Pros: option for the development of the world in post-apocalyptic conditions; animal characters are created with great variety; animation; soundtrack Cons: sometimes the details of new characters are more interesting than the plot itself “Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts” / Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts
Genre: animated series
Creators Bill Wolkoff, Radford Sechrist
Cast: Kipo Oak (Karen Fukuhara), Wolf (Sydney Mikayla), Benson (Coy Stewart), Dave (Deon Cole), Mandu (Dee Bradley Baker), Lio Oak (Sterling Brown), Song Oak (Ji Young Han), Scarlemagny /Hugo (Dan Stevens), Yumyan Hammerpo (Steven Bloom), Jamak (Jake Green), etc.
Netflix channel
Year of release 2020
Episodes 10
Site IMDb
Kipo is the name of the main character, who grew up in a dungeon where people hid for years. After the accident, Kipo found herself on the surface of the Earth for the first time in her life. Here, absolutely everything is unusual and surprising for her: the buildings are covered with giant plants, and animals roam around, significantly mutated and changing the rules of their existence. Kipo, unaware of the real dangers of the environment, tries to find a way home. At this time, she meets other wanderers who become the girl’s best friends, helping her survive in this amazing but very dangerous world.
Kipo and the Age of Wonderful Beasts is an adaptation of the webcomic produced by DreamWorks Animation. The executive producer is Radford Sechrist, who previously worked on How to Train Your Dragon 2 and Penguins of Madagascar.
The work on the animation was entrusted to a South Korean studio called Studio Mir, which previously made the animated series Avatar: The Legend of Korra for the Nickelodeon channel, and also embodied the fantastic adventures Voltron: Legendary Defender. for Netflix.
In Kipo and the Age of Wonderful Beasts, Studio Mir used anime style, mixing it with the American approach to creating cartoons. In general, the manner and habits of the central characters are quite ordinary, but in particularly emotional moments, familiar elements of Japanese animation occasionally slip through the human characters: for example, trembling eyes appear or a change in body proportions occurs when running.
But most of all, the imitation of anime aesthetics is noticeable when depicting landscapes. There are a lot of them in the cartoon, and they are all filled with colorful details showing how the world has changed when people lost control over it. Each episode is a visual attraction with an abundance of destroyed and abandoned buildings, among which all kinds of plant species have made their way. Above this concrete jungle rises the starry sky, on which the animators place a special emphasis, important for the main character.
Among the post-apocalyptic panoramas, new species of animals appear every now and then, which can be called the most interesting part of the animated series. Absolutely every episode introduces new characters with animal appearance and human traits, depicted with witty comedy. For example, bees live to the rhythm of a dubstep party, and raccoons devote their lives to fitness training. Here there are also more dangerous characters who exist according to the laws of a gangster group and, of course, the main negative character is revealed, whom everyone who values their freedom should fear.
The first episodes of “Kipo and the Age of Wonderful Beasts” briefly explain what is happening, and at the same time form a team that will embark on outlandish adventures. The peculiarity of the animated series is that the details of its world are sometimes more exciting than some events (this happens in the following episodes). But, nevertheless, the scriptwriters constantly use the most popular plot devices from films. So the characters will face internal conflicts, traumas from the past, and even hear a coming out (don’t forget that this is Netflix).
Another memorable feature of the animated series is the soundtrack created by Kjaer Lehman, who was previously responsible for the musical accompaniment in the animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. For “Kipo and the Age of Wonderful Beasts,” Lehman selected music based on the hobbies of the music lover character, adding unused rhythmic tracks to his playlist.
“Kipo and the Age of Wonderful Beasts” is not only a colorful adventure filled with music. Thanks to the main character, the animated series leads to the idea that a common language can be found with almost everyone if you try to establish simple human communication. However, the plot does not end there; at the end of the first season there is a big plot intrigue that opens the way to the second season.
Conclusion:
The animated series presents a unique colorful world in which amazing creatures appear.
