The first installment in the Kung Fu Panda franchise, it was directed by John Stevenson and Mark Osborne, from a screenplay and story respectively written by the writing teams of Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger, and Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris.

The film stars the voices of Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Ian McShane, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu, David Cross, Randall Duk Kim, James Hong and Jackie Chan.

The film, set in a version of ancient China populated by anthropomorphic animals, centers on a bumbling giant panda named Po (Black), a kung-fu enthusiast living in the Valley of Peace.

When the savage snow leopard Tai Lung (McShane) is foretold to escape imprisonment and attack the Valley, Po is unwittingly named the "Dragon Warrior", a prophesied hero worthy of reading a scroll that has been intended to grant its reader limitless power.

However, director Stevenson decided to instead make an action-comedy wuxia film that incorporates the hero's journey narrative archetype for the lead character.

In the Valley of Peace, a land in Ancient China inhabited by anthropomorphic animals, a male giant panda named Po helps his goose father Mr. Ping run their noodle restaurant, but dreams of fighting alongside the Furious Five – Tigress, Monkey, Crane, Viper and Mantis – a group of kung fu animals who inhabit in the Jade Palace, where they are trained by Master Shifu, a moody red panda.

One day, the wise tortoise, Master Oogway, the founder of kung fu and the Valley's spiritual leader, predicts that Shifu's former apprentice, the belligerent snow leopard Tai Lung, will escape from prison and attack the Valley to obtain the Dragon Scroll, a legendary artifact said to grant limitless power to the reader, which he had previously been denied.

Panicked, Shifu sends his goose assistant, Zeng, to fortify the security at Chorh-Gom Prison in Mongolia, where Tai Lung is held.

Afterwards, Shifu holds a tournament for the Five so that Oogway can identify the Dragon Warrior, the chosen one worthy of reading the Scroll, and Po arrives tardy to enter the arena.

However, after receiving encouragement from Oogway, he endures Shifu's harsh training and gradually befriends the Five with his resilience, culinary skill and good humor.

During this time, Tigress informs him that Shifu's tough personality stems from his shame over Tai Lung's betrayal owing to being denied the Dragon Scroll by Oogway, and having raised him when he was a cub.

Shifu informs Oogway, who makes him promise to believe in Po as the Dragon Warrior, names him as his successor as the Valley's leader, and ascends into the Spirit Realm.

The Five fight Tai Lung, but he ultimately defeats them with his nerve-strike technique, leaving only Crane to carry the rest back to the Valley as a warning.

Believing the Scroll to have no power, Shifu has Po and the Five evacuate the inhabitants of the Valley while he faces Tai Lung alone to help everyone else escape.

Furious, Tai Lung uses his nerve-strike technique on Po, but he proves to be immune to it due to his body fat absorbing the impact.

[11] In November 2005, DreamWorks announced that Dustin Hoffman, Jackie Chan, Lucy Liu and Ian McShane would join Black in the cast.

[14] Initially, the idea was to make it a spoof, but co-director John Stevenson was not particularly keen on it and instead chose the direction of a character-based wuxia comedy.

[18] The opening, which was directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson and produced by James Baxter, was praised by The New York Times reviewer Manohla Dargis as "striking" and "visually different from most mainstream American animations".

When the head of the production handed the script to VFX Supervisor Markus Manninen, she reportedly laughed and wished him "good luck".

[32] The DVD double-disc release of Kung Fu Panda also includes the short animated film, Secrets of the Furious Five.

[35] The film topped the box office in its opening weekend, grossing $60.2 million for a $14,642 average from 4,114 theaters,[36] and performing much better than analysts had been expecting.

[3] Kung Fu Panda was the highest-grossing non-Shrek film from DreamWorks Animation in the United States and Canada before it was surpassed by How to Train Your Dragon in 2010.

The website's consensus reads: "Kung Fu Panda has a familiar message, but the pleasing mix of humor, swift martial arts action, and colorful animation makes for winning summer entertainment.

[43] The New York Times said, "At once fuzzy-wuzzy and industrial strength, the tacky-sounding Kung Fu Panda is high concept with a heart," and the review called the film "consistently diverting" and "visually arresting".

[45] However, Tom Charity of CNN criticized the action for tending "to blur into a whirlwind of slapstick chaos", and considered the character of Po too similar to others played by Black.

[53][54][55] The Slovenian philosopher, cultural theorist and public intellectual, Slavoj Žižek, offered an admiration of Kung Fu Panda when he was invited to the talk show, Charlie Rose.

[58] Jack Black joked about the film's underdog status at the 81st Academy Awards, saying, "Each year, I do one DreamWorks project, then I take all the money to the Oscars and bet it on Pixar.

"[59] By contrast, Kung Fu Panda won ten Annie Awards (including Best Animated Feature) out of sixteen nominations, which sparked controversy, with some accusing DreamWorks head Jeffrey Katzenberg of rigging the vote by buying ASIFA-Hollywood memberships (with voting power) for everyone at DreamWorks Animation.

[76] The soundtrack also includes a partially rewritten version of the classic song, "Kung Fu Fighting", performed by Cee-Lo Green and Jack Black for the end credits.

[80] From the cast of Kung Fu Panda, only Lucy Liu and James Hong reprised their roles of Master Viper and Mr. Ping, respectively.