Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness/Recap
This is the Re Cap page for the animated series based on the Kung Fu Panda Movies. For more information go here: Kung Fu Panda Legends of Awesomeness.
Note this series takes place between the two movies.
Also note that the episodes are not being aired in the correct order (which is why they are not numbered here.)
Warning: Untagged Spoilers *are* included.
Kung Fu Panda Holiday Special:- Technically not part of the Awesomeness series (it aired a year before) but included here for completeness:
Po, being the Dragon Warrior, is forced to be the host of the Winter Holiday Feast at the Jade Palace. However not only is he unsuited for the job, what he really wants is to spend the Holiday with his father, Ping. When he tries to arrange things so that his father will be the cook at the feast, not only does he fail (Ping wants to spend the day with the common folk) but he offends the official cook, who spends much of the episode trying to die to restore his honor.
Eventually, Po succeeds in making a great Feast with the help of the Furious Five (and the suicidal cook, whose honor is then restored) but he quits in the middle of the Feast to go back to his father. Although this makes Shifu mad at first, all the guests end up deciding to go to the celebration at Mr. Ping's, and a good time is had by all.
Scorpion's Sting- When Tigress comes up with river fever--a harmless disease for children, but deadly to adults--Po and Monkey must find a rare orchid flower to cure her. The problem is that the flower is in the possession of Scorpion, a, well, scorpion who used to be the Valley of Peace's healer until an experiment of hers turned her evil and gave her the power to mind control those she stings. Scorpion sees them arrive thanks to a Scrying Pool, and she turns Monkey into a mindless slave. She tries to have him kill Po, but thanks to The Power of Friendship he eventually snaps free. Together with Po they take the flower back in time to save Tigress.
Note: Po and Monkey spend much of the episode trying to one-up the other with jokes, which led them to commit some near-fatal mistakes.
The Princess and the Po- Po and his friends are assigned to escort a pig princess named Mei Li on a peacemaking visit to the Qidan clan. Unfortunately, the princess is a selfish brat, to the point that her nagging causes the heroes to lose the caravan's provisions to the Crocodile Bandits. When she blames his friends, Po snaps at her and makes her cry; he soon realizes she's just a lonely child. He decides to be her friend. When they arrive at their destination, they find out that the true purpose of her mission is for her to be a slave to uphold the peace treaty. Po then challenges the clan leader - Temutai, a huge water buffalo- to a fight over her freedom, but (amazingly) he proves immune to all his Kung Fu moves- until Po tries using "Princess Style Kung Fu" (read: riding on his back while yanking his ears, as the princess had done to Po earlier) and beats him. As the group returns home with the princess, they run into the bandits and (presumably- the episode ends there) kick their butts and take the stolen goods back.
Sticky Situation- Po makes some super-sticky dumplings to cheer up Mantis (who is depressed after breaking up with his girlfriend, a butterfly.) When Po brings the dumplings with him to the training hall, they gum up the machinery and break it. Trying to get it fixed before the others find out, Po looks up its inventor, a warthog named Taotie, who used to be friends with Master Shifu, and his son. They agree to fix the hall, but instead turn it into a Humongous Mecha to attack the heroes with (Tao has a grudge with Shifu over machines being better than Kung Fu.) Po manages to defeat it by gumming it up with the rest of the dumplings. Shifu lets them escape however, apparently not considering them a true menace (and says he will send Tao the bill for the damages- which he does, as seen in a later episode.)
In the end, Mantis gets back together with his girlfriend.
Note:Tao-Tie is the Chinese name for the Yin-Yang symbol.
Chain Reaction- Po and Tigress are sent to transport a statue with a valuable ruby on it. The Croc Bandits handcuff them together, which cripples their fighting ability as they keep getting on each other's way. They are forced to run away with the ruby. This leads to the two revealing what they dislike (and like) about each other. Po accidentally slips out of the chain, and Tigress is captured. When he returns to help her, Tigress actually *ties them together again* (apparently as a show of trust) and, working together, they beat the Bandits. Though they still have to make the rest of the trip handcuffed.
