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Secrets of the Furious Five
- An Aesop: Five, actually; to be a good practitioner of kung fu, one must have patience, courage, confidence, discipline, and compassion.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: When Po is telling the bunny kids about the fabled strength of Grand Master Viper's venom —"One touch of his ivory tips could fell fifteen gorilla warriors! ...And a mid-size crocodile."
- Art Shift: 3D animation is used for the present day and 2D animation for the backstories of the Furious Five.
- Banana Peel: Monkey's flashback shows that banana peels were his favorite prank to the hapless villagers. Then he attempts this on Oogway by surrounding him with peels, but the turtle manages to get past them all and Monkey falls prey to his own trap.
- Casting Gag: In Secrets of the Furious Five, Young Monkey's voice actor is Jaycee Chan, the son of Jackie Chan, who voices the older Monkey.
- Cats Are Mean: Averted in the Crane story, where Mei Ling, a female cat, is a true blue friend who is vital in starting his martial arts calling. Also Tigress who acts mean, but only because she is so strong that she has hurt others and tries to distance herself.
- Comically Missing the Point: All the bunny kids in Po's class want to learn about kung fu is the "kicking butt" part; subverted by the end when it turns out they did listen to the message of Po's stories.
- Darkest Hour: More precisely, darkest seconds in Crane's with him giving up his dream of entering the martial arts academy when his application is mocked. It ends the instant he stumbles into the entrance test room and finds the confidence to pass with the very qualities for which he was mocked.
- Defeat by Modesty: Monkey pulled off the belt strings of all the tough guys sent to drive him out, causing them to drop their pants and leave in shame.
- The reason he did this? He was subjected to his pants dropping when he was younger; the best way for people to be humiliated would be how he was.
- Defeat Means Friendship: Oogway and Monkey. That and Oogway saving him from being crushed by a giant wooden pillar.
- Even Evil Has Standards: The wool-stealing crocodile bandits from Mantis' story have no problem with locking him up and laughing at him, but they have visibly horrified expressions when they think he's dead.
- Humanlike Hand Anatomy: The ox teacher in Crane’s story has very human-like hands. What makes this odd is the fact that Master Ox in the the second film has three pointy hoof-fingers.
- Killer Gorilla: The bandit who attacks Viper's village.
- Let's Dance: Said by Viper, who used her ribbon dancing skills as a method of fighting.
- Lighter and Softer: It's basically Kung Fu Panda as a typical Aesop-based kids' show.
- Orphanage of Fear: Bao Gu, where Tigress was raised and inadvertently terrorized because of her abilities as an apex predator and her temper of being so rejected. However, Master Shifu is able to fix those problems.
- Playing Possum: Mantis uses this to trick the crocodile bandits into opening the cage he was trapped in.
- Shown Their Work: In the sense that the producers make it clear in this short that "kung fu", when it only refers to martial arts, is really a Western misnomer when its true meaning is "Excellence of Self."
- Stop Hitting Yourself: Viper uses this trick against the gorilla bandit: she coils around his wrist and his neck, forcing him to hit himself on the face.
- Unreliable Narrator: Po is telling the stories of the Furious Five to teach his students An Aesop. It's quite likely he simplified the events to make his point.
Kung Fu Panda Holiday
- Art Shift: The first few minutes are an awesome 2D dream sequence and the rest is CGI.
- The Cameo: Tai Lung in Po's dad's dream/nightmare.
- Casual Danger Dialogue: Po and the Furious Five bring up the Winter Festival while battling a horde of bandits.
- Christmas Special: In the story, it's at least the closest Ancient Chinese analogue thereof, the Dong Zhi Winter Festival. The special still gives it all the trappings of Christmas, however.
- Colossus Climb: One of the first moves Wo Hop tries to provoke Po into killing him, but Po eventually picks him off and puts him in a large jar to make him stop.
- Disaster Dominoes: At least four separate ones, held together with Old Spice.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Master Rhino shows up in this special: the same character who was only in the second movie for mere minutes before Shen killed him.
- Fancy Dinner: Po has to host one for the all the Kung Fu masters when he'd rather be cooking with his dad. Mind you, Po tried to compromise by trying to get his dad to cook for it.
