Angelina Jolie leaps into 'Kung Fu Panda'

If any woman can whip Jack Black into shape, Angelina Jolie can. The world's most-photographed Oscar winner/mother/Brad Pitt companion has just joined the cast of DreamWorks' animated comedy Kung Fu Panda. The movie is due in theaters in May 2008.

Black plays Po the Panda, who slings noodles in a restaurant and loves kung fu but doesn't have the body for it. Jolie will provide the voice of a martial-arts master named Tigress. When Po is revealed as the Chosen One to save the animals, Tigress must get the slacker panda into fighting form.

The movie reteams Black and Jolie, who were in 2004's animated Shark Tale. It's the first new project for Jolie since the birth of her daughter Shiloh on May 27. Jolie's next film is The Good Shepherd, due in December.

(Source: DreamWorks SKG)

About Kung Fu Panda (2008)

Genre(s): Animation, Action, Adventure, Kids, Family

Plot Synopsis: Jack Black stars as Po the Panda, the laziest of all the animals in the Valley of Peace. With powerful enemies at the gates, all hope is pinned on a martial arts hero to rise to save the day. When Po unwittingly shows up in the midst of the martial arts competition, the masters are shocked to see that this unmotivated panda bears the mark of the Chosen One.

Dustin Hoffman will voice the role of Shifu, the by-the-book, tough-as-nails kung fu master whose task it is to transform Po into a fighter.

Jackie Chan will lend his voice to Master Monkey, a strong, agile and dedicated kung fu warrior, who serves as a daily reminder to Po of everything he is not.

Lucy Liu will be the voice of Master Viper, another of Po's teachers, who can be coy and feminine, but is capable of unleashing the warrior within.