Kung Fu Panda: The Paws of Destiny

A new series coming November 16th to Amazon Prime. Here's an article with cast and premise info, as well as the trailer:

I'm not a huge fan of the Furious Five being left out again, but I do like the animation so far.

At least Mr Ping is confirmed.

The animation looks good and hopefully the writing is a step up from Legends of Awesomeness as well.

I'm just not too big on the premise right now. Not that's bad overall, it's just kinda gimmicky, and like you say, they seem to have forgotten Shifu and the Furious Five again. I think LOA still had the better premise (as in scaled down versions of the films put into a Saturday Morning cartoon format) just execution and bad writing ruined it. The Holiday Special was probably a good way of showing how to make the franchise into an episodic cartoon.

Having an Ensemble Cast that can undergo Character Development is probably a better idea in the long run however, rather than the "Po suffers Aesop Amnesia and ruins everything" formula that riddled most of LOA, just they could have done that with established characters we cared about that didn't get a lot of handling in the films (hopefully some of the Pandas from the third film will get more characterisation).

Edited by Psi001 on Oct 2nd 2018 at 12:33:30 PM

I'd admit I don't really like the premise, namely the fact that only pandas were chosen and nothing else. KFP 3 having the pandas being adept at Chi already kind of hurts the original message, but I can ignore it since Po's family and village obviously weren't good at it and it seems that it was just a hidden sect of Chi-masters. Not to mention it gets kind of boring seeing only one type of animal when the varied cast allowed for very dynamic choreography as they have to mix martial arts with the natural traits of the character's physiology.

Lack of Furious Five and Master Shifu would exacerbate the issue, so I hope it's just them wanting to focus on the premise.

Considering Pandas can be seen as being synonymous with the ying and yang concept, I can sort of see it.

I get why they wanted to do this. They probably didn't want to seem too much like Legends of Awesomeness and do something unique. I just thought this would be a good chance to focus on the Furious Five after Lo A barely did anything with them and was still very Po-centric.

Seeing Po in the position of the mentor is interesting, though. I'm also encouraged by what they said about the tone being similar to the movies.

I can kinda see why they did it. Po's kinda hit a cap in his development without adding or developing new characters, so making him The Mentor and more of a supporting character makes sense so he's not stuck learning the same lessons or taking a level in dumbass/jerkass like he did in the previous show. Hopefully this means it will be more like the Po we know and love from the films.

I see no reason the Furious Five needed to get demoted however. Only Tigress ever got reasonable development in both the show and movies and I feel like they could do more with Po's chemistries with the other four.

I feel like an ideal show would be something akin to Legends of Awesomeness' format, but with better writing and more of an Ensemble Cast setup, especially now the third film gives another Cast Herd and more mythos to play on.

Edited by Psi001 on Oct 2nd 2018 at 7:01:47 PM

Well the Five have to be in the Valley of Peace. I think they can handle stuff without Po while he's at the panda village.

It better have no badly written episodes this time.

Well, color me intrigued. I'm hooked on this. Plus, Mitch Watson's work on Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated, Beware The Batman, and All Hail King Julien give me greater confidence in this series.

The Penguins Of Madagascar was a good show, but All Hail King Julien was a great show. The tone here reminds me of how the first Kung Fu Panda is good overall, but even though this is just a trailer, I feel like this will be a great show, just like the parallel I brought up with the Madagascar shows.

Edited by elenaisabel722 on Oct 6th 2018 at 12:17:26 PM

New video clip:

Anyone else check out the show yet?

I enjoyed the first season. The visuals looked pretty good and the fights were solid, if nothing particularly great. Making Po a mentor was ultimately a good move that allows him to keep his development from the previous movies and thankfully avoids a lot of the pitfalls Lo A made with his characterization. I surprisingly liked the kids, with Jing being my favorite. I mean, she also has a big part in the plot when she develops a chi bond with Jindiao, so that probably helped.

Jindiao himself was kind of a one-dimensional villain, though I liked him being a body-hopper with a secret identity. It made him stand out from the previous main villains of the franchise. Hearing Steve Blum ham it up is always fun. Jade Tusk betraying him was kinda obvious, but eh. My one other nitpick is the Panda pretty much using their chi to help Po being too similar to the third movie. Though I also did like that the show actually gets more into detail why pandas specifically have an affinity for mastering chi.

Overall, I had fun with the season. It ends in a way that closes the story arc, but still leaves room for more. The IM Db page for the show (which was updated BEFORE the show came out) pretty much gives it away there's another season coming. If Po and the kids do travel around China, maybe they'll get to meet Shifu or the Furious Five?

Season two drops on July 5th. There was a trailer at Annecy, but it didn't come out with the others.

EDIT: Trailer!

Edited by GamerSlyRatchet on Jun 18th 2019 at 5:04:46 AM

I'm glad people have moved on from hating this because of the lack of Five.

I still hate it lol.

I forgot this show was out. I presume it's popular enough to get sequel seasons, but I don't see people online mention it. The lack of the Furious 5 is probably it. No Tigress is a no-go for most.

Edited by Pichu-kun on Jun 25th 2019 at 10:12:04 AM

Yeah, the lack of the Furious Five is a deal breaker for a lot of people, which I understand. I was hoping the new season isn't globe-trotting and is just taking them to a new location. I was hoping they'd run into the Five or even just Shifu as cameos.

It's a shame, too, since the show itself is pretty strong, despite the premise. It does a good job at maintaining the tone of the movies.

Finally got around to watching it. It was a pretty strong season, for the most part, though I like it a little less than the first one. I guess that's mainly because the whole conflict with Xiao, Shi Long, and Sun Wukong/the Monkey King feels divorced from any character arcs or plots involving Po and the kids. The closest we have to that is Fan Tong's puppy romance Xiao, but that's really it. So, it's a little harder to get invested.

I do like Shi Long as the main villain way more than season one's, though. I know that's technically the White Bone Demon, but Shi Long was most active and did most of the dirty work. I thought her whole backstory as the royals's step-daughter who was emotionally abandoned once they had Xiao as their "real" daughter was pretty sad, and it made me root for her a bit, particularly with how bratty Xiao started out as. I do think having her murder the Emperor and that whole rabbit village felt like the writers trying too hard to remind us not to feel bad for her, just like Legend of Korra's Kuvira and the convenient, off-screen re-education camps.

Really cool to see Jade Tusk back. She was way more involved in the main plot than I expected.

I liked Sun Wukong a lot, but I like trickster characters in general, and I was wondering if this franchise would ever touch on Journey to the West. Also, hey, Monkey's voice actor voiced him, which was appropriate. It was also nice hearing Lacey Chabert and Sumalee Montano, the latter being a mini Beware the Batman reunion with JB Blanc, Jeff Bennett, and Mitch Watson.

Speaking of the Furious Five, we do have a scene of Po consoling Nu Hai by telling her about Tigress and how she also doubted herself sometimes. It was really nice and if this show continues, I hope they bring them in at least once.

Edited by GamerSlyRatchet on Jul 23rd 2019 at 12:12:08 PM