Quote Originally Posted by Tonuss View Post
Until now my point of view has been that the Pandaren are influenced, at least to some degree, by the Dreamworks movie. But now I am not so sure. MMO-Champion has links to a topic where a blue posted this:

And then someone linked to this 2003 drawing by Chris Metzen. The Pandaren in that drawing looks a heck of a lot like the main character in the movie... except that the drawing pre-dates the film by about five years.
I was just about to post this as well. Pandas were always meant to be!