- Food Porn: Po is tasked to pick the best chef in China, and also do some cooking himself. There are many mouth-watering delicacies on display.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: The same radish basket that plays an important part in the sequel is not in the first movie, but is present in the Holiday special, in the same location Mr. Ping pulls it out from in the second movie.
- Honor Before Reason: After accidentally being dishonored by Po, Wo Hop the bunny chef tries to kill him in combat and when that doesn't work he keeps trying to kill himself. May or may not be a Shout-Out to The Book Of Bunny Suicides
. - Martial Arts for Mundane Purposes: The Furious Five and Po use their mastery of kung fu to... cook and serve a fancy dinner?
- Mundane Made Awesome: Po and Mr. Ping make cooking noodles look absolutely epic.
- Never Say "Die": Apparently Po and/or his dad thinks that Tai Lung is dead.
- Orgasmically Delicious: The noodle shop's holiday specialty, at least in Po's dad's dreams.
- Placebo Eureka Moment: Po mumbles to a guard beside him on how to deal with his conundrum, but then realizes the solution and thanks to the guard... even though the guard didn't really do anything.
- Pure Is Not Good: Perfection is nice, but it's also boring and insanely stressful.
- Shown Their Work: The Winter Feast resembles the traditional Chinese festival of Dong Zhi, which holds many parallels to both Thanksgiving and Christmas, such as family gatherings and feasting to celebrate the Winter Solstice.
- Suicide as Comedy: Wo Hop. He tries to kill himself several times believing he has brought shame to himself for not preparing a worthy recipe for the Dragon Warrior.
- You Are Not Alone: The moment when Shifu tries to decline Po's invitation for Mr. Ping's Winter Feast. Shifu says that it is only for Po's family, which Po responds with "You're my family too."
Secrets of the Masters
- Art Shift: Like in Secrets of the Furious Five, the present-day sequences are 3D, while Po's story is in 2D.
- Cats Are Mean: The Wu Sisters are a trio of cats who play this trope very straight. As in, "Live in a volcano fortress, openly proclaim their evilness, and try to take over all of China's crime gangs."
- Disney Death: Oogway suffers one. Not that it fooled anyone but the characters, since we saw his actual death in the first film.
- Doomed by Canon: Master Thundering Rhino. If you didn't feel bad for him already...
- Furry Confusion: The Wu Sisters use several non-anthropomorphic birds to deliver messages to China’s most notorious gangs. The one that splits up to alert Oogway of this news is capable of speech, but the other birds only make realistic bird sounds.
- I Can See My House from Here: When Oogway and the young Masters are traversing the top of a bamboo forest, Master Croc says he can see his swamp from here.
- Metaphorically True: Oogway is able to get the Masters to cooperate only after telling them that they will receive "a wealth of riches" for completing the mission. He's talking about emotional riches and the Masters are not happy when they find this out.
- Mentor Archetype: Oogway, as usual.
- Noodle Incident: According to Ox, the Wu Sisters took down an entire nation armed with only chopsticks.
- Saved by Canon: Oogway seemingly falls to his death down a lava fall after saving the young masters, but since this happens before the first movie, he shows up at the end on a pile of criminals he defeated and congratulates Ox, Croc, and Thundering Rhino.
- Retcon: Does this to the backstories of Masters Ox, Croc, and Thundering Rhino. Justified in that their original backstories only existed online so many people probably didn't know about them.
- "Wanted!" Poster: A classic example featuring the Wu Sisters' portraits, though "Wanted" is (of course) in Chinese. Strangely, although Su Wu's name is pronounced as written (吴素), her sisters later called Wan and Wing are here called You (友) and Guan (鵟).
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: When Rhino, Croc, and Ox are thinking of what they'll do with their riches, Rhino's vision is of him getting his father's approval.
Secrets of the Scroll
- Action Dress Rip: Tigress when she finally decides to use her own "tiger style" to defeat the Boar.
- Art Shift: Switches between 2D and 3D animation like the other shorts.
- Be Yourself: Tigress struggles with keeping her natural tiger instincts at bay in combat while Shifu orders her to use his own technique. She's supported by Oogway however, and eventually realizes she indeed fights the best when she lets her tiger instincts guide her.
- Big "NO!": Po has one when he finds out his dad accidentally gave his Furious Five action figures away.