Fluttering Finger Mindslip'- Shifu makes Po read a lot of Kung Fu scrolls, but the first few are boring, so he skips ahead and learns a technique called “Fluttering Finger Mindslip” that causes short-term memory loss. Po abuses it, using it to avoid chores and being lectured. But its overuse causes full amnesia on the Furious Five, who are then convinced by their enemy, Taotie, that they're his students! While Shifu faces his own students in battle, Po must undergo a terrible gauntlet to find the medicine that can restore them. In the end, after the Five are cured, Po erases his own memory so he can no longer use the technique.
Hometown Hero- When Mantis is summoned back to his hometown but refuses to explain why, Shifu sends Po to watch over him. It turns out that Mantis had told the villagers that he is the Dragon Warrior, as a way to get back at Hao, the (mantis) girl who rejected him once. Po agrees to pretend to be Mantis' sidekick for the visit, but Mantis falls in love with her again! Then another mantis warrior shows up to challenge him for the right to marry Hao. To make things worse, Mantis is having such a romantic BSOD that he keeps forgetting to go to the duel, which results in Po (having to let himself be) beaten up. Eventually Mantis realizes he's being mean to his friend and reveals the truth (but not without a one-on-one battle against his rival first).
Jailhouse Panda- Tong Fo, an evil genius, once stole a superweapon known as the Hammer of Lei Lang. He's in prison now, but Shifu fears he might escape and find the hammer. To trick him into revealing where it is hidden, Shifu wants to have one of his students infiltrate the prison (using an illusory disguise provided by a magical "shiftstone") but fears none of them is smart enough to fool Tong. So of course Po decides to prove he is crafty enough, steals the shiftstone and disguises himself as a goat villain. Amazingly, he actually gets Tong to believe him for a while, but the criminal later steals the shiftstone and uses it to escape. This forces Po (still disguised) to join forces with the Croc Bandits to escape the prison; later he must fight Tigress and Monkey, who don't know who he really is. Just when it seems the valley of Peace is doomed, one of the bandits takes the hammer away from Tong- it's Master Shifu, who realized what Po had done and followed him using a second shiftstone.
Good Croc Bad Croc- Annoyed that his friends think he's too gullible, Po wanders off and falls into a hole from which he's rescued by Fung, the leader of the Croc Bandits. He asks that Po agrees to return the favor by helping him rescue his brother, who has been captured by the local crimelord. Except it turns out it was all a trick to get Po to help him kidnap the crimelord's son! Po must then allow himself to be arrested, and would have been tortured had not Fong repented and come back to rescue him. Po must still arrest him afterward though, but he tricks Po and escapes.
Owl Be Back- When Po learns one of the "Seven Forbidden Moves" on his own, Shifu and the Furious Five become afraid that he'll turn evil like the last person who did- Fenghuang, a female owl who was a member of the (previous) Furious Five, along with Shifu. She was so evil Master Oogway made a form-fitting cage for her, but she escaped before he could trap her.
Fearing that he might hurt his loved ones, Po banishes himself to the mountains... where he runs into Fenghuang. After she learns from Po that Oogway is dead, she flies back to the Jade Palace to take it over, and easily beats everyone there. Po soon arrives (using a kite made out of her molted feathers) and the two battle to a standstill. When she tries to seduce him into becoming her evil partner, Po appears to agree, but it's just a trick to help seal her away.
In the end, Po returns to the palace (claiming no Dragon Warrior has ever turned evil, so he'll be OK) but Shifu keeps a cage made to contain him, just in case.
Note: Temutai has a cameo in this episode- and this time Po kicks his ass easily.
Bad Po- When Po *once again* disobeys orders and looks at the Mirror of Yin and Yang, he splits into both an Evil and a Good self (without either self realizing it.) They cause confusion around town with their behavior (including his good self being annoyingly nice) until they meet each other. Unable to hurt his good self (since they feel the same pain) 'Bad Po' then imprisons the Good one (and Shifu) and helps the Croc Bandits take over the Palace, beating up the Furious Five. Ultimately, Good Po literally *beats himself up* to stop him, and the condition is reversed using the same mirror.
Sight For Sore Eyes- Shifu prepares Po and the Five to perform a special routine to impress the visiting Master Chao (a lizard) and Master Junjie (a fox) who have come to evaluate Shifu's performance as master of the Jade Palace. However Junjie secretly hates Shifu and blinds Po with a special move so that he will ruin the routine. This gets Shifu fired and replaced with Junjie; he then replaces the Furious Five with five identical snow leopards. Everyone blames Po for this (including himself).
