Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts

Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts is an American animated television series created by Radford Sechrist, adapted from his 2015 webcomic Kipo. The series is produced by DreamWorks Animation Television and animated by South Korean studio Mir.

Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts
Season 1 promotional poster
Genre	Adventure Action Comedy Science fantasy
Created by	Radford Sechrist
Based on	Kipo by Radford Sechrist
Developed by	Bill Wolkoff
Voices of	Karen Fukuhara Sydney Mikayla Coy Stewart Deon Cole Dee Bradley Baker
Theme music composer	Vanessa Ruby Sandberg
Composer(s)	Daniel Rojas
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	20
Production
Executive producer(s)	Bill Wolkoff Radford Sechrist Yoo Jae Myung
Producer(s)	Park Sang Ah Kim Han Byeol
Running time	24 minutes
Production company(s)	DreamWorks Animation Television Studio M.I.R. (animation services) and Production Reve
Distributor	NBCUniversal Television Distribution Netflix
Release
Original network	Netflix
Picture format	HDTV 1080p
Audio format	Stereo
Original release	January 14, 2020 (2020-01-14) – present
External links
Official website

The series follows a girl called Kipo Oak, who is searching for her father after being forced to flee from her underground burrow, and must explore the post-apocalyptic surface world ruled by mutated animals to find him. Along the way she befriends human survivors Wolf and Benson, and the mutant animals Dave and Mandu.

Its first season, comprised of 10 episodes, premiered on Netflix on January 14, 2020.[1] A second season, also comprising 10 episodes, was released on June 12, 2020.[2]

The series has been critically acclaimed for its design, characterization, music, worldbuilding, voice acting, and diversity. The series is particularly notable for its representation of LGBT and characters of color.[3][4][5]

Synopsis

Kipo Oak, a thirteen-year-old girl, is searching for her father after being forced to flee from her underground city. To do so, she travels through an overgrown post-apocalyptic urban wasteland called "Las Vistas", ruled by sentient mutant animals ("mutes"), together with her new friends Wolf, Mandu, Benson and Dave.[6] Sechrist compared the series to The Wizard of Oz, "but instead of ruby slippers [Kipo] has Converse on".[7]

In the first season, Kipo is separated from her father Lio after their burrow is attacked by a "mega monkey", a colossal, mutated spider monkey. Traversing through Las Vistas, she meets and befriends Wolf, a cold and hardened girl who has been surviving on her own after her adoptive wolf family turned on her, the upbeat Benson and his insect companion Dave, and the pig Mandu. Together, they set out to find the burrow Lio and the rest of Kipo's community fled to after their first one was destroyed. As the five journey along they make many mute allies and enemies, including the despot Scarlemagne, who rules over all the mute factions with an iron fist and intends to create a human army with his mind-controlling pheromones. Kipo also starts to experience strange physical mutations that give her mute-like abilities, which she uses to help her friends and herself get out of various problems.

In the second season, Kipo seeks to rescue her people after they are captured by Scarlemagne, and also discover the origin of her mute powers. Kipo learns she was experimented with mute DNA by her parents before her birth, turning her into a half-human, half-jaguar hybrid. She also learns about Scarlemagne's tragic past and his ties to her family, and that her mother Song, previously thought to be deceased, is actually the mega monkey who destroyed her burrow, mutated as a side effect from her pregnancy with Kipo and mind-controlled by the manipulative Dr. Emilia. Kipo starts to lose control of her abilities, putting her at risk of transforming into a mega jaguar permanently, but she is able to regain control with the help of her friends and family. She defeats Scarlemagne and frees Song from her mind control, but meanwhile Dr. Emilia has turned most of Kipo's people over to her cause of reverting all mutes back into normal animals so human civilization can rise again.

