Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Furious Five (2008) (V)

Director:

Raman Hui

Writers:

Jed Diffenderfer (story)
Paul McEvoy (screenplay)
(more)

Release Date:

9 November 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Short | Action | Comedy | Family

Tagline:

Po's All-New Adventure!

Plot:

Ordered to teach a martial arts class of rambunctious bunny kittens, Po tells stories of each of the Furious Five's pasts.

Plot Keywords:

Kung Fu | Teaching | Fighting | Warrior | Martial Arts

Awards:

4 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

Jack Black	...	Po (voice)
Dustin Hoffman	...	Shifu (voice)
Will Shadley	...	Nerdy Bunny (voice)
Eamon Pirruccello	...	Impatient Bunny (voice)
Grace Rolek	...	Shy Bunny (voice)
Max Koch	...	Young Mantis (voice)
Tom Owens	...	Ladybug (voice)
Carol Kane	...	Sheep (voice)
John DiMaggio	...	Gorilla / Crocodile (voice)
Stephen Kearin	...	Crocodile #2 (voice)
James Sie	...	Viper Dad / Pig (voice)
Meredith Scott Lynn	...	Viper Mom (voice)
Jessica DiCicco	...	Young Viper (voice) (as Jessica Di Cicco)
Stephanie Lemelin	...	Mei Ling (voice)
David Cross	...	Crane (voice)
Jim Cummings	...	The Instructor (voice)
Tara Strong	...	Young Tigress (voice)
Jaycee Chan	...	Young Monkey (voice)
Randall Duk Kim	...	Oogway (voice)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Elizabeth Ann Bennett	...	Ant / Bunny
Jason Canning	...	(voice)

Directed by
Raman Hui

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Todd Berger		screenplay
Jed Diffenderfer		story concept
Paul McEvoy		screenplay

Produced by
Dana C. Booton	....	producer: Film Roman 2D animation (as Dana Booton)
Melissa Cobb	....	executive producer
Carin Davis	....	producer: Film Roman 2D animation
Karen Foster	....	producer
Bruce Seifert	....	consulting producer
Hameed Shaukat	....	associate producer
Tad Stones	....	supervising producer: Film Roman 2D animation

Original Music by
Henry Jackman
John Powell
Hans Zimmer

Film Editing by
John Venzon

Production Design by
Raymond Zibach

Art Direction by
Tang Kheng Heng

Production Management
Mary Bills	....	production manager
Corrie Coughlin	....	production supervisor
Kate Crossley	....	post-production supervisor
Pete Herzog	....	production manager
Suzannah Szabo	....	production manager: Film Roman 2D animation

Art Department
Louie del Carmen	....	storyboard artist
Sean Eckols	....	visual development
Stephan Franck	....	storyboard artist
Steve Hickner	....	storyboard artist
Dan Krall	....	background painter

Sound Department
Bryan Bowen	....	sound effects editor
Simon Ellegaard	....	sound re-recording mixer
Laurent Kossayan	....	supervising sound editor
Michael Miller	....	original dialogue mixer
Alyson Dee Moore	....	foley artist
Carlos Sotolongo	....	original dialogue mixer

Visual Effects by
John Anderholm	....	technical director
Ulysses Argetta	....	afx/compositor: Film Roman 2D animation
Ulysses Argetta	....	digital compositor
David Bonnele	....	digital scanner
Brent M. Bowen	....	afx/compositor: Film Roman 2D animation (as Brent Bowen)
Brent M. Bowen	....	digital compositor
Scott Brisbane	....	digital matte painting supervisor
Jason Brubaker	....	compositing supervisor
Laura Bussinger	....	animation coordinator
Christopher Buzon	....	lighting artist
Drew Daleo	....	modeling/cloth simulation
John Dillon	....	afx/compositor: Film Roman 2D animation
Rod Douglas	....	cloth artist
Rod Douglas	....	layout artist
Steven Fahey	....	compositing supervisor: Film Roman 2D animation
Richard Gouge	....	lighter & compositor
Michael P. Hamler	....	lead lighter
Michael P. Hamler	....	lighting artist
Brendan Harris	....	afx/compositor: Film Roman 2D animation
Roger Injarusorn	....	afx/compositor: Film Roman 2D animation
Andy Jolliff	....	compositor
Chris Jolly	....	lighting artist
Tom M. Jordan	....	modeler
Miae Kim	....	afx/compositor: Film Roman 2D animation
Steve Kolbe	....	visual effects supervisor
Marisa Ledina	....	digital scanner
Benjamin Lishka	....	lighting artist
Fabio Lissi	....	production engineer
Sarah Nicole Moore	....	cloth artist
John Nesselrodt	....	lighter & compositor
Andrew Pearce	....	director of reseach and development
Jeffrey Perlmutter	....	afx/compositor: Film Roman 2D animation (as Jeff Perlmutter)
Scott Peterson	....	digital supervisor
Richard Ramazinski	....	compositor
Wonchan Song	....	lighter
Sam Sparks	....	compositor
Julie Terrell	....	texture artist
Erik Tillmans	....	compositing supervisor
Michael A. Wallace	....	cloth artist
Michael A. Wallace	....	layout artist
Claire Williams	....	digital scanner
Greg Wuller	....	supervising technical director