Later Po accidentally learns the truth (and that Junjie has captured Shifu.) Believing the Furious Five will not listen to him now, he tries to rescue Shifu alone, but is captured. However, Mr. Ping (Po's adoptive father) convinces the Five to go help him. Po uses the same move that blinded him to free himself (and Chao and Shifu) ...and blinds himself again in the process. Still he takes on Junjie, snuffing out the lights so that he cannot see either, and wins because he can *smell* the garlic Junjie had for dinner.
In the end, Chao restores Shifu and the Five to their positions and takes away Junjie and the leopards. When Chao says that Po taught them a lesson, Po boasts about it, so Shifu leaves him to find a way to un-blind himself.
Rhino's Revenge- While the Valley of Peace prepares to celebrate a holiday that honors The Dragon Warrior, Hundun, a Rhino guard who lost his job after Tai Lung was killed (since his prison was not needed any more), blames the Dragon Warrior for his life being ruined as a result, and comes to the town to kill him. However he doesn't know that Po is the Dragon Warrior, and Po, feeling sorry for him, tries to befriend him and even teaches him Kung Fu (to calm his anger.)
Unfortunately, once Hundun finds out the truth, he STILL wants to kill Po, and since Po was dumb enough to tell him his combat weakness, and even the Furious Five's, they all get in trouble. However in their fight, Po manages to overcome his weakness and defeats Hundun.
In the end, the Chorh-Gom prison is reopened- and Hundun is its first new prisoner.
Master Ping- Three pig warriors try to force Po to teach them his moves, and their fight trashes his father's noodle shop. Shifu allows Ping to stay over at the Jade Palace, but his behavior there unintentionally embarrasses Po and prevents anyone from sleeping well. He even turns the palace into a restaurant without permission!
When Shifu asks Po to tell him to leave, Ping gets mad at them. However he is then captured by the Pigs, who think he's Shifu! When they force him to teach them his Kung Fu, he teaches them a move he saw Shifu perform that paralyzes the opponent- and it actually works! When Po finds him, he has to pretend to fight him in order to warn him about it. In the the process the two forgive each other (and beat the pigs together.)
In the end, having learned some humility, Ping returns to his shop (which the heroes rebuilt for him.)
Ghost of Oogway- Oogway reappears, as a ghost, at the Peach Tree of Heavenly Wisdom where he Ascended to A Higher Plane of Existence. He tells Po to...act even more lazily. Not only that, the Furious Five are also told to adopt this stance. When Shifu (who is disturbed that Oogway doesn't want to see him) argues about it with Po, he decides to leave the Jade Palace and become...a musician! But it turns out that 'Oogway' was really a disguised Junjie; he and his five Snow Leopards capture Po and the rest, until the real spirit of Oogway appears! Except he was actually Shifu in disguise, using the same trick to catch Junjie off guard! Together with his students he defeats the evil master and his minions.
When asked by Po what tipped him off to the truth, Shifu says that Oogway would never say "Awesome!".
...And then, the real spirit of Oogway, watching events from the Peach Tree of Heavenly Wisdom, does indeed say "Awesome!" before vanishing unseen.
The Kung Fu Kid- The Valley of Peace holds a traditional Peace Jubilee, with Temutai as a guest of honor. When Peng, a traveling snow leopard boy, beats Temutai's nephew in a kung fu match, Po invites him to stay over at the Jade Palace to train.
Unfortunately, the kid proves so popular with everyone that Po gets jealous. Eventually he tells Peng that Shifu wants him to leave. This gets Peng so mad, he decides to kill Temutai to prove himself! The resulting three-way battle between him, Temutai and Po wrecks havoc with the peace festival. Until Po finally admits he lied, and he and Peng forgive each other for their rash actions. Then the festival resumes happily.
Before leaving the town, Peng informs Po that the purpose of his quest is to find his missing uncle--Tai Lung!
Ladies Of The Shade- The Ladies of the Shade, a traveling troupe of acrobats composed of female cats who perform using umbrellas, comes to town. They are actually a group of thieves who want to steal Shifu's Dragon Chalice. Their leader, Su, tells one of them, named Song, to befriend Po and get him to invite them over to the Jade Palace. She does, but ends up liking Po more than she expected. Before she can warn him, however, the Ladies steal the chalice.