Development

The series was first announced at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in June 2019. It is based on Sechrist's 2015 webcomic Kipo.[8][9]

Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts was created by Radford Sechrist, previously a storyboard artist for Ben 10: Ultimate Alien and later director on the 2012 Ben 10: Omniverse reboot. The series has five writers in addition to showrunner Sechrist and executive producer Bill Wolkoff. They worked in two teams, each comprising a director and three board artists. The animation is made by Studio Mir in South Korea using traditional animation methods. About sixty people worked on the series at DreamWorks, and about fifty-five at Studio Mir.[10]

Voice cast

Main cast

• Karen Fukuhara as Kipo Oak, an enthusiastic and curious young girl who is searching for her people. She later learns that her parents injected her with mute DNA, giving her the powers of a mega jaguar.
• Sydney Mikayla as Wolf, Kipo's best friend. A hardened and young survivor on the surface world who was raised by wolves. She wields a spear made from the tail of a deathstalker scorpion.
• Coy Stewart as Benson, a happy-go-lucky boy and surface survivor.
• Deon Cole as Dave, a mutant insect and Benson's best friend who repeatedly molts from baby to child to adult to elderly.
• Dee Bradley Baker as Mandu, a mutant pig with four eyes and six legs adopted by Kipo. Baker also voices Gerard, an orangutan Noble.

Supporting cast

• Sterling K. Brown as Lio Oak, Kipo's father, a scientist, and teacher of their underground community. He and Song were originally working for Dr. Emilia to turn mutes back into normal animals so humanity could reclaim the surface.
• Jee Young Han as Song Oak, Kipo's mother and Lio's wife who originally worked with him to revert mutes back into normal animals before they changed their minds; presumed to be deceased.
• Dan Stevens as Scarlemagne, formerly called Hugo, a deranged, flamboyant, power-hungry mandrill who seeks to rule the world with an army of enslaved humans.
• Amy Landecker as Dr. Emilia, a cold-hearted, manipulative, remorseless human scientist who wants to end the mutes' existence.
• Lea Delaria as Molly Yarnchopper, a Timbercat and Yumyan Hammerpaw's second-in-command.
• Steve Blum as Yumyan Hammerpaw, Axe Lord of the Timbercats.
• Grey Griffin as Cotton, rocker leader of the Umlaut Snakes from Cactus Town/Mrs. Sartori, leader of the Mod Frogs/Kwat, a Mod Frog/Lemieux, a tarsier Noble.
• John Hodgman and GZA as Billions and Billions, astronomer co-leaders of the Newton Wolves.
• Jake Green as Jamack, a Mod Frog who sought out to capture Kipo after she causes him to be banished from his pack, but has since become a reluctant ally.
• Michael-Leon Wooley as Tad Mulholland, a sentient colony of tardigrades who traps others in dream worlds.
• Ian Harding as Harris, a Mod Frog.
• Jeff Bennett as Hoag, a member of Kipo and Lio's underground community.
• Giullian Yao Gioiello as Troy, a boy from Kipo and Lio's underground community and Benson's love interest.
• Rhea Butcher and Fryda Wolff as Asher and Dahlia, siblings from Kipo and Lio's underground community.
• Avrielle Corti and Ace Gibson as Amy and Brad, a pair of rats who manage an amusement park.
• Carlos Alazraqui and Anna Vocino as Zane and Greta, Dr. Emilia's assistants.
• Antonio Alvarez as Roberto, Troy's father.
• Jack Stanton as Fun Gus, a sentient mold with a child-like personality.

Music

The soundtrack to the series, including several original songs, was composed by Daniel Rojas. It draws on an eclectic mix of musical styles, from folk to classical music and hip-hop.[11] The first soundtrack album, Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts: Season 1 Mixtape, was released in January 2020 by Back Lot Music.[12]

Episodes

Season		Episodes		Originally released
	1	10		January 14, 2020 (2020-01-14)
	2	10		June 12, 2020 (2020-06-12)

Season 1 (2020)

