Kung Fu Panda 1 / Tropes E to M

Kung Fu Panda Trope Examples
Movie: A - D | E - M | N - Z
Short films

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E

• Eccentric Mentor: Oogway.
• Elephant in the Room: Po's father is a goose, but it's never even acknowledged by any of the characters in the first film. It's subtly referenced at a scene near the end: Po says he sometimes "can't believe I'm really your son!" because they're such different people. There's an awkward pause, and his father tells him there's "something he should know"... and it turns out he's just telling him the secret ingredient of his secret ingredient soup. It is a plot point in the sequel, though.
• Emotions vs. Stoicism: The fact that Po is so enthusiastic about learning kung fu, combined with his self-esteem issues keeping him from actually making any headway, leads The Stoic Tigress to assume he's treating everything as a joke, when the truth is far more somber.
• Empathic Environment: When Shifu fights Tai Lung, it's a dark and stormy night. Po arrives on the scene at the crack of dawn and the world begins to be bathed in warm sunlight and the clouds start to break up.
• Enemy Eats Your Lunch: Becomes part of Po's "final exam" after Shifu takes him to the Pool of Sacred Tears for training. Shifu puts out a bowl of steamed buns and tells Po that his training is complete, and that he is free to eat. However, each time Po attempts to eat a bun, Shifu steals it out from under him and it becomes apparent that the test is for Po to keep at least one bun from being eaten by Shifu.
• Entertainingly Wrong: When Po demonstrates magnificent feats during his fight with Tai Lung, the leopard believes the scroll gave Po powers. It's understandable, since Tai Lung doesn't realize the scroll is just a reflective piece of paper.
• Epic Fail: Po's first attempt at training with Shifu. He punches a doll meant for training children which immediately bounces back up smacking him in the face. This not only causes him to lose a tooth but also knocks him into the advanced training area where he is viciously beaten and burned.
  Shifu: There is now a level zero.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Tai Lung feels this way when Shifu doesn't speak up after Oogway refuses to give him the Dragon Scroll.
• "Eureka!" Moment:
  • When Shifu discovers just what kind of feats Po can achieve in his pursuit of food, he finally realizes how to train him in kung fu.
  • The Secret Ingredient of Po's father's "Secret Ingredient Soup" causes Po to realize the significance and true meaning of the Dragon Scroll: there is no secret ingredient to make something, or someone, special.
• Evil Brit: Tai Lung, a villainous kung fu master voiced by the British Ian McShane.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Tai Lung is totally unable to understand the Dragon Scroll's wisdom. If there is no secret he's been fighting for, after all, he's been destroying everything he once loved for nothing.
• Evil Counterpart:
  • Tigress and Tai Lung were both orphans who were abandoned by their parents, and revealed to be ridiculously strong and talented in kung fu at young ages upon being adopted by Master Shifu. They were also pretty bitter over not being chosen to become the legendary Dragon Warrior, but Tigress chose to let it go and better herself so she could stay an honorable person, while Tai Lung let his resentment consume him until he was willing to go on rampages for power, just to validate himself. Thus, Tai Lung symbolizes what Tigress could've become, had she let her pride and anger at being passed over for someone else cloud her actions and personality.
  • Po and Tai Lung had their entire lives revolve around kung fu; Tai Lung was a star student who received training early in his youth, while Po is a humble noodlemaker and obsessive fan boy who has memorized everything related to kung fu and its history. Tai Lung let his skill and talent go to his head and expected to become the Dragon Warrior because he was physically skilled enough to be so, only to crumble when Oogway refused him. On the other hand, Po had to work his way up to become a kung fu master, and was chosen by Oogway because of his humility and eagerness to learn and better himself, qualities a true Dragon Warrior should have.
• Exact Eavesdropping: Tigress listens in on Po and Shifu's conversation before Tai Lung's arrival, only to hear Po calling out Shifu for the mistreatment and abuse he and his students constantly gave him, just for being the "wrong" person to be the Dragon Warrior. It leads to a subtle My God, What Have I Done? moment for Tigress, who was treated similarly herself as a child, and begins to feel bad for doing the same to Po.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: For those of us who know Mandarin Chinese (as opposed to other dialects), some of the names are also this trope. Oogway, if pronounced the right way, means "turtle". Shifu means "master" and is generally used in the context of the master training a student. This also doubles up as a slight redundancy when Po calls Shifu "Master Shifu" or "Master master". Unfortunately does not apply to Po or Tai Lung, as the variation in how those names might be intoned make it impossible to confirm which particular Mandarin word they are referring to. Interestingly, Tai Lung could be translated to "Great Dragon"... so you can see why he thought he had the "Dragon Warrior" prophecy in the bag.

