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Note 1: Throughout this review, I'm gonna compare LOA with my favorite Disney cartoon series, Kim Possible, depending on whether I attack or defend the series. You'll understand why when I do.
Note 2: I'm not only reviewing the series,I'll also be reviewing the voice actors from both the series and the films. It's easier to do it here than to seek out each person's file here on IMDb.
In the beginning, this series was very good. It had a lot of the charm and feel from the film. But as the series went on, that completely disappeared. I didn't expect it to have the whole package, but when the amount it had been able to capture started to lack, the series went just downhill. It didn't suck, but it wasn't fun to watch anymore. The four major reasons for this is as following;
Po is not Po! In the films, Po is a very humble, clumsy and a bit dense guy who has a big heart and a lot of compassion for his friends and family. And, he's very hard-working! In the series, he's obnoxious, lazy, mean, and downright dumb. The only thing that was kept, was his humor. I don't know who to credit the most, the script writers or Mick Wingert, but Po deliver some of the funniest stuff I've heard in a long time.
The series was originally made after the first film, and takes place after the events of said film. But I struggle to see the whole connection. I also do not see how the events in the series is going to connect the events from the first film to the second. I know the series has only run for one season, and in KP, nothing major that affected the series as a whole happened until mid-season 3. Which was originally meant to be the final season. Maybe LOA needs time to mature, but considering the fact that the series is not keeping up its quality, I don't think it'll be given that time. There's a lot of things that has to happen first; Tigress must warm up a lot more to Po. Po has to improve on both his Kung Fu and his humbleness. Mr. Ping must be more patient with his son. Po must lose some pounds. (I know it wasn't a lot, but Po did actually lose some weight between the feature films.) And last, but not least; Po must drop the attitude!
I know LOA is a action-comedy based series for kids, and its current appeal is only that. I think this should be rethought. One of the reasons as to why I watched the films, was because they had a much wider appeal to more people. If the series had been more faithful to the films, I'm very sure it would have been a lot better.
Now, to the good parts; I really have to take my hat off to the voice actors in this series. Many of them do double duty on several episodes, and it is quite obvious that this is something they are familiar with. Mick Wingert has the ability to sound just like Jack Black when it comes to both audio, pitch and pronouncing. Kari Wahlgren chose to use her ordinary voice for Tigress, and I'm glad she did though she sounds nothing like Angelina Jolie. (In fact, I'd prefer Wahlgren before Jolie.) It makes Tigress come off as more natural. James Sie has done a lot of KFP-related voice work before, and I believe that comes in handy. Lucy Liu doesn't have that many appearances, but I think it's so cool that she decided to stay with the KFP franchise. As she is a much used voice actor by Disney, she must be very well versed in the game. Her work with Viper is still top notch. Fred Tatasciore is to me the voice of Hulk and the Beasts in MGS4, so it's actually cool to hear him do Shifu. But if I don't like that he tries to imitate Dustin Hoffman. Hoffman is excellent as Shifu, but I see no reason why Tatasciore needs to imitate him. A grouchy voice alone will do. I love the new bad guys. Kevin Richardson as Temutai is such a blast that I usually have to rewind the episode to hear what he said, because I probably lost it the first time around from laughing. (Temutai has never heard of 'indoor voice'.) There is a lot of people who complain about the animation being bad. I can agree that the animation is nowhere as good as the one in the films, but this is a mass-production. And to be honest, I'm surprised they turned out as good as they did. I'm impressed that they decided to do it in 3D at all, because it's a given that 3D animation is more demanding and loads harder than ordinary cartoon animation.
I give Legends of Awesomeness 5 stars because at this point, the series is nothing but a borefest unless you're a 4 year old boy. But it used to be good, and it has the potentiality to be good again.
score 5/10
Skoveng77 12 February 2012
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2564750/ |
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22-11-2019 08:13:05
