Kipo and the Age of Wonderful Beasts (English Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts) is an American television animated series by DreamWorks Animation. It was created based on the 2015 web comic Kipo. The animation was created by the South Korean studio Studio Mir. The first season of the series was released on the streaming service Netflix on January 14, 2020. The plot tells the story of a girl named Kipo, who accidentally found herself on the surface of the post-apocalyptic world and must find her way home.
Along with the launch of in Russia, it became known that the series, along with Steven Universe, The Dragon Prince and Shi-Ra and the Invincible Princesses, will receive an 18+ rating and will also not be available in the children’s segment. The reason for this decision was associated with the presence of LGBT characters in these series.
Plot
The action takes place in a post-apocalyptic world, 200 years after a catastrophe. The remnants of humanity hid underground, and animals, as a result of radiation pollution, either evolved into giant creatures, or acquired intelligence and adopted certain elements of human culture. In the series, they are referred to as „mutants.» The plot tells the story of a girl named Kipo Oak, who, as a result of an accident in a dungeon, came to the surface for the first time in her life. Kipo meets new allies in the person of Wolfe, Benson, mutant cockroach Dave and mutant pig Mandu. Together, they intend to find a dungeon passage to a human colony. On the way, the heroes encounter various intelligent mutants embodying different stereotypes, for example, frog gangsters, cat lumberjacks, wolf scientists, and so on. Most often, intelligent animals are hostile to humans and other intelligent species, but in some cases Kipo manages to make friends with them and become an ally.
Soon, the main characters learn that Scarlamein and his subordinates intend to subjugate humanity in order to enslave the rest of the intelligent species, and Kipo herself gradually learns the shocking truth about her not entirely human origin.
List of characters
- Kipo Oak (Karen Fukuhara) – 13-year-old protagonist of the story. Kipo is a cheerful, ambitious and curious girl. From this, she often does not recognize danger well and is devoid of survival skills. Kipo arrived from the bunker and set out to find her way home. She lived with Lyo Oaok and considered him her father, but Kipo discovered in herself the ability to partially transform into a jaguar. Thus, Kipo herself is a mutant. She is the biological daughter of Lyo and Song, but was born as a result of artificial insemination after her parents injected a jaguar DNA into one of the eggs.
- Wolfe (Sydney Mikayla) is one of the main characters. Gloomy, suspicious and mischievous girl, the complete opposite of Kipo. She has good survival skills and is adept at wielding a spear with a scorpion sting. Wolfe’s behavior is explained by the betrayal of her adoptive family. Even little Wulf was adopted by a family of intelligent wolves, and when the girl was already used to her new family, as it turned out, she was adopted into the family so that she would later become a game for the growing wolf cubs.
- Benson (Coy Stewart) is one of the main characters. Like Kipo, he is a cheerful and ambitious guy. Before meeting the heroines, he traveled with Dave. Benson was the subject of sigh for Kipo, but the relationship was not destined to take place, as Benson admitted to being gay.
- Dave (Deon Cole) is a sentient mutant cockroach. The peculiarity of his biology lies in the fact that he is constantly „reborn», passing over and over again all age stages through molting, while not losing memory and accumulated knowledge. Thus, it is not critical for Dave to lose limbs or serious injuries, as he will recover again with a new life cycle. Later it turns out that the dave has been living for a long time and has witnessed the fall of human civilization. He is the last survivor of his species.
- Mandu (Dee Bradley Baker) is a mutant pig. She is cowardly, but in case of danger she can fight back. Follows heroes and loves chips.
- Leo Oak (Sterling Brown) – Kipo’s father. Bunker resident. He is a kind, loving father and knows the secret of Kipo’s origin. He was taken prisoner by Scarlamein and his subordinates.
- Song Oak / Mega Monkey (Ji Yang Khan) – Kipo’s mother. She is a scientist who, along with Leo, experimented with crossing or altering the DNA of animals and humans. She also implanted animal DNA into her own eggs, from one of which Kipo grew. However, a side effect of such experiments was the penetration of monkey DNA into Song. The above experiments were illegal and kept secret, including the birth of Kipo. For the same reason, Song and Leo intended to escape from the laboratory, but in the end Song turned into a mega-monkey, at first she followed the orders of people, and then ended up under Scarlamein’s command. After the mega-chimpanzee regained control of her mind, she became Kipo’s closest ally. In the end, she becomes human again.