F

• Face–Heel Turn: Tai Lung was revealed to have gone through one in flashbacks after being passed over for the position of Dragon Warrior.
• Failed Attempt at Drama:
  • When his dad interrupts him trying to use fireworks to get into the Dragon Warrior tournament grounds, Po in frustration argues that running a noodle shop isn't his passion and he won't be happy doing it. Seeing the fuse about to run out, he dramatically sums up the issue by shouting "I love Kung Fu!" intending that to be the last word in the argument before launching away... except he mistimes it, and has to drag out the "Fu" until he runs out of breath waiting for the ignition. When the fuse does run out, the fireworks fail to go off... for about fifteen seconds, just long enough for Po to fall on his face and lose all his dramatic momentum, only to get thrown into more slapstick.
    • When he does get blasted into the air, screaming, just when the fireworks deplete, he remembers where he was, and goes "aaaaieeuuuuu!", before falling back down.
  • Shown when Shifu tries to give Po the Dragon Scroll. Clearly, Shifu imagined it as a deep, respectful, reverent moment. He clearly did NOT imagine it with an overeager fanboy who couldn't even get the scroll open.
  Po: I loosened it.
• Failure Montage: Po's many unsuccessful attempts to get into the audience that gathered to see the selection of the Dragon Warrior are compiled into a montage up until he gets the idea to use fireworks.
• Fake Action Prologue: The hand-drawn opening sequence and its Buffy Speak meets Totally Radical narrative voice over are revealed to be part of a dream Po is having: the rest of the film is 3D animation and more conventionally written.
• Fallen Hero: Tai Lung used to be an honorable martial artist but then found out he was not meant to be the Dragon Warrior.
• Family Business: The noodle shop. Slightly parodied: "...and then you will fulfill your destiny and take over the restaurant: just as I took it over from my father, who took it over from his father, who won it from a friend in a game of mahjong."
• Fatal Flaw: Wrath for Tai Lung. After decades of demanding training from Shifu who assured him that he was going to be the Dragon Warrior, Tai Lung is furious at being denied the Dragon Scroll. Not even years in prison tempered his anger since his only thought upon escaping is to inflict his vengeance on the valley of Peace. Even when Po pauses in their fight to show sympathy about him not understanding the scroll, he responds in anger rather than face his failure.
• Fate Worse than Death: By all appearances, Tai Lung hasn't just been imprisoned for decades, but immobilized (and tormented by the guards when they had the chance) for 20 years. It may have been more humane to just kill him instead. Downplayed in this case; since his body didn't seriously atrophy (Master Shifu remarks his strength actually increased post-imprisonment), he may have been meditating the entire time to focus his Chi.
• Fight for the Last Bite: Po and Master Shifu are eating dumplings. When it's down to the last one, Shifu makes it an impromptu training for Po by snatching it just as the latter's about to eat it. A fight over the dumpling ensues, and Po slowly but surely hones his reflexes... until he manages to grab it. Then he decides to give it to Shifu instead, saying that he's not so hungry anymore. Shifu sees it as a sign of growth.
• Fighting Panda: Played With. Despite being the character and the title of the film being Kung-Fu Panda, Po the panda starts the film with no martial arts training at all, and spends much of it as the least competent martial artist among the other animals. However, he does eventually grow into the position of The Chosen One, and is a good martial artist for the rest of the franchise.
• Finger Extinguisher: Po learns how to extinguish a flame with his bare hand during his training.
• Finger Poke of Doom: Comes in two flavours — the Wuxi Fingerhold for Shifu and Po and a paralyzing nerve strike for Tai Lung and Oogway.
• Finishing Move: The Wuxi Fingerhold and the Nerve Strike attack.
• Fire-Forged Friends: Po and Shifu, as well as Po and the rest of the Five.
• First-Name Basis: For most of the movie, Po is called "Panda" by everybody in the Jade Palace. Then Shifu finally calls him by his name. Judging from earlier interactions, it's meant to be a pretty big deal.
