Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness is a Winner

Other than SpongeBob SquarePants, Nickelodeon Studios hasn’t had much to crow about relative to animation.  The TV programs iCarly and Victorious are highly rated, but those live action programs are directed at the ‘Tweens.’   As far as  animation goes aimed at a younger crowd, SpongeBob  SquarePants remains the leader of the Nickelodeon pack.  But late last year, Nickelodeon Studios brought on board another product from DreamWorks (their first was The Penguins of Madagascar) called Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness and they clearly have a winner on their hands this time.

When DreamWorks released the feature film, Kung Fu Panda in 2008, I wasn’t a big fan, but my youngest granddaughter was.  And she is the one who is responsible for making me a fan of that movie and subsequently the current TV show.  The original Kung Fu Panda had the voice acting talents of Jack Black (my initial reason for not being a film fan), Dustin Hoffman, Jackie Chan, Seth Rogen and Angelina Jolie.  The current Nickelodeon cartoon cast has Mick Wingert, Fred Tatasciore, James Sie, Max Koch and Kari Wahlgren in the roles that Black, Hoffman, Chan, Rogen and Jolie created and this group of actors is spot on. As an aside, Lucy Liu reprises her role as Master Viper on the TV show.

Personally, I am a big fan of Kari Wahlgren and remain amazed at how well she captures the voice work of Angelina Jolie as Master Tigress. Wahlgren first got my attention as Saya and her twin sister, Diva, in the English dub of the Japanese anime, BLOOD+. All of the voice talent on this program has done a super job with consistently very well written scripts.  (And yes, I know that the main character, Po, overuse of the words “awesome” and “sweet” will drive most sane people to distraction.)

Yup, Nickelodeon has a clear winner on its hands with this show and that’s not just me saying that.  Nickelodeon Studios has ordered 52 episodes of this series already and as we know, that is the magic number needed to go into long term syndication.  That means that future will be bright for Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness for some time to come.  It’s a show worth checking out and is on my must watch list.