkey swear to always protect his family.Īs revealed in Secret of the Furious Five, Monkey was the village prankster who played jokes on people as revenge for getting picked on when he was young, but was defeated by Master Oogway and joined the Furious Five. Their mother saw them fighting, and she died of a broken heart. Years later, Monkey battled Wu Kong when he escaped. But Wu Kong eventually turned to crime and was sent to prison, causing his family to be shamed.

Monkey and his older brother Wu Kong used to play tricks on other people as children. 1.4 Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness.Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight hits Netflix on July 14.

#Kung fu panda professional

It was part of my research as a professional actor. “Needless to say, I tasted many delicious new dishes. “I joked with Peter, our director, that every time we went to a new place, whenever Po went to a new land, I needed to sample the cuisine,” says Black. It’s a much more expansive setting than the movies, and one Black was particularly excited for. Together, the two of them embark on a globetrotting adventure that takes them far from China, in a journey across the world. Po teams up with an English knight known as the Wandering Blade (Rita Ora). And I think it appeals to the childlike fascination, sense of adventure that we all have.”Īside from Po and his goose father, Ping ( James Hong), not many of the previous characters return for the new show. “ just loves kung fu and the action figures and the mythology around it, and all the great kung fu masters. “He’s eternally this nerdy kid,” says Black. It’s partly the epic kung fu, partly the fun comedic shenanigans, and partly the endearing characters - especially Po. I got to be kind of a superhero, but with all of my natural instincts.” Photo: Netflixįourteen years, three movies, and two television shows later (not to mention a handful of short films and video games), the Kung Fu Panda franchise still has staying power.

So when I first started, it was a fun opportunity to just be myself, and let the animators do all the cool fighting sequences. And I was like, Oh, all right, now I get it. “And he got some footage, I think it was audio from School of Rock, or High Fidelity, one of my earlier movies, and he had the animators do a short animation using that audio. “Jeffrey Katzenberg told me, You don’t have to worry about creating some new character. But DreamWorks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg sold him with a specific pitch. In honor of his return to his excitable martial-arts-master panda character, Black reflected on how he got the role all those years ago.Īs he tells Polygon, back in the mid-2000s, he’d never done voice acting before. Even though Black voiced the character across all three Kung Fu Panda movies, beginning with 2008’s Kung Fu Panda, he hasn’t reprised the role for the two previous television shows.

#Kung fu panda series

But Black is back as Po in Netflix’s new animated series Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight. When Jack Black took on the role of enthusiastic kung fu fanboy Po the Panda, he couldn’t have known that he’d still voice the character nearly 15 years later.