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Storyboard by	Original release date
1	1	"Burrow Girl"	Radford Sechrist	Bill Wolkoff	James P. Gibson, Radford Sechrist, and Young Ki Yoon	January 14, 2020 (2020-01-14)
Kipo finds herself on the surface world and meets Mandu and Wolf.
2	2	"Explosion Berries"	Radford Sechrist	Bill Wolkoff	James P. Gibson, Radford Sechrist, and Young Ki Yoon	January 14, 2020 (2020-01-14)
Benson saves Kipo, Wolf and Dave from the Mod Frogs.
3	3	"Real Cats Wear Plaid"	Chase Conley	Bill Wolkoff	Jacob V. Eaton, James P. Gibson, and Ben Li	January 14, 2020 (2020-01-14)
Kipo and her new friends are held captive by a clan of Timbercats.
4	4	"Cäctustown"	Chris Copeland	Joanna Lewis & Kristine Songco	Bridget Underwood, Kalen Whitfield, and Zuke	January 14, 2020 (2020-01-14)
Kipo leads an army of new allies to Umlaut Snäke turf.
5	5	"The Astronomers in Turtlenecks"	Chris Copeland and Bridget Underwood	Christopher Amick & Ben Mekler	Max Lawson, Kalen Whitfield, and Zuke	January 14, 2020 (2020-01-14)
Kipo and her friends try to blend in with the Newton Wolves and continue searching for the burrow people.
6	6	"Ratland"	Chase Conley	Bill Wolkoff	Jacob V. Eaton, James P. Gibson, and Ben Li	January 14, 2020 (2020-01-14)
It's Kipo's 13th birthday - and while she tries to crack her father's code, the wolves are reporting to Scarlemagne.
7	7	"Mulholland"	Chase Conley	Taylor Chapulín Orcí	Jacob V. Eaton, James P. Gibson, and Ben Li	January 14, 2020 (2020-01-14)
The group gets trapped in an ideal dream world.
8	8	"Twin Beaks"	Chris Copeland	Joanna Lewis & Kristine Songco	Adam Lucas, Bridget Underwood, and Kalen Whitfield	January 14, 2020 (2020-01-14)
Kipo searches for another clue among the Fitness Raccoons.
9	9	"Mute-Eat-Mute World"	Chase Conley	Christopher Amick & Ben Mekler	Jacob V. Eaton, James P. Gibson, and Ben Li	January 14, 2020 (2020-01-14)
Wolf struggles with some new information while the group has to escape from Mod Frogs again.
10	10	"Beyond the Valley of the Dogs"	Kalvin Lee and Young Ki Yoon	Bill Wolkoff	Ben Li, Adam Lucas, and Bridget Underwood	January 14, 2020 (2020-01-14)
Kipo closes in on her burrow, but disaster is right behind her.

Season 2 (2020)

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Storyboard by	Original release date
11	1	"Paw of the Jaguar"	Chase Conley	Joanna Lewis and Kristine Songco	Jacob V. Eaton, James P. Gibson, and Ben Li	June 12, 2020 (2020-06-12)
12	2	"The Goat Cheese Prophecy"	Bridget Underwood	Bill Wolkoff	Yasmin Khudari and Sean Song	June 12, 2020 (2020-06-12)
13	3	"The Ballad of Brunchington Beach"	Matt Ahrens	Christopher Amick & Ben Mekler	Steve Barr, Florent Lagrange, and Perin McLean	June 12, 2020 (2020-06-12)
14	4	"To Catch a Deathstalker"	Chase Conley	Taylor Chapulin Orci	James P. Gibson, Ben Li, and Sean Song	June 12, 2020 (2020-06-12)
15	5	"Fun Gus Part One"	Bridget Underwood	Joanna Lewis & Kristine Songco	Michael Chang, Jacob V. Eaton, and Yasmin Khudari	June 12, 2020 (2020-06-12)
16	6	"Fun Gus Part Two"	Matt Ahrens	Leore Berris, Joanna Lewis & Kristine Songco	Ricardo Curtis, Florent Lagrange, Perin McLean, and Seema Virdi	June 12, 2020 (2020-06-12)
17	7	"Benson and the Beast"	Michael Chang	Taylor Chapulin Orci	James P. Gibson, Ben Li, and Sean Song	June 12, 2020 (2020-06-12)
18	8	"Sympathy for the Mandrill"	Bridget Underwood	Christopher Amick & Ben Mekler	Michael Chang, Jacob V. Eaton, and Yasmin Khudari	June 12, 2020 (2020-06-12)
19	9	"All That Glitters"	Matt Ahrens	Joanna Lewis & Kristine Songco	Florent Lagrange, Perin McLean, and Seema Virdi	June 12, 2020 (2020-06-12)
20	10	"Heroes on Fire"	Michael Chang	Bill Wolkoff	James P. Gibson, Ben Li, and Sean Song	June 12, 2020 (2020-06-12)

Reception

Both seasons of Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts have a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes.[13] At io9, Beth Elderkin described Kipo as a "must-watch", writing that it joined the likes of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Gravity Falls and Steven Universe as a series with a broad appeal to many age groups, and highlighting its music and art design.[14] At Collider, Dave Trumbore noted Kipo's similarity to other recent female-led animated portal fantasy series such as Amphibia and The Owl House, and described it as a "classic in the making" that drew on cultural touchstones such as Fallout, The Warriors, The Island of Doctor Moreau, Planet of the Apes and Alice in Wonderland.[15]

