Our all-time favourite former Dragon Master, Po, is presently in training to attain a knight’s title and is back with Kung Fu Panda The Dragon Knight Season 2. The leading voice cast of the animated action comedy series based on the film franchise includes Jack Black as Po, Rita Ora as Wandering Blade, and James Hong as Mr Ping, alongside others.
Developed by Mitch Watson and Peter Hastings for Netflix, the new season has 12 episodes, each having a runtime of 23 or 24 minutes, except for the last episode having a runtime of 45 minutes. Premiering on January 12, 2023, DreamWorks Animation Television has brought this vision to life with Hastings, Black and Shaunt Nigoghossian as its executive producers.
Netflix’s official synopsis of the series reads:
Can two mismatched warriors learn to get along and save the world? Playful Po teams up with uptight knight Wandering Blade on a quest to find magical weapons and stop a plot to destroy the planet.
-Kung Fu Panda The Dragon Knight Season 2 Review Does Not Contain Spoilers-
Faring off to the Indian topography, Po and his team leave his beloved China behind to capture the evil weasel siblings – Veruca and Klaus Dumont- and find the four magical weapons, which, if fallen into the wrong hands, can lead to disastrous catastrophes. Picking right up from the first season’s ending, the travels to the new country introduce the squad to lip-smacking delicacies and more blinding specialities. Yet they must keep their eyes on the target and connect the dots through their search for the weapons one after the other.
Po and Blade’s first acquaintance was about establishing new characters in the former season. Although comedy was bound to be a common feature with Jack Black as Po, the action and plot were slow-paced to gradually let the new additions find their space in the franchise. On the other hand, the latest and second instalment has been consistent with fast-paced and tightly-knit action sequences that never bore you despite them guiding most of the plot this time.
You’re also more invested in the characters and their arcs, which surprisingly hook you right in despite them landing further off than the original movie lineup of the Furious Five – Tigress, Mantis, Viper, Crane and Monkey, and the Grand Master himself, Master Shifu.
The animated production quality of the series is a notch lower than the movies. Something that irked me about the first season has been carried into this instalment as well. Po’s character design is the same as the films, and we’ve also grown accustomed to its visuals. However, even when looking at it for the first time in the past, it never came off as a shortcoming, but Blade’s art falls short in that arena. This contrast becomes even more accentuated when the scene shifts directly from Po to her.
You can point out the lacking liveliness in her design even more prominently. Both are computer-generated animations, but if Po emerges as a 3D character, then hers remains at the lower bar of 2D regarding how the art has been brought alive on the screen.
Conversely, as far as their friendship is concerned, Po’s charms always find a way to rub off on everyone; he’s irresistible. It all works in Blade’s favour, too, because it allows her that much more room to accept herself and carve her path through her identity crisis. I’ll leave you with this to ponder: we should all aspire to be a friend as good as Po.
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Dropping a minor spoiler here, I want to reveal that the eleventh episode itself wraps the actions of the central plot. The twelfth, i.e. the final and the longest episode of the series, is more of a disjoint short story that you may even feel like skipping, especially since the storyline has been concluded. This outro is presented as a post-script message that doesn’t hold anything consequential. Having just witnessed the marvelous events of the main story, the ‘fire-cracking’ (pun intended) last entry can’t reach up to the high bar, but it can still be enjoyed as a laid-back, lighthearted farewell.
It was a great sight to see Po’s father, Mr Ping have an identity of his own this season, even though it wasn’t completely broken down for us and has probably been left up in the air for possible future chapters. Even in the movies, he was always featured for a limited timeframe, yet he still won the audience over with what was allotted to him. With The Dragon Knight Season 2, he was finally granted his much-earned time to shine. In addition, this has also helped solidify his relationship with Po even further due to some new developments that I better not speak of here.
Kung Fu Panda The Dragon Knight Season 2: Worth Streaming?
The real reason why we’re all still watching the TV series despite the absence of Master Shift and the Furious Five is the titular character himself, Po. His persona is nearly as strong and weighty as that of Spider-Man in the Marvel plotline. Even his character development has been fleshed out with an identical vision, claiming that no matter how hard things get for him, he will always rise. The best bit about this arc is that it never feels forced; rather, Jack Black’s voiceover, supported by the role’s drive, makes a great hero out of him.
You’ll catch the fans often handing out their declarations of love for the character, which keeps us pulling back every time. Season 2 is undoubtedly a more fresh, inspired and entertaining follow-up that further builds the characters it introduced last time. Besides that expansion, it also keeps the chronology of events more dynamic and crisp.
All 12 episodes of Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight Season 2 are now streaming on Netflix.