Stunts
Xihuaru Kilcher	....	stunt performer

Camera and Electrical Department
Joshua Carey	....	rigging supervisor

Animation Department
Eric J. Abjornson	....	clean-up artist
Kent Alfred	....	cg animator: Reel FX
Constance Allen	....	color stylist (as Constance R. Allen)
Tim Allen	....	animator
Debra Armstrong	....	clean-up artist
Marco Balderrama	....	ink and paint artist
Judith Barnes	....	clean-up artist
Keith Baxter	....	story artist
Travis Blaise	....	animator
Max Boas	....	additional background artist
Aja Bogdanoff	....	cg animator: Reel FX
Jamie Kezlarian Bolio	....	clean-up artist
Tony Bonilla	....	cg animator: Reel FX
Ernesto Bottger	....	cg animator: Reel FX
Kim Bowen	....	ink and paint artist (as Kim R. Bowen)
Daniel Bowman	....	clean-up artist
Christopher Brock	....	additional background artist (as Chris Brock)
Jason Brubaker	....	assistant animator
Sylviane Burnet	....	lead clean-up artist
Wayne Carlisi	....	animator
Roberto Casale	....	animator
Roberto Casale	....	character layout: Film Roman 2D animation
Ray Chase	....	cg animator: Reel FX
Jerry Yu Ching	....	animator
Sandro Cleuzo	....	animator
Brian Clift	....	clean-up artist
Merry Kanawyer Clingen	....	clean-up artist
Diana Coco	....	clean-up artist (as Diana Coco- Russell)
Nicola Courtney	....	clean-up artist
Philip Craven	....	story artist
Jeff Croke	....	cg animator: Reel FX
Frédéric Côté	....	cg animator: Reel FX (as Fred Cote)
Richard Daskas	....	additional background artist
Mick De Falco	....	key layout/workbook artist
Manny A. DeGuzman	....	clean-up artist (as Manny A. De Guzman)
Louie del Carmen	....	story artist
Frank Dietz	....	clean-up artist
Marcia Kimura Dougherty	....	lead clean-up artist
Eric Drobile	....	cg animator: Reel FX
Guy Duchet	....	clean-up artist
Paul Duncan	....	additional background artist
Sean Eckols	....	additional background artist
Nathan Engelhardt	....	cg animator: Reel FX
Bryan Engram	....	animation department head: Reel FX
Sean Ermey	....	cg animator: Reel FX
Raymond Fabular	....	lead clean-up artist (as Raymond Flores Fabular)
Rick Farmiloe	....	animator
Peter Foglia	....	cg animator: Reel FX
Andre Forni	....	cg animator: Reel FX
Debbie Forster	....	clean-up artist
Stephan Franck	....	story artist
Brigitte Franzka-Fritz	....	clean-up artist
Shaun Freeman	....	cg animator: Reel FX
Cynthia Jill French	....	lead clean-up artist (as Cynthia J. French)
Yelena Geodakyan	....	lead clean-up artist
Staci Gleed	....	ink and paint artist
Alma Glick	....	ink and paint artist (as Alma L. Glick)
Steven Pierre Gordon	....	animator
Rodolphe Guenoden	....	animator
Amber Lee Hardin	....	ink and paint artist
Randy Hayes	....	cg animator: Reel FX
Millet Henson	....	lead clean-up artist
Steve Hickner	....	story artist
Ryan Hobbiebrunken	....	cg animator: Reel FX
Ken Huling	....	cg animator: Reel FX
Tim Ingersoll	....	rough inbetweener (as Timothy J. Ingersoll)
Jay Jackson	....	animator
Todd Jacobsen	....	clean-up artist
Emily Jiuliano	....	lead clean-up artist
Joseph P. Johnston	....	cg animator: Reel FX (as Joe Johnston)
Alison Jota	....	color styling supervisor
Byoung Ho Kang	....	cg animator: Reel FX (as Byoung Kang)
Myung Kang	....	lead clean-up artist
Ryoung Kang	....	cg animator: Reel FX
