Kipo & The Age of Wonderbeasts

The pinkest, purplest adventure cartoon to ever grace my eyeballs.

If you'll allow me to be Old for a moment, I think the modern generation is both extremely lucky, yet also extremely unlucky, when it comes to animated series. Steaming media completely altered the way in which people ingest shows, simply because it eliminated the TV schedule from the picture, giving people full control over how and when they could watch new episodes. The streaming model also gave production companies the ability to drop an entire season all at once the moment it was ready, rather than - much to modern viewers' distaste, I've discovered - drip-feeding audiences one episode a week. I love having the freedom to watch the show whenever I want to, but...

Kipo's version of The Simpsons' couch gag involves random objects spelling out her name as the title music drops, and yes, I do the "WOO!" every single time.

The advantage of drip-feeding one episode at a time was that it made shows feel a LOT more special back in the day. Watching a new episode of any show you liked back in the TV era was an Event. It was something to get excited for every week. My sister and I would feverishly gather around the TV at the appointed time, the sheer hype between episodes going absolutely off the charts, not only because we'd been waiting a whole week to find out what happened next, but also because back in that era, we knew that if we missed it, we MISSED IT. Possibly forever. Before the age of streaming, or Roku, or buying the show on Amazon or iTunes, hell, even before DVD sets really took off, there was no guarantee that any TV show (or even that particular episode) would EVER get played again later. If you missed it, you missed it.

And heaven forbid dad wanted to flip over to the baseball game during the commercial break. We had to BEG him for control over the remote to make sure we didn't miss anything before the show came back on!

C'mon dad, I don't wanna miss the guy in the powdered wig being forced against his will to dance the can-can under threat of being bronzed alive by a power-mad mandrill in a red frock coat!

That said, the saving grace to this blink-and-you-miss it model (for animation fans anyway), was the Saturday morning cartoon block. Nothing "important" like baseball games or local news or shitty conservative talk shows was ever aired on a Saturday morning, making it the perfect time to air reruns for people who missed the primetime premieres. It was also a good time to run B-list shows that never got their due time in the spotlight, and even to air syndicated shows from other networks, for variety's sake. Saturday morning cartoon blocks were a great way to catch up on what you missed that week, and even to discover new shows you might never have heard of or sought out otherwise. And in the era of on-demand streaming, where the entire season is ready and waiting for you to marathon right through it, I'm sad we don't have that same level of weekly excitement and variety that those blocks used to bring.

Anyway, this review is about Kipo & The Age of Wonderbeasts, which I think would have fit PERFECTLY on a Saturday morning cartoon block.

I've heard of spinning a yarn, but this is some next-level shit right here.

Here's the synopsis. Kipo is a nerdy but exceptionally friendly and adventurous girl, unafraid of her own cringe, who lives in a post-catastrophic but exceptionally colorful modern world, now heavily populated by roving gangs of talking animals and kaiju-sized hybrid monsters. She and her dad live in an underground borough (a literal burrow), squirreled away from the chaos upstairs as they try to make a living in this new world ruled by the mutants. When the burrow is one day unearthed and destroyed by a massive spider-armed monkey, Kipo finds herself separated from her father and forced to traverse the dangerous surface world to find her way back to him.

Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, she'll fight her way to the Borough beyond the Mutant City to take back the Father they have stolen from her...

The show follows Kipo's travels as she meets up with other surface-dwelling survivors (no-nonsense loner Wolf, easygoing and charismatic Benson, moodswingin' comedic relief Dave, and team mascot Mandu), and together they follow a series of what Kipo can only assume are enigmatic clues left by her fellow-geek father on where to find him again. Along the way, they all quickly become swept up in a massive brewing conflict between the various factions of mutants and what remains of the humans, once they eventually relocate them. The cast of characters, mostly mutant, is delightfully diverse and absolutely dripping with style - from biker skunks to mafia frogs to lumberjack cats to a narwhal KPOP band - and the world they live in is ripe with adventure, conflict, and intrigue.

Frogs are already my favorite animal, so putting one in a sharp suit and giving him a pencil mustache and complex antihero feelings is just pure catnip to me.

The crux of the series is built on Kipo herself, as somewhere along the way she discovers that she has some unexplained superhuman powers, including glowing eyes, a keen sense of smell, and an arm that can sometimes transform into a giant furry paw. It is eventually revealed that Kipo was an experimental human/mutant hybrid baby with the power to transform into a massive pink mega-jaguar and back again (provided she can keep her mind grounded and not lose herself in the sauce). And as she navigates the world trying to reconnect with her father, Kipo's boundless optimism compels her to try bridging the gap between humans and mutants, and encouraging everyone to cooperate while they figure out how to build a better future out of this bizarre new world they've made for themselves.

Sometimes you just gotta smack a bitch with your giant furry jaguar paw.

