Netflix’s Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight brings back Jack Black as the voice of Po for an adventure-filled martial arts adventure. Check out the details in my parents guide review.
Netflix’s Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight drops on the streaming service today, July 14th. The series brings back Jack Black, voicing the Dragon Master himself, Po. Previous seasons have carried on without Black, and when asked what brought the iconic voice back to the franchise, director Peter Hastings simply stated it was the pandemic. I guess there is one thing good that we can say came out of the pandemic years. Check out the details in my parents guide review.
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Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight Parents Guide
Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight follows Po once again on a new adventure to save the world. The once-celebrated warrior of China must redeem his lost reputation and team up with an English knight called the Wandering Blade who has come from England to seek Po’s help to stop a pair of notorious weasels.
Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight Age Appropriate Parents Guide
Let’s take a look at what parents need to know before letting their kids watch Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight.
Language: Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight contains mild language, with the strongest words you will come across including: idiot, dopey, and stupid.
Mature Content: The series is on the same line as the previous films and series in the franchise. Characters are engaged in hand-to-hand (or paw-to-paw) combat, as well as wielding weapons and swords. The characters are also put into dangerous conditions.
Overall Thoughts
Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight is yet another animated series starring everyone’s favorite martial arts panda. This one picks up the story after the events of the most recent Kung Fu Panda series, The Paws of Destiny, and both are set after the last lineal movie, Kung Fu Panda 3. Jack Black reprises his role as Po for the first time in a television series for this wildly popular franchise, and that’s a good thing. After all, no one could capture the same zany, wise-cracking nature of the Dragon Warrior as well as he could.
Po, having been named Dragon Master after all his previous exploits, is tasked with protecting China from all threats. He may have finally met his match when a couple of dastardly weasels steal a magical gauntlet, a beloved artifact with great power. Although it seems a bit harsh after all he has done up to this point, Po is stripped of his title and is now shunned by the people he loves. Soon, Po meets up with a shadowy figure who is surprisingly well equipped to match Po with fighting skills, blow for blow. This turns out to be the mysterious Wandering Blade, a warrior from faraway England who is on a quest to find the same weasels that stole the gauntlet. Voiced by singer Rita Ora, The Wandering Blade (as she is known) is more serious and steadfast than Po, and so ensues a clash of styles and philosophies on how to track down and capture the friends as they decide to team up and set out to find them and the artifact.
The animation is on par for a series animated by DreamWorks, but you can tell the budget is definitely not the same as for the feature films. It even seems like the lesser characters are glossed over in many scenes compared to Po, who just looks sharper and crisper than the others. Even the landscapes of China that looked gorgeous scene after scene in the movies are subdued and lack character here, and the battles are OK, but just not up to the caliber of their film counterparts. These issues will be virtually non-existent for the target demographic of children, however, who will just be glad to see more of the high-kicking fluffball in action. James Hong also returns as Po’s father Ping, but noticeably absent are the Furious Five, who have played major roles in much of the franchise to date. Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight serves mainly as an excuse to squeeze more out of a beloved franchise, and although there is some value in it for fans of the franchise, a thin plot and cheap animation make it noticeably degraded. Whether this was an idea for a fourth movie that just didn’t get greenlit and ended up as a lackluster series is beyond me, but it would be a shame to have it end by watering down everything people loved about it in the first place.