Edgar Karapetyan	....	ink and paint artist
Bill Kaufmann	....	additional background artist
Claudia V. Keene	....	lead clean-up artist (as Claudia Keene)
Michael Kiely	....	animator
Sarah-Jane King	....	color stylist (as Sarah Jane King)
Jon Klassen	....	background artist (as Jonathan Klassen)
Eric Koenig	....	animator
Mark Koetsier	....	animator
Mark Koetsier	....	story artist
Lureline Kohler	....	lead clean-up artist (as Lureline Weatherly)
Anthony Koteh	....	clean-up artist
Dan Krall	....	background artist
Todd Kurosawa	....	story artist
Ramya Kuruppu Black	....	clean-up animator
Ramya Kuruppu Black	....	clean-up artist
Jennie Langley	....	lead clean-up artist
Susan Lantz	....	clean-up artist
Diana LeBost	....	clean-up artist (as Diana Le Bost)
Marisa Ledina	....	animation checking supervisor
Taik Lee	....	clean-up artist
Peer Lemmers	....	cg animator: Reel FX
Lisa Leonardi-Knight	....	ink and paint artist (as Lisa Marie Leonardi-Knight)
Patricia Ann Billings Malone	....	clean-up artist (as Patria Billings-Malone)
April Marinoff	....	ink and paint artist
Nicolas Marlet	....	character designer (as Nico Marlet)
Lorenzo Martinez	....	layout supervisor (as Lorenzo E. Martinez)
Helen Michael	....	clean-up supervisor
Frank Molieri	....	animator
Frank Molieri	....	timing director: Film Roman 2D animation
Beth S. Morris	....	color stylist: Film Roman 2D animation
Ken Morrissey	....	animator
Ron Myrick	....	timing director: Film Roman 2D animation
Brett Newton	....	clean-up artist
David Nimitz	....	ink and paint artist
Scott O'Brien	....	animator
Jamie Oliff	....	animator
Jamie Oliff	....	character layout: Film Roman 2D animation
Tom Owens	....	story artist
Don Parmele	....	clean-up artist
Ginny Parmele	....	lead clean-up artist
Ruel Pascual	....	cg animator: Reel FX
Melanie Pava	....	color stylist
Pierre Perifel	....	animator
Philip Pignotti	....	additional character design
Philip Pignotti	....	character animator
Gale Raleigh	....	ink and paint artist
Richard Ramazinski	....	assistant animator
Bill Riling	....	story artist
Randy Sanchez	....	lead clean-up artist
Jason William Scheier	....	background artist
Jason William Scheier	....	background designer
Daisy Schofield	....	clean-up artist (as Daisy Lee Schofield)
Andy Schuhler	....	story artist
Dan Segarra	....	cg animator: Reel FX
Natasha Selfridge	....	clean-up artist (as Natasha Dukelski Selfridge)
Chad Sellers	....	cg animator: Reel FX
Don Shump	....	ink and paint artist
Richard Smitheman	....	clean-up artist
Chris Sonnenberg	....	animation director: 2D animation (as Chris Sonnenburg)
Melody J.H. Soto	....	ink and paint artist
Michael Spokas	....	cg animator: Reel FX (as Mike Spokas)
Tina Staples	....	ink and paint supervisor
Trake T. Starr	....	ink and paint artist
Paul Stec	....	background artist
Tad Stones	....	supervising animation director: Film Roman 2D animation
Trevor Tamboline	....	clean-up supervisor
Erik Tillmans	....	assistant animator
David B. Vallone	....	animation supervisor (as Dave Vallone)
Vitor Vilela	....	cg animator: Reel FX
Bill Waldman	....	animator
Andreas Wessel-Therhorn	....	animator
Claire Williams	....	color stylist
Jennifer Yuh	....	story artist (as Jennifer Yuh Nelson)

