DreamWorks Animation announced that two-time Academy Award-winner Dustin Hoffman, Jackie Chan and Ian McShane (TVs DEADWOOD) are joining Jack Black in the cast of KUNG FU PANDA. In addition, award-winning actress Lucy Liu is in talks with the studio to voice another main role.
Black (SHARK TALE) heads the voice cast as Po the Panda, the laziest of all the animals in the Valley of Peace. With powerful enemies at the gates, all hope has been pinned on an ancient prophecy that a hero will rise to save the day. But among all the martial arts masters who come forward, none has shown the mark of The Chosen One until now. When Po unwittingly shows up in the midst of the competition, the masters are shocked to see that this unmotivated panda bears the mark. Now it is up to them to turn this gentle giant into a kung fu fighter before its too late.
Dustin Hoffman will voice the role of Shifu, the by-the-book and tough-as-nails Kung Fu master, who has been given the unenviable task of turning the undisciplined Po into a kung fu fighter. Jackie Chan will lend his voice to Master Monkey, a strong, agile and dedicated kung fu warrior, who serves as a daily reminder to Po of everything he is not yet. Ian McShane will be the voice of the villainous Tai Lung, a ferociously powerful snow leopard, who breaks out of prison, intent on using his kung fu skills to destroy the Valley of Peace. Lucy Liu is in discussions to be the voice of Master Viper, another of Pos teachers, who can be coy and feminine when she needs to be, but can then uncoil the lethal kung fu warrior within.
Slated for release in May 2008, KUNG FU PANDA is being directed by John Stevenson and Mark Osborne and produced by Melissa Cobb.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
