Kung Fu Panda Archives | Otaku No Culture

When Season 3 of Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight Packs Too Much In, Breaking It Up Is Important

As much as I enjoyed watching the Dumont bandits make their last hurrah in Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight, their fates are no longer intertwined and I’ll just leave it at that.

DreamWorks Animation

Po has certainly grown since becoming the Dragon Warrior back when Kung Fu Panda first started. He had to deal with classic wuxia style villains in the movies, face many foes in the television series, train a new generation in The Paws of Destiny and, with The Dragon Knight, prove his worth elsewhere. He’s lost the former title, and the difference may well rest in where he’s honoured.

Much of the third season takes place in England and it feels drawn out. After the events of the much shorter second season at Tikal to locate the Tianshang weapons, simply retrieving them and becoming the new custodians isn’t enough. They’ll have to destroy them. I had to rewatch much of the prior season to remind myself about what went on, and then realised, perhaps viewing the first again would also help refresh my memory.

Instead of sailing a straight line to that nation, a cruise through the Caribbean is required and they encounter pirates! (“The Trial of Mr. Ping” and “Baddie Issues”). Continue reading “When Season 3 of Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight Packs Too Much In, Breaking It Up Is Important”

From Dragon Master to Dragon Knight. Can Kung Fu Panda Regain His Honour?

Kung Fu Panda The Dragon Knight is better than Legends of Awesomeness because we have a stronger ongoing narrative.

Available to view on Netflix
Spoiler Alert

Po (Jack Black) has to make “The Journey to the West” in true Monkey King fashion if he’s to regain his honour. In the latest entry to the Kung Fu Panda franchise, he’s neither the Dragon Master nor the Dragon Knight (the title of this latest series) because his tomfoolery destroyed a village. Also, he let it lose its most precious protected relic to two weasels. If he can’t recover the stolen WuGao Gauntlet with Luthera of Landreth (Rita Ora), a bear from England, then he’ll have a lot more to lose. But this female knight has problems too.

If this plot sounds familiar, that’s because we’ve seen it before in Avatar: The Last Avatar and Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu. It combines ideas from the early seasons. One is in finding your true potential all over again. To see Po wanting to see people to have faith in him is far more important than the other arc about saving the world from a Thanos level threat.

Continue reading “From Dragon Master to Dragon Knight. Can Kung Fu Panda Regain His Honour?”

DreamWorks & Netflix’s Ready for More Kung Fu Panda Action July 2022!

The best news from this month for DreamWorks Kung Fu Panda fans is that Po’s adventures aren’t over. After three successful films, five standalone pieces and two series–one on network television and the other on Amazon–Netflix has its eye to continue the adventures with the lead in The Dragon Knight!

There isn’t too much information to reveal as some aspects are still being developed or are under wraps. All we know so far is that weasels are the primary antagonists in this upcoming series. Confirmed is Jack Black returning to the role instead of Mick Wingert who voiced the title character in Paws of Destiny. This actor also confirmed to Entertainment Weekly that it’s coming July 2022!

Story Synopsis:

When a mysterious pair of weasels set their sights on a collection of four powerful weapons, Po must leave his home to embark on a globe-trotting quest for redemption and justice that finds him partnered up with a no-nonsense English knight named Wandering Blade. Together, these two mismatched warriors set out on an epic adventure to find the magical weapons first and save the world from destruction – and they may even learn a thing or two from each other along the way.

Kung Fu Panda 3 Executes Relentless Punches to Marvel At!

Everybody will soon want to hum to the new Kung Fu Fighting in Po’s journey (Jack Black) in Kung Fu Panda 3. Not only does the story reunite him with his past, of a life totally forgotten, but also the CGI, watercolour scroll visuals (revealed in flashback) and 3D deliver a glorious blow to the senses to behold. Very rarely will a film get the depth right and this film gets the job done perfectly!

There’s no subtitle to indicate what the tale is about, and true to the great cosmic will, this young warrior’s destiny is looking like it will come full circle. The virtues of yin and yang are duly explored in this latest entry; from witnessing how Po has to deal with two fathers—one biological (Li Shan, voiced by Bryan Cranston) and the other adoptive (Mr. Ping, played by James Hong) not necessarily seeing eye-to-eye—to learning about what his true potential is, this computer animated gem combines the best themes realized in other Wuxia films. When considering this story is co-developed by both divisions of DreamWorks (in China and USA), enlightenment is achieved!

While this movie is focussed on reuniting Po with his Panda heritage, an old threat wants to return to the physical realm to wreck chaos. Kai (J. K. Simmons) is a temperamental bull who has a history with Master Oogway (Randall Duk Kim) — who passed away in the first movie. This film takes a peek into the spirit realm to show that life continues, and while this turtle is enjoying his ‘retirement,’ not everyone in this plane of existence feels the same. The two meet again, and the plot of Kai wanting to steal souls exist so he can amass a new army. Of course, he senses Po’s vitality and he is coveting it for his own use.

Continue reading “Kung Fu Panda 3 Executes Relentless Punches to Marvel At!”

Kung Fu Panda 3: First Trailer!

By James Robert Shaw (The Wind up Geek)

Po is back in black or more appropriately white and black. In this third installment from DreamWorks animation we see that Po (Jack Black) is reunited with his long-lost father Li (Bryan Cranston) but only after the villagers sit through a long game of mind tennis. Po and Li fail to earn points or gain ground much to the chagrin of the locals. I guess both pandas are of the same blood. Like father like son so they say.

DreamWorks has made a good decision by setting Kung Fu Panda 3 for a January 29, 2016 release. By doing so they will circumnavigate the gaping hole that Star Wars VII – The Force Awakens will leave over Christmas and at the same time assure Panda 3 will see at least some box office revenue.