Casting Department
Wendy Siegel	....	casting

Editorial Department
Allison Bernardi	....	media coordinator
James Beshears	....	editorial and post-production executive
Sheri Galloway	....	first assistant editor
Lauren Lear	....	assistant editor
Peter Lonsdale	....	additional editor
Paul Neal	....	editor: high definition
Ahren Shaw	....	assistant editor

Music Department
Jack Dolman	....	technical score assistant
Sunny Park	....	music executive
Peter Oso Snell	....	assistant music editor

Other crew
Karla M. Alvarado	....	production assistant
Tim Archer	....	post supervisor: Reel FX
Oliver Benavidez	....	production assistant
Christopher Ell	....	production coordinator
Sean Ellis	....	network engineer
Erin Ferguson	....	production coordinator
Wayne Hellinger	....	post-production office supervisor
Guthrie S. Hennessey	....	training and technical development
Cohl Kenneth Klop	....	adr voice
Deven LeTendre	....	production executive
Eric McKinley	....	hardware engineer
Chuck Peil	....	vice president of business development
Rob Renshaw	....	production accountant
Tina Tseng	....	production accountant
Alissa Rowinsky Wright	....	business & legal affairs
Jon Young	....	media coordinator

Thanks
Erik Aadahl	....	special thanks
Joe M. Aguilar	....	special thanks (as Joe Aguilar)
James Baxter	....	special thanks
Ling Ling Cheng	....	special thanks
Clare De Chenu	....	special thanks (as Clare Knight)
Jeff Hermann	....	special thanks
Les Hunter	....	special thanks
Scott McPhail	....	special thanks
Brendan Murphy	....	special thanks
Mark Osborne	....	special thanks
Kristina Reed	....	special thanks
Jeremy Shipp	....	special thanks
John Stevenson	....	special thanks
Ethan Van der Ryn	....	special thanks
Dan Wagner	....	special thanks

Production Companies

• DreamWorks Animation
• Film Roman
• Reel FX Creative Studios

Distributors

• DreamWorks Home Entertainment (2008) (USA) (DVD)
• Paramount Home Entertainment (2009) (Brazil) (DVD)
• Paramount Home Entertainment (2009) (Sweden) (DVD)

Other Companies

• L.A. Mad Dogs  adr

Also Known As:

Runtime:

25 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Netherlands:6 | UK:PG | Singapore:PG | Australia:G

Company:

DreamWorks Animation

Trivia:

Jaycee Chan, who voices the young Monkey, is in real life the son of Jackie Chan, who voices Master Monkey in Kung Fu Panda (2008); and James Sie, the voice of Viper's father, is best known in the role of Jackie Chan in the animated series "Jackie Chan Adventures" (2000).

Goofs:

Errors in geography: Most of the animals depicted are native to China, however there is also a tribe of gorillas which are native only to Africa.

Quotes:

Po:I guess it's easier to laugh at someone than to have someone laugh at you, right?

Movie Connections:

Features Kung Fu Panda (2008)

Come on Dreamworks, you can do better than this...

The basic story here is that Po has to teach Kung Fu to some little kids. Er, kittens. He explains that there is a lot more to Kung Fu than kicking arse, and goes on to tell the stories of how each of the Furious Five became Kung Fu masters by doing something that was not kicking arses.

Now, here is where my main gripe comes in: While the scenes of Po and the kittens are rendered in the sort of glorious 3D that made 'Kung Fu Panda' look so awesome in the first place, the stories that Po narrates are animated in rather shabby 2D. And while I am a huge fan of 2D animation and see its cinematic demise as a very bad thing, I've _never_ liked 2D animation when it looks this bad.

Now, it is true that about 60% of the time one can almost forgive the doubtful animation as being stylised. But there's still that unforgivable 40%, where you're watching it and thinking "I don't care what look they were aiming for, they missed." This is particularly bad when one considers that for all the shortcomings that Dreamworks films generally have, at least one can depend on them _looking_ good.

Then there's the issue of the all-star vocal talent, or more to the point, it's absence. Jack Black is back to voice Po, and Dustin Hoffman and David Cross also reprise their roles... but no one else does. Seriously, with all of 5 lines to say in the original film, would it really have been that much of a stretch to get Jackie Chan to say a couple more for this sequel-of-sorts? I know he's a busy man and that his lines probably don't come cheap, bet really.

Finally, there's the story of Master Stork, who learned that to be a Kung Fu master, one must have confidence.

In other words, his story is exactly the same as Po's. So after seeing 'Kung Fu Panda' in all its wafer-thin plotness, we get this, presumably to show how easily the entire plot of KFP can be compressed in to about three minutes. I'm not really sure what to make of that. Is it simply Dreamworks' quiet way of admitting that yes, the plot to KFP could fit on to the back of a matchbox? And if so, should I get mad anyway because they don't seem very sorry? Or maybe they actually didn't think we'd notice, which means they've started treating the audience with the same sort of contempt we've come to expect from Pixar (dodges thrown tomatoes... but I dare you to deny it...) Either way, they've sold us the same story twice, which is kinda annoying.

Honestly, I think I preferred 'Hammy's Boomerang Adventure', an extra that was bundled *FREE* with the DVD of 'Over the Hedge'. Sure, it was only 4 minutes long, but into that 4 minutes they managed to pack more laughs , more awesome animation, and on top of that there wasn't a celebrity sound-alike to be heard anywhere.

I daresay I'd have appreciated this if it had been a DVD extra, but it hardly warrants its own DVD case and price tag.