- Butt-Monkey: Shifu becomes this right after getting poisoned by Po's food. Oogway was able to fix the red panda at the end by hitting a few nerve points.
- Comically Missing the Point: When the villagers are evacuating the Valley of peace, Po and Mr. Ping have this conversation:Young Po: This is terrible.
Mr. Ping: Yes, they're leaving before breakfast.
Young Po: No, Dad, if I hadn't poisoned Shifu with my food, then none of this would have ha...ppened.
Mr. Ping: Po? You cooked that meal for Shifu? So Shifu ate noodles from Ping's Noodle Hut?
Young Po: Dad, I'm sorry, I was gonna tell you, but—
Mr. Ping: No, this is fantastic!
Young Po: But—
Mr. Ping: Now serving the Jade Palace: Ping and Son. You can't buy this kind of publicity.
Young Po: But, Dad—
Mr. Ping: If we hurry, we'll be the only ones selling food to all those starving folk. - Connected All Along: Basically the plot of the short is how Po is actually the reason the Furious Five met each other. Teenage Tigress was running an errand for Shifu to find four masters to fight an approaching threat, when she lost the scroll with their names and accidentally picked up another scroll by Mr. Ping's noodle shop. The scroll she got was a scroll Po had written down various professions he would attempt to pursue instead of being a chef, those being "a dancer, a comedian, a cleaner and a doctor". Tigress subsequently picked up the four most fitting of the descriptions: Viper: the Dancer, Monkey: the Comedian, Crane: the Cleaner, and Mantis: the Doctor.
- A Dog Named "Dog": While a lot of characters in the franchise are named after their species' namesakes, Boar especially takes the cake for yelling "I am Boar!" every chance he gets.
- Dumb Muscle: Despite being very strong, Boar can't pronounce the word "invincible".Master Mongrel: He's coming! A giant of a warrior.
Boar: I am Boar!
Master Mongrel: He's unstoppable!
Boar: I am unstoppable!
Master Mongrel: He's invincible!
Boar: I am invinc... insiv... I am Boar! - Earn Your Happy Ending:
- Tigress and the rest of the Five get a chance to confront Boar on the battlefield, and with some teamwork, they get a chance to demonstrate they have what it takes to become kung fu warriors, and win their first battle.
- After they return to the Jade Palace:Shifu: Sloppy, very sloppy. Your technique is unorthodox and undisciplined. Training begins right away.
[Tigress starts to exercise in the courtyard]
Shifu: Tigress! What are you doing?
[Shifu opens the gym's doors]
Shifu: It's time to develop this tiger style of yours. I am very proud of you.
Tigress: Master.
Shifu: [to the rest of the Five] Wait! You're welcome to stay. You fought well, with courage and honor; we must explore those... skills of yours.
- Evil Is Hammy: "I am Boar!!!"
- Eye Scream: Mantis performs an eyeball acupuncture on Shifu with a spiked ball. Shifu later ends up getting a black eye.
- Full-Boar Action: The villain of this short is a destructive giant of a warrior named Boar.
- Gag Echo: When Master Mongrel reports Boar's approach:Mongrel: Master Oogway! Master Shifu!
Shifu: Master Mongrel, what is it?
Mongrel: He's coming! A giant of a warrior, he calls himself Boar.
Boar: I am Boar!
Mongrel: He's unstoppable.
Boar: I am unstoppable!
Mongrel He's invincible!
Boar: I am invis... insiv... I am Boar! - Generic Doomsday Villain: Boar acts more like a force of nature than a character, being an indestructible, formidable thug who beats up anyone in his way just because he can.
- Green Around the Gills: Shifu gets sick from the ill-prepared batch of noodles that Po makes when Shifu and Oogway decide to order takeout.Young Po: [while cooking a batch of noodles] So, uh, what do you guys do all day up there at the uh— [Po sneezes into the batch of noodles] Jade Palace?
Jade Palace Goose: Kung fu.
Young Po: Thank you, bless you too.
Jade Palace Goose: No, no: kung fu.
Young Po: [sniffling] Oh yeah, kung fu. That's really... neat how you do the... fu thing... with the... kung...
Jade Palace Goose: You have no idea what that is, do you?
Young Po: No, no I don't.
[moments later, at the Jade Palace]
Shifu: [with a nauseated face] What was... in that food?