• Five-Man Band: The Furious Five, as of the first portion of the movie where they don't accept Po as one of theirs, form a team of five (as their name states). Tigress is considered by all of them to be a leader-figure who works with the four others — Monkey, Crane, Mantis, and Viper — and their vastly different fighting styles and skillsets.
• Floorboard Failure: Happens to Po as he tries to sneak down a hallway late at night.
• Foreshadowing:
  • When Shifu sends Zeng to Chorh-ghom Prison to verify Tai Lung's security, Oogway accurately warns him, "One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it." Sure enough, Tai Lung manages to escape, all because Zeng left him a feather.
    • In a more minor example, when Shifu sends Zeng the goose to Chorh-Ghom, Zeng briefly hits a pillar and a few feathers fall off showing that he is molting. Tai Lung uses one to pick the lock of his imprisonment.
  • The acupuncture scene. While mostly there for comedy, it gives an early hint about Po's nerve points being hard to hit under all his "Fat?" "I was going to say fur."
  • When Po plummets at the ground after being rocketed into the sky, he only loses consciousness for a few seconds, having suffered no further injuries even though falling from that height should at least have fractured some bones. This is another implication of how resistant his chubby body is to damage.
  • The flashback to Tai Lung's defeat shows that he wasn't defeated by brute force - Oogway used his nerve strike technique to take him down. This shows that Tai Lung can't be defeated by outfighting him, rather that it takes out-of-the-box thinking to bring him down. Sure enough, Po, even after his training, isn't really a match for Tai Lung skill-for-skill but still manages to defeat him by using his own strengths, his cuddliness and chubbiness, against him.
  • When Po is serving noodle soup to the Five, they remark that it tastes great, to which Po disagrees, saying it's nothing like his dad's soup that contains a secret ingredient, but the Five insist that it's amazing. Po later finds out his dad in fact doesn't use a secret ingredient, but "to make something special, you just have to believe it is", prompting him to realize his strength lies within himself.
    • Similarly, when Oogway finds a depressed Po eating peaches from a tree he calls “the Peach Tree of Heavenly Wisdom”, to which Po immediately starts spitting out the peaches and responding that he thought it was “just a regular peach tree”. Of course, it is just a regular peach tree, and only became special when Oogway gave it a fancy name to designate it as such.
  • Oogway briefly mentions that he feared he wouldn't live to see the Dragon Warrior selection day. He does, luckily, but later dies, as in ascends to the Spirit Realm, in a storm of petals.
  • Shifu mentions that the key to kung fu is turning your opponents' strength against them — foreshadowing how in the final battle, Tai Lung's blows cause Po to bounce back and hit him with equal force.
  • A clever hint that Po is actually far more agile and coordinated than his form might suggest comes during the dinner scene, when he pulls off a perfect Stealth Hi/Bye on Shifu while standing next to him.
  • After Shifu thought he successfully got rid of Po one morning, he and the Five return to the palace to resume their training in hopes that, in Shifu's words, "the true dragon warrior will be revealed". Guess who he sees when he opens the doors?
• Fork Fencing: Po and Shifu use their chopsticks and kung fu skills to literally duel for the last dumpling at the end of his training.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus:
  • When Po returns to his dad's shop when the village is being evacuated to avoid Tai Lung, watch his reaction as the apron magically appears around his waist after his dad hugs him.
  • Po and Shifu's chopstick fight. When Shifu takes the first dumpling there's a single frame where he's looking into the camera and smiling like he's posing for a photo.
  • Another one when Mantis was trying to give Po an acupuncture treatment. During the shot where Po falls down after making one funny face, Crane and Monkey can be seen, peeking through the door.
  • Blink-and-you'll-miss-it, but when Tai Lung says Po is "just a big... fat... panda!", Po's expression changes to one that is clearly unimpressed.
• From Zero to Hero: The chubby kung fu-fan Po suddenly gets the title of Dragon Warrior bestowed upon him, and the movie shows how he begins to train to be deserving of that title. He subsequently makes good on that title several times over.