Writing for Polygon, Petrana Radulovic appreciated that beneath a standard fantasy exploration quest, the series is a "vibrant mosaic, with a unique world, multidimensional character relationships, and a deeper underlying plot" about the tensions between mutes and humans.[16] She also noted that Benson was the first character to have an explicit coming out as gay in an all-ages animation series, and that the understated manner of the scene, in episode 6, made it all the more noteworthy.[17] Charles Pulliam-Moore at io9 likewise wrote that the series's "casual queerness is fantastic" because Benson's orientation is not treated as a plot point to complicate Kipo's feelings for him, but, "with a distinct matter-of-factness", as just one aspect of his character.[18]

References

1. Trumbore, Dave (January 8, 2020). "New Trailer for 'Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts' Is Absolutely Insane". Collider. Archived from the original on January 13, 2020. Retrieved January 8, 2020.
2. "Exclusive: Netflix's Excellent Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts Will Return for Season 2". io9. Archived from the original on April 29, 2020. Retrieved April 28, 2020.
3. "Netflix's Newest Animation Pickup Has A Black And Gay Cast, But Isn't A "Black" Or "Gay" Cartoon". Quirktastic. January 21, 2020. Retrieved July 8, 2020.
4. Radulovic, Petrana (January 15, 2020). "Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts treats coming out like just another part of life". Polygon. Archived from the original on January 19, 2020. Retrieved July 8, 2020.
5. Johnson, Kevin (June 24, 2020). "How Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts Codes Blackness". Den of Geek. Archived from the original on June 27, 2020. Retrieved July 8, 2020.
6. Elderkin, Beth (January 8, 2020). "Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts Is the Latest Animated Marvel You Absolutely Should Watch". io9. Archived from the original on January 8, 2020. Retrieved January 8, 2020.
7. "DreamWorks Animation Sets 'Kipo & the Age of Wonderbeasts' for Netflix". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on January 25, 2020. Retrieved January 8, 2020.
8. Hilgenberg, Josh (June 13, 2019). "KIPO AND THE AGE OF WONDERBEASTS first look from DreamWorks Animation". Comics Beat. Archived from the original on February 27, 2020. Retrieved January 8, 2020.
9. "'Kipo,' Rad Sechrist's amazing-looking new webcomic". Comics&Cola. February 27, 2015. Archived from the original on November 25, 2019. Retrieved January 8, 2020.
10. Zahed, Ramin (January 15, 2020). "It's the End of the World and She's Just Fine!: 'Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts'". Animation Magazine. Archived from the original on January 16, 2020. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
11. Brown, Steven (January 24, 2020). "Interview with Daniel Rojas Composer on Kipo and the Age of the Wonderbeasts". What's on Netflix. Archived from the original on January 25, 2020. Retrieved January 24, 2020.
12. "'Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts' Soundtrack Album Released | Film Music Reporter". Film Music Reporter. January 13, 2020. Archived from the original on January 14, 2020. Retrieved January 24, 2020.
13. "Kipo and the Age of the Wonderbeasts - Rotten Tomatoes". July 7, 2020.
14. Elderkin, Beth (January 8, 2020). "Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts Is the Latest Animated Marvel You Absolutely Should Watch". io9. Archived from the original on January 8, 2020. Retrieved January 8, 2020.
15. Trumbore, Dave (January 14, 2020). "'Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts' Review: Unlike Any Animated Adventure You've Seen". Collider. Archived from the original on January 15, 2020. Retrieved January 15, 2020.
16. Radulovic, Petrana (January 14, 2020). "Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts is a wild toy-box fantasy". Polygon. Archived from the original on January 15, 2020. Retrieved January 15, 2020.
17. Radulovic, Petrana (January 15, 2020). "Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts treats coming out like just another part of life". Polygon. Archived from the original on January 19, 2020. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
18. Pulliam-Moore, Charles (January 23, 2020). "Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts' Casual Queerness Is Fantastic". io9. Archived from the original on January 23, 2020. Retrieved January 24, 2020.

External links

• Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts on Netflix
• Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts on IMDb