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A Hero Who Keeps on Giving The team making DreamWorks’ new Kung Fu Panda series takes us behind the scenes of the great-looking project. By Michael Mallory
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ou have to hand it to Po, the sweetnatured, bumbling hero of DreamWorks Animation’s Kung Fu Panda franchise: he doesn’t waste time. In the premiere episode of the new series Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight, which drops on Netflix July 14, it takes mere minutes for him to go from universal recognition as “The Dragon Master” to being a village-wrecking pariah. And that’s only the first domino to fall in what threatens to be the destruction of the world as he knows it. “When we came onto the scene, Po was sort of at the height of his fame, so I had to knock him down and find a reason for him to lose his stature,” says Peter Hastings, who developed the series with Mitch Watson, and serves as an executive producer. “I wanted to put him in a hole and start this new series where he’s kind of lost everything, because his innocence and his need to get better at something are so much fun and so charming.” In an attempt to try and redeem himself for allowing a mystical, all-powerful gauntlet to fall into the hands of evil sibling weasels named Klaus and Veruca, Po (voiced once
again by Jack Black) talks himself into serving as the page to a no-nonsense, female British knight named Luthera of Landrith, a.k.a. Wandering Blade (singer Rita Ora). While Blade, who is already tracking the two dangerously manic mustelae, does not want Po as her “Sancho Panda,” she eventually acknowledges he might be useful in her quest.
An Emotional Journey With its 11 episodes structured as an ongoing saga, The Dragon Knight follows Blade and Po on their quest across China as they meet up with a variety of characters, but with a heightened emphasis on emotion. “I wanted to make it a bit more mature and play to a bigger audience,” says Hastings. “We’re delving into the emotional aspects to elevate the show from being a silly cartoon into being a bigger adventure that will appeal to many ages. To me, the comedy is built in with Jack and with Po, so it was really about pushing other emotional elements.” Adds fellow executive producer Shaunt Nigoghossian: “In a movie you have only a
couple hours, but we have an entire series, so we have room to get into the characters’ minds a little more. You’re seeing more of Po than you’ve seen before, and a lot of character traits are added to him that you haven’t seen before.” A major factor in Po’s emotional hero’s journey is his evolving relationship with Wandering Blade, which begins with a “buddy cop” dynamic, but grows much deeper. “While Po’s a nerd about all things kung fu, he’s also very curious about what it takes to be a knight,” says Gregg Goldin, DreamWorks’ VP of current series. Star Jack Black, who is also credited as an executive producer, has a lot of latitude in fleshing out the character. “Typically, Jack will read what’s written,” Hastings states, “but very often he’ll say, ‘Let me do one more,’ and then go off on it. A lot of that is so much a part of the character and in the tone of it, that I’m always encouraging him.” The incomparable James Hong is also back as the voice of Po’s adoptive father Mr. Ping. “Everything James Hong does is genius,” says Hastings. “Every take he did was different, and
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june|july 22
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