G

• Game Changer: The unexpected dubbing of Po as The Dragon Warrior, a clumsy giant panda who turns out be a preternaturally talented martial artist of considerable power with the right instruction who also enables his colleagues to find a happiness they did not know they needed.
• Genius Ditz: Po has The Gift but is too spaced out and lacking confidence to be aware of it.
• Gentle Giant: Po, again. He's a panda and thus naturally big, but he's a sweetheart who loves to cook and has a good sense of humor. He eventually becomes a case of Beware the Silly Ones when pitted against Tai Lung.
• The Gift:
  • Tai Lung, though it's to his detriment. He has a severe ego problem that prevents him from being truly receptive of the Dragon Scroll's wisdom. This is why Oogway refused to make him the Dragon Warrior. His response to this was less than cordial.
  • Po, though it takes some teasing out to get to it. Once Master Shifu figures out Po needs the incentive of food to make him fight well, Po learns very quickly.
• Good Morning, Crono: Done to Po at the beginning of the movie when his dad wakes him up from a dream and tells him to wait tables.
• Good Parents: Although Mr. Ping has unrealistic expectations regarding Po's interest in the noodle business, one can see that he is always there for his son, and is a loving, devoted father who cares for his well-being. When Po emerges victorious from his battle with Tai Lung, Mr. Ping runs forward and hugs him in relief that his son wasn't killed and proud that he proved himself.
• Grim Up North: The forbidding, snow-wreathed mountains that house Chorh Gom prison, very appropriately found in Mongolia.
• Groin Attack: Happens to Po the first time he tries out the Furious Five's training room.
  Po: Oh-ho-ho! My tenders!

H

• Handicapped Badass: During a flashback we see Shifu hesitate when attacking Tai Lung, allowing the leopard to deflect his kick and break his leg. Shifu has needed a cane ever since, although he's still a capable warrior who fought and defeated the Furious Five all by himself in a training session.
• Hard Work Hardly Works: Downplayed with Po. While he has not been training as long or as hard as the Furious Five, he does put forth the effort during his training montage. His lack of years of training is offset by his ability to watch kung fu techniques and figure out how they work, which is how he worked out the Wuxi Fingerhold all by himself. This idiot savant ability combined with his protective body fat allowed him to succeed against Tai Lung where the others failed.
• Heartbreak and Ice Cream: Po has a psychological need to gorge on food when he is upset, so part of his training achievements include being able to conquer that urge as he grows spiritually healthier.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: Tai Lung does it to himself. Tai Lung's rage falters for a moment when Shifu apologizes for how badly he screwed up raising him, but ultimately he hardens again and refuses to accept Shifu's apology.
• Heel Realisation:
  • Master Shifu when Po tells him he's known all along that Shifu was trying to get rid of him, but he stayed because Shifu is the greatest Kung Fu Master in all of China and was hoping that Shifu could teach him how to not be someone that he himself despised. Since Shifu has been acting like a Jerkass and not a teacher (contrary to his own Master's wishes), he can't help feeling guilty.
