Hoffman, Chan, McShane Lend Chops to KUNG FU PANDA

By: News Editor
Date: Wednesday, November 09, 2005
Source: Variety

DreamWorks Animation has signed Dustin Hoffman, Jackie Chan and Ian McShane to join the voice cast of KUNG FU PANDA that already includes Jack Black. Lucy Liu is in talks to also star.

The story centers on Po the Panda (Black), the laziest of all the animals in the Valley of Peace. With powerful enemies at the gates, all hope is pinned on a martial arts hero to rise to save the day. When Po unwittingly shows up in the midst of the martial arts competition, the masters are shocked to see that this unmotivated panda bears the mark of the Chosen One.

Hoffman will voice the role of Shifu, the by-the-book, tough-as-nails kung fu master whose task it is to transform Po into a fighter. Chan will voice Master Monkey, a strong, agile and dedicated kung fu warrior. McShane will voice the villainous Tai Lung, a powerful snow leopard. Liu would voice of Master Viper, another of Po's teachers.

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Comments/Responses

lracors • Nov 09, 2005, 09:05am •

I can hear Hoffman now, "No No Ms. Liu... your trying to seduce me..."

• Nov 09, 2005, 10:40am •

The merchandising machine is already gearing up now....with stuffed animals, toys, fast food tie ins and of course a crappy video game.

• Nov 09, 2005, 11:40am •

now don't get me wrong, I love Jackie Chan, but most of the time I can't understand what he is saying.

• Nov 09, 2005, 11:44am •

Computer generated talking animals voiced by celebrities in a vaguely creative setting=an outright killing at the box office.

Am I the only one getting sick of all these formulaic family films? Seems like it sometimes.

• Nov 09, 2005, 12:39pm •

If all these Kung-fu masters alerady exist, why can't they just save the day themselves? This definitely sounds like it could be good (Pandas + Kung-fu = awesome), but the only CG animated movies I get excited about are Pixar flicks. The fact that every single one of their movies has been very good to fantastic (mostly the latter) says something (Cars doesn't excite me all that much though).

I bet Disney wishes they got rid of Eisner before he burned the bridge between them and Pixar (the idiot tried to tell them that Finding Nemo was going to bomb and wasn't any good).

• Nov 09, 2005, 02:45pm •

I've worked on the handheld Shrek and Robots video games and those games were not crappy. So Dragon if you haven't played them shut it. On another note Jackie is the man and he will fit perfect with his dialogue.

• Nov 09, 2005, 03:30pm •

Sweet! Come one, this sounds like it could be fun. So it may not be Pixar quality, that doesn't necessarily mean 'bad'. Nobody can rival Miyazaki, but I still enjoy other animation, even Disney's (some of it).

• Nov 09, 2005, 03:50pm •

Ian McShane is great! He alone is reason enough to see this IMO. He should have gotten an Emmy for Deadwood.

• Nov 09, 2005, 07:37pm •

Finding Nemo wasn't as great as most people make it out to seem. I will admit, I was excited to see it in theatres but when i saw it again on DVD it just was so lame. It gets old too fast.

• Nov 10, 2005, 12:22pm •

I like McShane, he is a great talent....he could sound menacing just reading the phone book. Mochakat, I HAVE played video games and in my experiance, good movie to video game translations have been few and far between.

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Hoffman, Chan, McShane Lend Chops to KUNG FU PANDA

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