Secrets of the Furious Five

Introduction

Po (Jack Black) is assigned by Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) to teach an introduction to Kung Fu class for a group of rambunctious bunny children. Po tries to explain to the kids that combat is not the only part of what Kung Fu is about, while its true meaning is "excellence of self." To illustrate his point, he uses the stories of the Furious Five's individual pasts and the basic philosophical concepts they learned that enabled them to be great Kung Fu masters.

Mantis

In his youth, Mantis was a petulantly impatient warrior who was prone to jumping to conclusions and making impulsive decisions. When this habit got himself captured by crocodile bandits, the long wait he was forced to endure in his cage allowed him to find the patience to play dead long enough to ambush his captors.

Viper

Viper, the daughter of Great Master Viper, was born without venomous fangs. Her father, who relied on his venomous bite to protect the village, was despondent that she could never succeed him as a warrior, making her feel timid. One day during a festival, Great Master Viper encountered a gorilla bandit who wore armor hard enough to shatter his fangs when he tried to bite him. Seeing her father in peril, Viper found the courage to fight the bandit and defeat him with her ribbon dancing skills.

Crane

Crane was an unconfident janitor of a Kung Fu academy until the star pupil Mei Ling encouraged him to seek enrollment in the school. Even though his nerve failed him at the tryouts, Crane accidentally stumbled into the intimidating challenge that determined eligibility and suddenly found the confidence to take the challenge, with his skinny body proving to be an asset that enabled him to succeed.

Tigress

Tigress was an orphan whose status as an apex predator and her destructive lack of control of her strength left her feared and isolated in the rest of the orphanage where she lived. Master Shifu came to kindly teach her the discipline she desperately needed to control her movements until she could perform delicate tasks with ease enough to allay the concerns of the orphanage and the kids that lived there. When she was again rejected for adoption by the adults who were still scared of her, Master Shifu took her in as his student and foster daughter.

Monkey

Monkey was a troublemaker who tormented his village owing to him being publicly humiliated in his youth. He defied all attempts to force him to leave by removing his assailants' belts that held their pants up until Master Oogway confronted him and defeated him in a fight (since he wore no pants), deducing the cause of his anti-social behavior. Rather than making him leave the village as per the challenge, Oogway told him to stay and encouraged him to show compassion to others, as he would want in similar circumstances.

Conclusion

At the end, Master Shifu returns to see Po's anticipated lack of progress teaching and he's surprised that he underestimated Po's talents yet again, considering how much Po's students have learned. But when the bunnies ask Po how his first day of Kung Fu was, all the unpleasant memories during the original film flash through his head; he then proudly says, "It was totally awesome!"

Voice cast

Note: Mr Ping didn't appear in the short, only on the DVD cover of the film.

Awards

Secrets of the Furious Five has received eight nominations in the "Animated Television Production or Short Form" category at the 36th Annie Awards, of which it received four ("Character Animation," "Character Design," "Music," and "Production Design").

Controversy

The individual DVD release has received much criticism from consumers confusing it for a feature-length production. The UK DVD release is described on the packaging as "The Next Kung Fu Panda Adventure", implying that it is a sequel to the first as opposed to a spin-off.