  • When confronting Tai Lung, Shifu realizes his own pride was responsible for turning his favorite student into the monster he is now.
• Heroic BSoD: Po suffers this most prominently when he looks inside the dragon scroll to find out it was just a reflective surface. He gets better after he finds out the true meaning of it with unexpected help from his father.
• Heroic Resolve: As the junior novelization voiced the thoughts of most of the Five seeing Po endure Shifu's hopeless "training," without complaint "He can't be the Dragon Warrior but he's really tough!"
• Heroic Sacrifice: Shifu decides to stay behind and fight Tai Lung to allow time for for Po and the Furious Five to evacuate the villagers. Downplayed in that Shifu was completely willing to give his life to protect the valley, but Po rises to the role of Dragon Warrior and saves him at the last minute.
• Hit Stop: The movie loves to use this trope, whether it be playing it straight, parodying it, or doing both. Take for example the scene where Tai Lung and Po are falling down the Absurdly Long Stairway, and the scene slowing down as when Tai Lung hits his face particularly hard. Becomes a Parody when the scene, still in slow-mo, shows Po landing ass-first on Tai Lung's head.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Vachir and the rest of Chornh-Gom guards use explosives attached to the stalactites of the prison roof in order to cause rocks to crumble on Tai Lung near the entrance in a last attempt to stop him. Tai Lung ends up grabbing and using the last of the dynamite attached to a stalactite to blow up the garrison.
• Hope Spot:
  • During Tai Lung's escape, the guards manage to blow up the rocks near the entrance with stalactites and dynamite, sending Tai Lung falling. Vachir even laughs mockingly as the leopard goes down. Tai Lung then goes Beyond the Impossible by jumping upwards towards an intact stalactite, and weaponizing the dynamite attached to it to blow up the guards. Vachir starts sobbing and going This Is Gonna Suck.
  • Once played straight when the Furious Five seem to have sent Tai Lung to his Disney Villain Death. Unfortunately, he's tougher than he looks and manages to recover, using the rope wrapped around him to gain leverage.
  • Shifu holds his own fairly well against Tai Lung when the latter returns to the Jade Palace. He deflects most of the blows tossed his way, buying time for Po and the others to evacuate. Then Tai Lung brings out repeated nerve attacks, as well as calling out his adoptive father for what he believes was filling him up with false hope that he was the Dragon Warrior. Eventually, Shifu collapses, and Tai Lung succeeds in snapping Oogway's staff. All Shifu can do is apologize to Tai Lung for failing him, and refusing to tell him while being strangled who has the Dragon Scroll.    
  • Inverted in the climax: it's Tai Lung who gets one when Po gives him the Wuxi Finger Hold:
    Tai Lung: You're bluffing. You're bluffing! Shifu didn't teach you that!
    Po: Nope. [cue Tai Lung's relieved face] I figured it out. [cue Tai Lung panicking] Skadoosh! [Critical Existence Failure ensues]
• Humiliation Conga: Tai Lung and Po are evenly matched until Tai Lung fails to get the wisdom of the Dragon Scroll, even though Tai Lung is obviously focusing on the said scroll rather than his opponent. Po just takes being thrown around as good fun, while Tai Lung is obviously enraged by every setback, due to his overwhelming Pride. It can't be denied, however, that this trope is how Tai Lung views the final battle.

