Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness is an American computer-animatedtelevision comedy series spun off from the Kung Fu Panda films. It takes place after the first film, showing Po's training to becoming a successful Dragon Warrior, where the second film is, according to the series' developer Peter Hastings, "not unlike a very long, super-deluxe 3-D version of one of our episodes". The series was originally set to air on Nickelodeon in 2010, but it was pushed back to 2011 instead. The series premiered with a special preview on September 19, 2011, and began airing regularly on November 7. Three seasons were produced. Airing ceased in the United States partway through season 3. Before finishing up in the United States, all the episodes aired already in other countries, for example on German Nicktoons in Germany from 2014–2015 and then on YTV in Canada from 2015–2016. In 2016 American Nicktoons in the United States began running ads announcing the airing of new episodes; it was subsequently revealed that five of the ten unaired episodes would play from February 15 through February 19. As a result, the final episode aired on June 29, 2016. After the series' cancellation, Nicktoons continued to air reruns until July 9, 2018. Besides Lucy Liu and James Hong, who reprise their film roles as Viper and Mr. Ping, the cast features new voice actors for the characters of Po, Master Shifu, Tigress, Crane, Monkey, and Mantis.
Synopsis
Po and the Furious Five defend the Valley of Peace from villains of different kinds. All the while, Po makes mistakes, learns lessons, learns more about the history of kung fu, and meets other famous kung fu Masters.
The show's musical score is done by the Track Team, most Chinese musical instruments including erhu, zhonghu, gaohu, bawu, hulusi, xiao, dizi, guqin, sanxian, suona, guanzi, xunetc. by well-known multi-instrumentalist Hong Wang. In addition, Sifu Kisu was the martial arts consultant for the show as he was on the series.
Media
Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness took part in Nickelodeon's revamp to their cartoon season on TV. As an early promotion, Po was featured in a Nickelodeon bumper with all the characters of the shows set to premiere in 2011. On July 23, an exclusive sneak peek of the show was shown at the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con, with producers and members of the voice cast present at the panel. A sneak peek episode was released for the DVD / Blu-ray release for Kung Fu Panda 2 on December 13, 2011. In addition, two sneak preview episodes aired before the official premiere of the show. In June 2018, it was announced that the series will stream on Hulu.
Critical reception
Mary McNamara of Los Angeles Times called Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness "a show that won't drive every adult in earshot absolutely crazy. And these days, that's saying something." Kevin McFarland of The A.V. Club said that the show "rips out the elements that made the original film such a surprise, leaving behind a derivative, cliché-laden children's show that recycles moral platitudes adequately but is otherwise indistinguishable from countless other programs" and "isn't a show that's aiming to be cutting edge or original, just mildly entertaining, which it is....This isn't going to harm any kids, but it's not going to impress them either." Despite the mixed reviews, the show has received four Emmy Awards and nominated for four Annie Awards.