Oogway: Please, fetch a doctor. - I Am What I Am: Coupled with Meaningful Echo: "I'm not Shifu... I am Tigress!"
- Last-Second Word Swap: By Po when contemplating a list of dream jobs after Mr. Ping reports that "some idiot cook" poisoned Shifu:Mr. Ping: Po, your destiny is to become a chef like me.
Young Po: I can't be a chef, I'm the one who poi... nted out... that I can't be a chef. - Lethal Chef: Po accidentally sneezes into a soup that was being sent to the Jade Palace. It promptly leaves Shifu sick for the remainder of the short.
- Non-Mammalian Hair: Teenage Crane has red hair in the form of a short ponytail.
- Not What It Looks Like: When Tigress is searching for Monkey, the latter is acting as a comedian whose jokes are so terrible his audience throws tomatoes at him and flees the restaurant. Tigress arrives and is excited to hear how people are referring to him as "bad", as well as Monkey himself being covered in what looks like blood and proudly announcing he "killed in there".
- Oh, Crap!: Mr. Ping had this the moment he realized he gave away the action figures.
- Recycled Soundtrack: The short uses music from Kung Fu Panda 2, notably, Tigress running and having fun with her new friends is accompanied by "Save Kung Fu", and the score playing as they fight the Boar is "Musicians Village".
- Retcon: The events shown contradict things that were shown in "Secrets of the Furious Five," such as Monkey being recruited by Shifu, or Mantis already being a master. Crane is shown to still be working as a janitor, even though in his story we learned that he could actually fight despite not being muscular and physically strong, and it was implied he got into the academy. Then again, "Secrets of the Furious Five" implied Po had simplified the stories to make his point.
- Rule of Cool: In the short, Tigress's pupils turns slitted whenever she gives in to her tiger instincts. In real life, tigers don't have slitted pupils, and Tigress never has them in the films either.
- Running Gag: Monkey telling a joke that ends with "... that's not a banana, that's my wife!" Apart from in his imagination, no one laughs at it.
- Running on All Fours: Shifu has Tigress restrain her tiger instincts which includes making her run using an awkward two-legged jog. When Tigress sees how easily her new friends are outrunning her, however, she decides to get down on all four and has the time of her life as a result.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Shifu acts a lot meaner to Tigress in this short than he did in Secrets of the Furious Five. Justified because this short takes place some time after Tai Lung turned evil, so Shifu would be more strict and demanding from his students at this point in time.
- Trickster Mentor: Oogway, as usual. It's implied throughout the short that he was well aware ordering food would lead to Shifu getting sick, which would then lead to Tigress learning to fight on her own and gain companions on the way. Once Tigress has proven herself, Oogway casually hits a few nerve points on Shifu to make the latter fully recover, meaning Oogway could have done so all along.
- Tuft of Head Fur: Teenage Po has a short clump of hair on the top of his head.
- Unlikely Heroes: When Tigress picks up Po's scroll after mistaking it for Shifu's, it lists a cleaner, a comedian, a dancer, and a doctor, which was originally Po's list of possible careers, and Tigress encounters the other members of the Furious Five along the way for the first time. She finds Crane doing janitorial work at the Wang Fu village training hall, Monkey doing a comedy club routine to the audience's disappointment, Viper who can do a good ribbon dance, and Mantis, a would-be acupuncturist whose first patient is Shifu.
- Unskilled, but Strong: Boar doesn't appear to be especially skilled at kung fu, but his sheer strength allows him to tear through the other masters like tissue paper.
- Vocal Evolution: Kari Wahlgren fills in for Angelina Jolie as present day Tigress. Her voice sounds a lot closer to Jolie's performance of the character than in Legends of Awesomeness however.
- "Well Done, Daughter!" Gal: Shifu at the end admits to Tigress that he approves of her fighting style and the four fighters she found, and that he is proud of her.
- Wingding Eyes: Po gets hearts in his pupils when he sees Tigress performing kung fu for the first time.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: While Oogway comforts Tigress:Oogway: The cleaner, the comedian, the dancer, and even the little doctor. It was no accident that you found them.Tigress: I failed Shifu.Oogway: Worse. You're failing yourself. No matter how much you try, you will never be Shifu. The question is, can you be Tigress?