I

• I Am Not Your Father: Subverted. As the story progresses, it becomes obvious that Mr. Ping, a goose, is not the biological father of Po, a panda. At one point it appears as if Ping is about to tell Po that he's adopted, but instead he reveals the secret ingredient of his Secret Ingredient Soup.
• I Am Spartacus: A variant; Tigress tries to claim she is the Dragon Warrior when fighting Tai Lung on the bridge, both to intimidate him and to make sure he doesn't slaughter a defenseless panda. Tai Lung doesn't buy it; he says he knows none of the Five was chosen.
• I Am What I Am: "I'm not a big fat panda. I'm THE big fat panda!"
• I Gave My Word: Shifu promises Oogway he will accept Po as the Dragon Warrior and do his best to train him, minutes before Oogway unexpectedly passes away.
• Ignored Epiphany: Tai Lung rejects both his former Master's apology, and the true message of the Dragon Scroll.
• I Have No Son!: Shifu towards Tai Lung in the climax.
  Tai Lung: [standing on the steps of the Jade Palace for the first time in 20 years] I have come home, Master.
  Shifu: This is no longer your home. And I am no longer your master.
• I Just Want to Be Special: A central theme of the movie as demonstrated by Po's dream of being a legendary warrior. There's more to it than that, though — Po suffers from extremely low self-esteem and wants more than the life he has now.
• Immediate Self-Contradiction: Subverted.
  Oogway: There is just news. There is no good or bad.
  Shifu: Master, your vision! Your vision was right! Tai Lung has broken out of prison! He's on his way!
  Oogway: [Beat] That is bad news...if you do not believe that the Dragon Warrior can stop him.
• Impact Silhouette: Zig-zagged during the final battle - when Po is slammed into the ground, he leaves a massive crater several times larger than his own body, but when Tai Lung crashes to Earth, he leaves a hole with an outline of his body, including his tail.
• Impairment Shot: Po knocks himself unconscious trying to get in to see the Furious Five. We get the Hit Flash, then the eye-shaped blink-blink as he awakens to see Master Oogway pointing at him as his choice for the Dragon Warrior.
• Impossible Pickle Jar: After Po earns the Dragon Scroll, he struggles to open the container. After Shifu opens it for him, Po gives him the "after I loosened it up" line.
• Improbable Chopsticks Skill: Part of Po's improvised training. Shifu as well, as he taught Po.
• Improv Fu: Half the final battle in the first film is Po fighting in this manner by using the items he's familiar with in his native town, frustrating Tai Lung.
• Improvised Lockpick: A stray feather from Zeng's body lands near where Tai Lung is being held captive, and he uses it to unlock the cuffs holding him.
• Incendiary Exponent: Yes, Tai Lung is so badass he can set his paws on fire and not even get burned!
• Ineffectual Loner: Defied. Tigress decides on her own to face and defeat Tai Lung. But before she leaves the town, the four other Furious show up and say they'll go with her, rather than trying to dissuade her from it.
• Insecure Protagonist, Arrogant Antagonist: Po realizes he has no kung fu training yet has been chosen as the Dragon Warrior. Although Master Shifu tries to get him to quit through verbal abuse and unfairly advanced training, Po accepts this with dogged determination in the hopes Shifu can make him into a kung fu master. Tai Lung, by contrast, was naturally adept in kung fu from a young age and was continually praised for his skill by Shifu that make him feel entitled to the title of Dragon Warrior which set him into a rage when denied the Dragon Scroll and was cast into Chorh-Gom prison.
• Insult Backfire: After receiving a significant blow from Po, Tai Lung growls, "You can't defeat me! You're just a big... fat... panda!" Po retorts, "I'm not A big, fat panda. I'm THE big, fat panda!"
• Interspecies Adoption: Po's father is a goose. The first movie manages not to bring this up at all, aside from a Bait-and-Switch in which his dad sits him down to tell him an important secret... the secret ingredient in the soup. The sequel provides some backstory, though, and the third film expands on this further. There's also Shifu's adoption of Tai Lung.
• Ironic Echo:
  • The first time Shifu tells Po "Look at you!", he's caustically critical about his weight and smell. The next time, Shifu is admiring how Po managed to pull off some impressive moves and perform a perfect split.
  • When Po panics over Shifu threatening the Wuxi finger hold, Shifu asks "Oh, you know this hold?" Po repeats this in Shifu's accent when he's about to perform the move on Tai Lung.
• Irony: Shifu talked about how Tai Lung would become strong enough one day to receive the Dragon Scroll, and Tai Lung trained hard to succeed and make him proud. This type of upbringing made him arrogant, entitled and power-hungry, precisely the character flaws that made him unsuitable to receive the scroll. And then when he finally reads it, his character flaws prevent him from understanding and accepting the very lesson the scroll is meant to teach.

J

• Jerkass Has a Point: The Furious Five are right to be angry that, after a lifetime of gruelling training and tutelage under the stone-faced Shifu, the position of Dragon Warrior is given away to some stranger who literally came out of nowhere. Taking it out on Po is wrong, as it wasn't his fault, but still. Of course, the Five warm up to him over the course of the movie.
• Jerkass:
  • The pain of Tai Lung's Face–Heel Turn caused Shifu to withdraw showing affection to his students such that his lessons to the Furious Five are curt, harsh, and rarely complementary. Oogway diagnoses it as him lacking Inner Peace due to his failure with Tai Lung which is why he makes Shifu promise that he will train the Dragon Warrior.
  • Tigress behaves this way towards Po; even when her colleagues have warmed to him, recognizing his undeniable resolve, she remains coldly standoffish towards him, as she believes he's not taking his kung fu training seriously.

K

• Kevlard: Po's body fat is shown to make him resilient to impact from heights, allowing him to bounce along the ground, and makes him immune to nerve attacks.
• Ki Manipulation: Both Oogway and Tai Lung are shown being able to do strikes to pressure points that block the flow of Ki in their opponent and cause paralysis.
• Killed Off for Real: Oogway ascends to the Spirit Realm and the third film in the series confirms that Tai Lung was sent to the Spirit Realm by the Wuxi Fingerhold.