- Scarlamein / Hugo (Dan Stevens) is the main villain of the series. He is a sentient mandrill who intends to enslave humanity in order to enslave all other sentient species with his help. At the end of the first season, he kidnapped Kipo’s father. It is later revealed that he was originally an ordinary mandrill, but gained intelligence after a series of experiments conducted by Lyo and Song even before Kipo was born. They became attached to Hugo and then decided to „adopt» him, but hide him from the rest of the people in fear that Hugo might be forcibly taken away. Hugo discovers the ability to subdue humans and primates with his pheromones, but other humans uncover the mandrill and begin to experiment with it. Leo asks Hugo to be patient, as he was planning a quick escape from the pregnant Song, including taking Hugo with him. However, these plans were prevented by Song’s transformation into a mega-monkey, in the end, Leo escaped only with the newborn Kipo. Although Hugo also managed to escape, he took it as a betrayal. The above influenced his hatred of people, Kipo and Lyo. After the defeat, for a long time he lived in captivity with lumberjack cats and eventually gave up his hatred of Kipo and the idea of enslaving humanity.
- Yamyan Hammerpaw (literally: Hammerpaw) (Stephen Bloom) – the leader of the lumberjack cats. Kipo’s ally.
- Jamak (Jake Green) is a trendy frog (gangster). At first he tried, together with his relatives, to capture the main characters, but was expelled due to failure. He eventually decides to help the heroes against Hugo.
- Dr. Emilia – the main villain in the last seasons of the series. Under her leadership, an „antidote» was created, capable of returning mutants to their original animal state. So, she intends to restore the rule of mankind over the earth. Kipo, on the contrary, advocates the existence of different types of mutants and humans.
Creation
The cartoon was created by DreamWorks Animation and tells the story of travels in a post-apocalyptic world. At the same time, „Kipo» is the first story of its kind, revealing negative characters (enemies of humanity) in a neutral or positive way. The series is executive produced by Radford Sehrist (How to Train Your Dragon 2, The Penguins of Madagascar) and Bill Volkov (Once Upon a Time, Tron: Uprising). For the first time, the idea to create a cartoon came to Sehrist when he was working on the cartoon „How to Train Your Dragon 2″. Then the producer decided to create a comedy animation project, inspired by such series as „The Walking Dead» and „Game of Thrones» and to create a „dark epic post-apocalyptic story.» So in 2015, Sehrist released the web comic „Kipo», which tells the story of the journey of the girl Kipo in the post-apocalyptic world. Almost immediately, DreamWorks Animation became interested in this story and brought in a second producer, Bill Volkov, to the project. Sehrist was very pleased with this choice, as he noticed that both he and Volkov had worked on mythologies in previous projects and, together with this project, they had the opportunity to create their own franchise. Sehrist and Volkov decided to contrast their show with typical post-apocalyptic stories and create an art style and story with a «cheerful approach»: «Our main character Kipo is full of hope and admires a world where most of the main characters would simply become cynical and morose people. This is the end of the world, which we are doing a show about! But what makes it unique is not the dull world of the apocalypse, it is a land filled with unheard-of miracles and absurdities. «
While Volkov was busy with production details, Sekhrist was in visual design. Korean animation studio Studio Mir in Seoul has expressed concern that they will not be able to bring characters to life in Sehrist’s style. Since Kipo was conceived as a series with a single and coherent plot, which is not typical for children’s animation, Sehrist noted that writing a story required close cooperation of different scriptwriters, while at the same time they were given a lot of creative freedom. Also, the creators decided that music will play an important role in the story, making the series actually a .
List of episodes
Criticism
The series has received positive reviews from critics, for example Beth Eldrekin of io9 called the Kipo series must-watch and suitable for a variety of age groups, as well as the series Steven Universe, Shi-Ra and the Invincible Princesses and Gravity Falls „. The critic also praised the series for its visual style as well as the soundtrack. Polygon’s Tetrana Radulovic also praised the fact that „behind a standard quest and exploration of a fantasy universe, lies a vivid story with a unique world, multifaceted relationships between characters and a deep storyline about the relationship between humans and mutants.» The reviewer also compared what she saw with „as if the creators hacked into a box of toys and created an amazing game imagining everything that was inside.» The critic also noted that the Kipo series is the very first children’s animated series in which the character actually comes out, while the scene is presented carefully and in the context of the story. Collider’s Dave Trumbore also noticed the similarities between Kipo and other recent TV series, namely Amphibian and Owl House, and the critic noted that the creators were clearly inspired by works and games such as Fallout, „Warriors», „Isle of Doctor Moreau», „Planet of the Apes» and „Alice in Wonderland». The critic, however, admitted that the series especially captivates the viewer with its bright colors, strange, alien world, but filled with familiar and familiar elements. The critic also noticed an of the post-apocalyptic world, in particular, that if, like in a film or a game, the world after a disaster is usually depicted as a dull and colorless wasteland, as in The Walking Dead, then the world of Kipo is very lively and diverse. despite the fact that people are no longer at the top of the food, and indeed the rational chain.
A critic for Decider noted that Kipo provides a rather hackneyed post-apocalyptic plot – namely, the idea that unfamiliar people unite in the face of danger to survive and strengthen their friendship. Nevertheless, according to the critic, the creators managed to prove that even with such a plot, it is possible to create an story and the idea of the coexistence of many intelligent species. The critic also praised the decision to combine American animation style with anime.
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