Po, the Panda unleashes his moves
KUNG FUN PANDA : All fun and fight - Jack Black and Lucy Liu.
"Kung Fu Panda" is directed by John Stevenson and Mark Osborne and produced by Melissa Cobb. Although the concept of a kung fu panda has been around since at least 1993, the idea for the film was conceived by Michael Lachance, a DreamWorks Animation executive. Work on the film did not begin until 2004 and the film premièred at the 61st Cannes Film Festival in May 2008. Reportedly inspired by Stephen Chow’s 2004 martial arts action comedy, Kung Fu Hustle, the co-directors wanted to make sure the film also had an authentic Chinese and kung fu feel to it. Production designer Raymond Zibach and art director Tang Heng spent years researching Chinese painting, sculpture, architecture and kung fu movies to help create the look of the film. Zibach said some of the biggest influence of him are the more artful martial-arts films such as "Hero", and "House of Flying Daggers" and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".
A Panda legend from Wolong in China:
A long time ago, a beautiful girl lived in the Wolong valley with her family. She was a shepherdess, loved by all who knew her for her kindness and good nature. Whenever she took her sheep into the hills a young panda would come to join her flock. In those days pandas were all white.
One day, a leopard attacked the panda. The girl picked up a stick and began to beat the leopard. The panda escaped, but the leopard killed the girl. When the other pandas heard this, they were grief-stricken. All came to attend the funeral, and they covered their arms with ashes as was the custom.
At the funeral, they wiped their eyes, and hugged themselves as they sobbed. The cries became so loud that they covered their ears with their paws to block out the noise. Wherever they touched themselves the ashes stained their fur black. Since that day all pandas have carried these marks.
Overcome with sorrow, the girl’s three sisters threw themselves into her grave. The earth shook and a huge mountain appeared where the grave stood. That mountain is called Siguniang , meaning the Four Sisters mountain. Each sister was transformed into one of it’s peaks, and between the ridges that spread from it, the sisters continue to protect the pandas to this day.
The Giant Panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca, “black-and-white cat-foot”) is a mammal classified in the bear family (Ursidae), native to central-western and southwestern China.
The panda is easily recognised by its large, distinctive black patches around the eyes, over the ears, and across its round body. Though belonging to the order Carnivora, the panda has a diet which is 99 per cent bamboo.
Giant Pandas live in a few mountain ranges in central China, in Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Gansu provinces.
The Giant Panda is an endangered species and highly threatened. According to the latest report, China has 239 giant pandas in captivity and another 27 pandas living outside the country. Its also estimated that around 1,590 pandas are currently living in the wild.
Source: Wikipedia
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