L

• Land of Dragons: This is set in a version of medieval China, after all...
• Large Ham: All of the narration/dialogue in the intro. It's made on purpose, of course.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • Upon meeting Po for the first time, Tai Lung laughs and says, "What are you gonna do, sit on me?" Cue Po literally sitting on Tai Lung's head during their stairway tumble seconds later.
  • For that matter, all the one-sided beatdowns and cruelty the Furious Five and especially Shifu dished out to Po in the earlier act of the film? Tai Lung later hits them with worse, particularly Tigress.
• Last Request: Oogway makes Shifu promise to believe that Po is the Dragon Warrior and to do his best to train him. Once Shifu agrees Oogway ascends to the Spirit Realm.
• Last-Second Chance: The directors' commentary implies that Po's sharing of the Dragon Scroll's true meaning to Tai Lung could have meant his redemption, if he chose to accept it, but Tai Lung doesn't.
• Last-Second Word Swap:
  Po: Ow! I thought you said acupuncture would make me feel better!
  Mantis: Trust me, it will. It's just not easy finding the right nerve points under all this—
  Po: Fat?
  Mantis: Fur! I was gonna say fur.
  Po: Sure you were.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: Shifu when he realizes that he CAN train Po.
• Let Us Never Speak of This Again: When Crane rescues Po from his full split.
  Po: Oh, hey, thanks.
  Crane: Don't mention it.
  Po: No, really, I...
  Crane: Ev-er.
• Lightning Bruiser: While all of the Furious Five are fast and capable of powerful attacks, Tigress best fits the Bruiser category. Also Po by the end of the movie and Tai Lung, of course.
• Lightning Reveal: Doesn't even involve darkness. Master Shifu waits for Tai Lung on the stairs to the Jade Palace. Dramatic Thunder sounds and Shifu closes his eyes for a moment against the lightning. When he opens them, Tai Lung is standing before him.
• Lineage Ladder: Subverted. Apparently having the "noodle dream" is a sign for a son to follow his father's footsteps of operating the family restaurant. Mr. Ping explains that it's a tradition coming from his father, and his father, with the camera shifting to painted portraits of an older and even older goose accordingly, but on the third time, it shifts to a painting of a non-ancestor, a pig.
  Mr. Ping: And then you will fulfill your destiny and take over the restaurant! Just as I took over from my father, who took it over from his father, who won it from a friend in a game of mahjong.
• Look What I Can Do Now!: After learning the lesson from the Dragon Scroll, Po shows up at the Jade Palace to save Shifu and take on Tai Lung.

