Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight Review: Po Arrives On Netflix With A New Mission

Stars: James Hong, Jack Black, Rita Ora

Director: Shaunt Nigoghossian

Streaming Platform: Netflix

Filmyhype.com Ratings: 3/5 (three stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight is the third TV series dedicated to the hugely popular animated franchise Kung Fu Panda, which started as a theatrical film in 2008, but has come a long way since then. At the cinema, on TV, and on platforms. Accomplice to great success with audiences and critics, a little everywhere. Here is everything you ever wanted to know about the series but never dared to ask. A Dreamworks Animation production, available on Netflix starting July 14, 2022.

The winning formula doesn’t change, right? Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight is action, humor, sentiment, the eternal tale of training and maybe even perfection. Above all, it is a colorful raid of martial arts and situations solved by the broken cap. Po‘s stubborn love of kung fu is more explosive than ever, this time the story offers him the opportunity to compete with a fighting style and a philosophy of life that doesn’t belong to him. Some initial difficulties, but it’s never too late to learn something new. The original voices of the protagonists are those of Jack Black and Rita Ora.

Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight Review: The Story

We start with the premise. Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight is set after the events of the three films in the series. During one of Po’s foodie trips through China, a series of incidents lead to the theft of a legendary weapon and the fall from grace of our favorite panda, who becomes a wanted outlaw. But not everything will be bad: in his misfortune, he will meet a knight of the Crown of England who is chasing the two weasels (literally) who have stolen one of the four legendary weapons. Together, they will embark on a nationwide adventure to retrieve the gun and bring the thieves to justice. Although, she is not very interested in having help from the legendary Dragon Master.

Po is on the verge of a gigantic reputational crisis. Even if things hadn’t started badly, far from it. Indeed, they had begun more than well. Hero of kung fu loved and stalked by young and old, the darling of the emperor, awarded the illustrious title of Master Dragon. In short, Po made it. And what does China’s greatest hero do when he just got to the top of the world? A food tour of the country, because kung fu is kung fu, but the food is even better. It is on this ridge that the troubles begin.

The wrong stage of the journey is a small town called Wankun, in theory, one stop among many. Instead, it is the beginning of the end. A big misunderstanding, a narrative tangle with a vaguely Hitchcockian flavor with the entire population of the village who are convinced it was Po, using a mysterious magic glove inappropriately, to cause its destruction. Not so, the story involves a diabolical pair of weasels named Klaus (Chris Geere) and Veruca (Della Saba). The glove is the first step of a very dangerous journey that the two undertake with few clear purposes and clear consequences. Po (Jack Black) knows that he must stop them, also because it is the only way to recover his good name, but alone he can do little. Morale is in pieces. From the most loved to the most hated panda in all of China, the slip would bring down even a more structured celebrity. Fortunately, Po is not alone.

Providential help, it is at this point that Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight takes flight, and arrives together with the Wandering Blade (Rita Ora). The name would be more articulated, he is a bear, he comes from England and by trade, he is a knight, you choose. The Wandering Blade has armor, a helmet, a sword, a code of conduct to be taken into consideration, and a past to be resolved. His pending bill with weasels is big, he also has a bad temper. He is instantly fascinated by it and in desperate need of new friends. She doesn’t seem convinced, but she agrees to take him with her and a lot of the chemistry of the series is born from the encounter between two characters, two styles of fighting, two steps, which may struggle to agree but have a lot in common.

Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight Review And Analysis

After three films, two TV series, major box office receipts, and even a handful of side projects (five and they are short films), what can bring to Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight that even vaguely resembles something new? The series tries to solve the problem by first intervening in the composition of the cast. Of the three films, which are the hard core of the saga in terms of acclaim, imagery, and audience hold, there are only Po and Mr. Ping (James Hong). Filling the story with new faces (of new species) serves to tone, at the center and at the edges, a narrative dynamic which, however captivating and well oiled, suffers in the long run from the limits of repetition.

On the other hand, Po is always Po, clumsy, clumsy, very nice, and ready for heroism when needed. Bringing new characters that come from afar, superimposing different styles and philosophies on the background of the action/martial arts of the series concerning the Asian center of gravity of Kung Fu again, but without exaggerating). On the other hand, it responds to a need for inclusiveness and openness that is prevailing today, in cinema and on TV, in cinemas, or on streaming.

We know the moral of the story well. The series does not try to carry on the discourse if anything it perfects it. In praise of friendship, a celebration of courage and the will to overcome one’s limits, always and in any case together. To frame Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight is a close action and self-deprecating humor (even a more mature aftertaste not to be underestimated) that travels almost on autopilot; not all repetition comes to harm. The image loses its bite, it could not be otherwise with many episodes of 24 minutes each and the relative (not indifferent) creative and financial effort. At times, you can feel the void left by the well-kept and luxuriant aesthetics of the previous films. While maintaining more than dignity within the standard of contemporary animation, whether serial or not, the action is returned with a certain rigidity, while the construction of the environment is marked by a rather unusual economy of details.

With 11 episodes of about 25 minutes each, Kung Fu Panda: The Knight of the Dragon is a very entertaining series to have a good time with the family enjoying Po’s adventures. Perhaps, an episode is left over: not as such, but in fragments that are added in some chapters and lengthen them excessively. In the end, it is hardly noticeable, but if you marathon the series you will feel that some episodes could be shorter. There is a good portion of humor, and the action scenes are very successful, in line with the franchise. Yes, it shows that a little has been skimped on the environments, not all of them, but some landscapes are more simplified than what we have internalized from the movies.

The original version dub benefits from bringing back Jack Black as the voice of Po, as well as James Hong as Mr. Ping (Po’s father). At 93, Hong continues to add credits to his extensive filmography. As for the dubbing in Spanish, the voice of Florentino Fernández as Po is missing again. We do not in any way detract from the fantastic work of Carlos Di Blasi, who has already voiced the character in Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Scroll and Kung Fu Panda: The Claws of Destiny. In short, it is a very summer series to enjoy. Adults will catch some jokes that the little ones won’t: you know that Dreamworks usually puts in those naughtiest little winks.

Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight: The Last Words

An animated series perfect for summer with much of the Kung Fu Panda mythology at the service of a new mission for Po. Good action scenes in a series where only the animation of the environment occasionally fails. It has a good rhythm and very visual action scenes. It is perfect to see with the whole family and have a good time.