THE BAD GUYS IN: KUNG FU PANDA

Healing

Daybreak. In a forest an unknown distance from the city, an unconscious Po floats down the river, his fur singed from the blast.

He comes to a stop at a low bridge. Standing on the bridge is a familiar elderly goat who pokes Po's belly several times with her cane.

Some time later, Po is woken by water drops falling on his head, to find himself inside the ruins of a small house, bandaged and covered with acupuncture needles.

He spots the Soothsayer sitting in front of a small fire, boiling something inside a pot.

He attempts to crawl away on his back silently, wincing as he does so.

The Soothsayer raises her head slightly when one of the floorboards creak.

Po freezes... then goes limp, playing dead. After a few seconds, Po opens his eyes to find Soothsayer right in his face.

"Ah!" He jumps, then groans in pain. Soothsayer silently holds out a cup of unknown liquid.

"Yeah... like you're going to get me to drink daw!"

Soothsayer sticks a needle in his forehead, making his eyes bulge and his mouth pop wide open.

She tosses the medicine in his mouth and yanks out the needle, making him swallow.

Whatever she gave him makes him gag as she returns to the fire.

"If I wanted you dead, I would have left you in that river"

"Why save me?" He begins removing the needles.

"So you can fulfill your destiny"

"What are you talking about? Where am I?" He notices that they are among the burned remains of a small village.

"What is this place?"

"I am surprised that you remember so little... but then, you were so little when it happened"

Po suddenly hears screaming inside his head and cries out in pain.

He crawls towards the edge of the house ruin. Soothsayer gazes at him.

"Perhaps you do remember"

"What? It's just a stupid nightmare"

"Nightmare... or memory?"

Po gazes into a puddle just outside the ruin. His reflection changes into that of an infant panda laughing happily at his older self.

Po looks up as another flashback takes over... this time, he sees a 2D animated village full of pandas happily living their lives.

Panda children rush by flying kites as farmers work in the fields.

Po's parents wave sweetly as baby Po climbs down the stairs outside his house, clutching a tiny panda doll.

Adult Po staggers out the ruin as his memories return to him.

"This was a thriving village. Young Shen was in line to rule Gongmen City... but he wanted more. I foretold that someone would stand in his way... a panda. But I never could have foretold what came next..."

Po is struck by another vision... It is night, and the entire village is in flames.

The villages run for their lives as Shen and his wolves begin their assault.

In the midst of the massacre, baby Po sits outside his hut whimpering in fear, while clutching his doll.

In the flames, he spots Shen and two wolves a short distance away. Shen notices the child.

"Get them all!"

The two wolves, one of which is recognized as Boss Wolf, leap at baby Po, jaws open wide.

The child's eyes widen with terror... a male panda very similar to the panda from Po's nightmare leaps in front of Baby Po, armed with a rake.

With a powerful swing, he strikes Boss Wolf directly in the eye and sends him and his comrade flying backward.

They fall past Shen, who stares in astonishment at the panda.

"Take our son... and run away! Go!"

Po's mother grabs her son and flees. Baby Po loses his grip on the doll, and it bounces on the ground before being buried in flaming debris...

In the present, adult Po reaches beneath an old piece of wood and finds his long lost toy.

He stares at it before the visions strike again... once again, he sees his mother running away from her child... he stops, the memory now too painful to remember.

"Stop fighting... let it flow..."

Po slowly relaxes... he sets downs his old toy... he looks up at the rain falling down on his head then closes his eyes... he begins performing tai chi movements... he lifts his paw to catch a single raindrop as...

Po's mother frantically runs into a forest quite like the one from Po's nightmare, all the other pandas either fleeing elsewhere or dead. In her arms, baby Po gazes ahead as Boss Wolf, his left eye now damaged, pursues them on all fours...

His eyes still shut, Po moves the drop from one paw to another. It doesn't break...

Po's mother dodges Boss Wolf as he lunges and falls into the snow.

She quickly turns and runs deeper into the forests as more wolves give chase...

Adult Po continues to move the drop without breaking it...

Po's mother rushes down a deep snow embankment, eluding the wolves for now.

She stops in front of a cart full of vegetable crates... and the scene switches to 3D as she places baby Po inside a crate full of radishes. Adult Po's eyes snap open.

Po's mother begins to leave, just like in previous visions... only this time, when baby Po begins to cry, she seems to change her mind, taking her son's little paws into her own, comforting him.

Baby Po makes a "Ma!" sound as his mother kisses him on the forehead and clutches his paws tightly.

His mother gazes lovingly at her child as he giggles... and then with tears in her eyes, she moves away, rushing back up the snowy hill.

As her son watches, crying, she reaches the top of the hill, waves at someone off-screen, and runs out of sight.

Several wolves and Shen himself take off after her, not noticing baby Po as he is left alone in the radish basket...

Adult Po deposits the rain drop onto a small plant in the grass.

He slowly falls into a sitting position, completely gutted. Soothsayer approaches as he fights back tears.

"Your story may not have such a happy beginning... but that does not make you who you are. It is the rest of your story... who you choose to be..."

At this, Po looks up. His expression slowly changes as a new wave of memories floods over him... this time, he remembers his infant self tumbling out of the basket at a younger Mr. Ping's feet... Oogway choosing him as the Dragon Warrior years later... his first day in the Jade Palace... meeting Shifu and the Furious Five... meeting Diane and princess...training under Shifu... reading the Dragon Scroll and understanding its meaning... defeating Tai Lung... Tigress bowing to him along with the Five, smiling at him for the first time... Tigress hugging him inside Gongmen Jail... a younger Mr. Ping gazing lovingly down at baby Po as he whimpers beneath the wok on his head... Mr. Ping feeding baby Po on his makeshift crib...

"So... who are you, panda?"

Po slowly gets to his feet. His eyes narrow as he is filled with a new determination.

"I am Po... and I'm gonna need a hat"