Po, Viper and Crane track them, and after passing through the Canyon of the Shrieking Wind, they find their base, which contains a huge number of them. Po disguises himself as a girl who wants to join the group (with Crane as his shawl and Viper as his parasol) and manages to get inside the village. They are discovered, but Song helps them escape. They are chased by the thieves, but Po defeats them by tricking them into following them into the Canyon, where the wind blows them away (because of their parasols.)
In the end, Su is captured, and Song decides to become the Ladies' new chief (to steer them away from crime) not without a heartfelt goodbye to Po however. The heroes manage to return the chalice before Shifu noticed (barely.)
Big Bro Po- Taotie attacks the Jade Palace using the "Iron Claws of Doom" but is captured because his son, Bian Zao, didn't lubricate its joints. Tao is sent to prison, which left Bian homeless. Worried about the apathetic boy, Shifu allows him to stay at the palace and orders Po to watch over him. Po tries to cheer Bian up by teaching him baking; which his father then takes advantage of by having Bian smuggle him the parts of The Claws in the cakes he brings him to jail, on the promise that he'll spend some quality time with him later.
However, Bian gets to like Po and is uncertain about delivering the final cake... which Po innocently does for him. When Tao attacks on the Palace again with the (now lubricated) mecha, Bian cannot decide who to help. When Po fights the mecha to a standstill, Bian helps his father escape. Still, Po feels he did a good thing, having helped father and son get closer.
Challenge Day- To teach Po not to take being the Dragon Warrior for granted, Master Shifu tells everyone in town that today is 'Challenge Day', when anybody who can beat the Dragon Warrior before sundown can assume the title. (This is a lie. He also sent the Furious Five away to rest so they would not interfere.) This results in Po having to fend off everybody in town (without hurting them.) When Hundun hears about this, he escapes from jail and actually defeats Po (who was tired from fighting all day long, as well as injured thanks to saving the life of a child) causing everyone to think he was in charge now, and a despondent Po won't even try to stop him. Hundun finds out the truth from Shifu, but he captures and imprisons him so he can't tell anyone else.
Ultimately, Po decides to fight Hundun again anyway, even if he's not officially the Dragon Warrior anymore, for the sake of the people, and defeats him. Later Shifu admits his lie, but Po decides that it had been an awesome act from his part rather than being mad at him.
Note: Hundun gains a new combat trick (hollow horns with hidden weapons inside).
My Favorite Yao- Master Yao, a goat who knows all the secrets of Kung Fu, and whom Shifu fanboys over, stops by the Jade Palace in the middle of a trip. He's inside a box, where he's been meditating for decades. When Shifu can't help but open the box to see him, Yao is overwhelmed by the sensations of the outside world, and runs away to have fun. Shifu is forced to ask Po for help to find Yao (since he doesn't want anybody else to know how he messed up) and they track him down, but their bickering leads to Yao being captured by Temutai, who wants to know his secrets.
After being caught themselves, Shifu tricks Temutai into releasing him by dancing (supposedly to humble himself before the warlord) and then frees Po to help battle the bad guys.
In the end, Yao defeats all the enemies by himself (he was just having fun with the whole deal) and returns to his box after thanking Shifu for the experience. Shifu asks Po not to tell anyone what happened.
In With The Old- Po finds himself stuck playing Mahjong with his father and two of his excruciatingly slow elderly friends, Mr. Yung (a pig) and Mrs. Gao (a goat), when what he really wanted was to go see a performance of levitating Kung Fu artists outside of town with the Furious Five.
Temutai takes the opportunity to invade the Jade Palace with his water buffalo warriors, and they capture Shifu and put him in a Death Trap- an iron cage whose roof is slowly sliding down, threatening to crush him- trying to force him to reveal the location of the magical Helm of the Thunder God.
Po is forced to try to stop them with help only from Yung and Gao, who turn out to be Old Masters of Kung Fu (with Yung using his citar as a bow and Gao using her false teeth as throwing weapons.)
Temutai finds the helmet but Po defeats him by cleverly using another magical helm.
In the end, Po decides to go back to play Mahjong with the old people he'd disrespected before.