Kung Fu Panda

Kung Fu Panda (Music from the Motion Picture) is the score album to the 2008 film Kung Fu Panda. The album features original score composed by Hans Zimmer and John Powell, and a cover of the classical song "Kung Fu Fighting" performed by CeeLo Green and Jack Black (who also plays Po, the lead character). The album consisted of traditional and orchestral score, infused with Chinese music, where Zimmer visited China to study the traditions and culture. As a process, the score was recorded with mostly Chinese traditional instruments, and the China National Symphony Orchestra also performed the score. The 17-track album was released by Interscope Records on June 3, 2008. Development Hans Zimmer was roped in as the composer for Kung Fu Panda, thereby making his sixth DreamWorks Animation film. While Zimmer was intended to be the sole composer, his protégé John Powell was later brought into the project; Powell's involvement was confirmed by CEO of DreamWorks Animation, Jeffrey Katzenberg, after the test screening of the film. This marked Zimmer and Powell's third film working together, after Chill Factor (1999) and DreamWorks' The Road to El Dorado (2000). To score for the film, Zimmer visited China to absorb the culture and influence of traditional Chinese music. In the process, he got to know about the Chinese National Symphony orchestra and brought them on their project, along with the London Symphony Orchestra and London Voices also performing. Recording of the score was held at AIR Studios in London. Several Chinese instruments, such as erhu, guzheng, Chinese flutes and Baigong pipes were used in the score. John Stevenson and Mark Osborne did not want "to have a soundtrack that had contemporary pop songs in it", instead a traditional and orchestral score for a "big, epic film". Stevenson attributed Zimmer and Powell had "both the ability to create lush musical landscapes", hence "there is a huge, majestic, epic quality to Hans’ music and John’s exciting and innovative ideas". Osborne said, "We told them from the very beginning we wanted our film to be an intimate story about one character, but the backdrop was just epic, with a very formal and martial world. So, for us, it was a strong contrast between the two elements that were the most important to our storytelling, and we wanted them to explore that aspect.