M

• MacGuffin: The Dragon Scroll is rumored to bestow limitless power on the reader but is reserved for the Dragon Warrior. Tai Lung desires the scroll regardless of not being chosen, and when rejected he went on a rampage. The heroes decide to use the scroll's power in the final hour before Tai Lung arrives, but it turns out to merely be reflective paper. Po realizes that it's metaphorical, and that it actually means that the true power of the Dragon Warrior is within.
• Made of Iron: The Furious Five, Shifu, and Tai Lung all survive a lot of punishment due to them being Kung Fu Masters. While Po is still in training and not yet a Master, his Kevlard body allows him to absorb a lot of damage without so much as a broken bone.
• Magic Feather: The Secret Ingredient of the Secret Ingredient Soup, and the Dragon Scroll are both narrative devices intended to convey the lesson that to make something special you just have to believe it is special.
• Meaningful Echo:
  Oogway/Shifu: You must continue your journey without me.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Shifu is Chinese for "master".
  • Tai Lung means "great/ultimate dragon".
  • Po also means "peace", and that's exactly what he brings to the valley.
  • Oogway means "turtle", but he's a tortoise^note admittedly, tortoises are turtles. Though the taxonomy isn't very specific, a tortoise is generally defined as "a turtle that always lives on land", as opposed to sea turtles or semi-aquatic species like snapping turtles or painted turtles. That said, the term "turtle" can be used to collectively refer to any or all of them.
  • Vachir means "thunderbolt", though unfortunately for him, it fits both him and his death. Powerful, direct and over in an instant.
• Meaningless Villain Victory: Tai Lung does eventually get his paws on the Dragon Scroll... but he can't grasp its spiritual lesson and he gets no value out of it.
• Medium Blending: The opening and ending credits are 2D. Kung Fu Panda 2 expands the concept, so several flashbacks and memories are in 2D, and the opening credits seem to be loosely based on Indian shadow puppetry.
• Mentor Archetype: Shifu, though a pretty Jerkass one. He gets better, though he's still gruff.
• Mentor Occupational Hazard: Played straight for Oogway, who ascends and leaves Shifu in his place, and deliciously subverted for Shifu himself.
• Meteor Move: Tai Lung pulls off two of these while still airborne: first he kicks Po to the ground with enough force to create a small crater, then deepens said crater by flipping upside down and driving his fists into his fallen opponent.
• Metronomic Man Mashing: Po is beaten by Mantis using this style of beatdown.
• Micro Dieting: Discussed. Tigress comments that the Dragon Warrior is said to be able to survive for months on the dew of a single ginkgo leaf and the energy of the universe.
  Po: I guess my body doesn't know it's the Dragon Warrior yet. Gonna need a lot more than dew and universe juice.
• Million to One Chance: Guided by Because Destiny Says So, the one feather Vachir knocked loose landed just within Tai Lung's reach and provided him a tool he could use to escape.
• Miniature Senior Citizens: Epic Kung Fu mastery aside, Master Shifu is tiny. Justified, given he's a red panda which are approximately the size of a big male cat.
• Misplaced Retribution:
  • When Tai Lung is denied the Dragon Scroll he goes on a rampage through the Valley of Peace even though none of the citizens had anything to do with him being rejected as the Dragon Warrior.
  • Oogway pinpoints that Shifu is taking out his frustration of Tai Lung's failure on Po, because an untrained panda doesn't seem like he can stop Tai Lung and assuage Shifu of his guilt. He talks with Shifu about the illusion of control, and that Shifu has a choice; he uses the peach tree as an analogy, where Po is a peach seed. Oogway says that Shifu can't wish for a peach seed to grow into an apple tree, but what he can do is nurture the seed to grow, especially since Shifu knows how to plant one in the ground. 
• Missing Mom: Po's adoptive father doesn't seem to be married.
• Mood Whiplash:
  • Tai Lung's prison escape starts with some Black Comedy, as Vachir tortures him to reassure Zheng that the leopard is locked up. Then Tai Lung launches a Curb-Stomp Battle against all of the guards and doesn't give up, including the part where he tosses Vachir's own dynamite at the rhino and his army, proceeding to blast them off the mountain. Zheng is lucky to be alive.
  • An overwhelmingly sad moment from Tigress's backstory is immediately followed up by the gag of Po suddenly adopting a ridiculous face and says "Dooooiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnng...!". It turns out Mantis' acupuncture was to blame.
  • The iconic moment Shifu and Po share at the mountain path comes off the heels of a gag where Po was comically running and screaming down the mountain after slipping away from Shifu.
  • The final battle, taking place right after the incredibly serious battle between Shifu and Tai Lung.
• Motor Mouth: Po.
  Po: I should probably stop talking.
  Shifu: If you can.
• Multiple-Choice Chosen: Master Oogway is to choose one of the Furious Five (who have all received extensive kung fu training) to become the Dragon Warrior, but ends up choosing Po due to his accidentally crashing into the middle of the ceremony. Oogway decides that this is the universe making its preference known.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: Realistically, there's no way that Shifu, Monkey, Viper, Crane, Mantis, Tigress, Po and especially Tai Lung could carry out the feats of strength and endurance they are shown doing in the film. However, as they are patterned after Kung Fu Warriors of Chinese Folklore, their kung fu skill (and the implied Chi manipulation) is all that matters, even when you're holding up a rope bridge with five people standing on it.
• My Greatest Failure: How Shifu regards his training of Tai Lung, and it showed in his raising and training of Tigress and the Furious Five.
• My Kung-Fu Is Stronger Than Yours: Tai Lung is set up to be a bigger threat with his expertise in kung fu and outsmarting his opponents; even with the Furious Five working together with their different fighting styles to restrain and kill him, he still manages to come out on top by using nerve strikes against them. Thus, the Dragon Scroll is needed to obtain the power to defeat him. Once Po realizes the secret of the Dragon Scroll, he proceeds to beat Tai Lung and then obliterate him with the Wuxi Finger Hold.
• Mystical Jade: The sacred palace where kung fu masters reside is called the Jade Palace. It is situated atop Jade Mountain, and it is known to be a place of justice, honor, and knowledge.

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