The premise is cool enough on its own, but what truly made Kipo shine, in my opinion, was its sleek presentation. The art style is full of vivid neon colors and the line art is very angular, giving its characters a sharply defined look that to me feels like nice blend of early '00s Ben 10 aesthetic and free-range indie webcomic vibe. The animation is absolutely stellar (what else would you expect from a studio like Dreamworks?), and the soundtrack...my god, the soundtrack. Hitting on all possible fronts to reflect its wide array of influences, the music in this show serves up a beautiful smorgasbord of styles stretching across the entire genre spectrum, whether it's traditional cinematic score, rock, hip-hop, classical, EDM, even some good old-fashioned RnB. As a production, Kipo is a whirlwind of cool ideas all blending together in unique and unusual ways, like a fusion cuisine vegetable stir fry of tastes and textures.

This show has a hip-hop track with a sick beat and voices chanting about goat cheese, so your criticism is automatically invalid.

Thematically, series creator and original webcomic author Rad Sechrist described the show as "The Wizard of Oz, but instead of ruby slippers, the hero is wearing Converse", and I can completely see it. The Oz inspiration - especially from Oz books other than "The Wonderful Wizard of"* - runs deep, not only through its "stranger in a strange land" premise, but in its desire for viewers to immerse themselves in that world, rather than simply observe it for plot's sake. Kipo's adventurous spirit pushes her to understand and even befriend nearly everyone she meets, even those that may mean her harm, and in the same vein as the Oz books, she isn't afraid to roll up her sleeves and get her hands dirty in the process.

*It surprises me when people don't know this, but there are actually a TON of books about Oz, mostly written by Frank Baum himself, and they all push in fantastical directions that you might not expect if you've only seen the classic 1939 movie. Check them out some time, especially my personal favorites, "Ozma of Oz" and "The Emerald City of Oz"!

Missed opportunity not to make a "Timbercats, ho!" joke here.

As the tensions continue to bubble between mutants and humans, the core ideal of the show emerges. Kipo centers around uniting its wacky inhabitants to push for a better tomorrow by reconciling the differences between its clashing cultures. "It's just the way things are" is an oft-repeated sentiment, especially by the more hardened denizens of the surface world who are convinced that nature is immutable and change is impossible. But Kipo and her ever-growing circle of friends aren't afraid of putting in the work it takes to make things right, eventually evolving that phrase into "this is the way things COULD BE." And in our bleak-ass world that often feels hopelessly lost under its own mountain of societal ills and injustices, it is nice once in a while to watch a show that still believes a brighter future is possible, and encourages us to work together toward that goal.

A more, shall we say...realistic take on Wolf Children? Yeah, let's go with that.

In the great tradition of science fiction and adventure classics before it, Kipo tells a story exploring the nuances of the human condition through flights of fantastical what-iffery, splicing together a tale about humanoid animal science experiments with one of mediating peace between different peoples. It's a show about recognizing and celebrating diversity in the present by acknowledging and accounting for a past that can no longer be changed. And while that's certainly a story I think just about anyone on planet earth can easily get behind, I feel compelled to point to an elephant in the room.

Science fiction is a universal language, which means it only works when EVERYONE can speak it.

Embracing your own cringe is the key to confidence.

It's no secret that Kipo's central cast are all black - as are the vast majority of its voice actors - with few white people present in the mix at all. I talked about this same topic in my review for My Dad The Bounty Hunter, but I'll gladly repeat myself here. Science fiction as a genre is still largely dominated by white-centric (or Japanese, or some weird mix of the two) stories and storytellers, especially in the world of animation. Even if their stories are good (and many of them are), having such a narrow pool of voices speaking the sci-fi language stifles the depth and variety of stories that could be told within its framework. If the core tenet of sci-fi is to speak to the human condition, and a vast majority of the different human voices are not given room to speak their condition, sci-fi as a genre suffers greatly for it. Who better to explore stories analyzing the depths of human nature than those who so frequently get shut out of the genre altogether based on such arbitrary and frankly bullshit traits like race?

Intentional or not, it is pretty funny that the villain of this multicultural show is an absolute fucking Karen.

I'm still seething that we're well past 60 years after Nichelle Nichols first appearing on Star Trek in a major role and STILL having this conversation about how differently that hit for everyone watching, and how radical it still is to this day to see black characters in leading roles in science fiction stories. Yes, I know, race and skin color shouldn't matter as long as the story is good, but look at the simple facts. If you try naming all the black main protagonists in sci-fi that you can think of, then go on to name ALL of the white ones, the numbers speak for themselves, and highlight an ugly prejudice within what should be one of the most thriving and interesting genres in all of fiction. Kipo should already be celebrated for bringing what it does to the table of animation and All-Ages shows, but additionally, for leading the charge in getting more black voices on that radar as well.

And don't just take that from me, some random white queer on the internet. Listen to the black folks who have been saying this shit for years upon years. There is not only more than enough room in our community for more black-centric works, but we as fans of the genre will absolutely be better off for engaging with them. And of course, the same goes for any other non-white community as well.

Alright, what the hell was I talking about again?

It's not gonna kill you to add more gay people into your sci-fi either.

Oh yeah, speaking of queers, Kipo's other main claim to fame is its unabashed and natural inclusion of LGBT characters. Benson, the show's charismatic easy-rider (with excellent taste in music) who typically plays the voice of reason, is openly gay without it being any kind of big deal. He doesn't have any dramatic fanfare leading up to it, and isn't made to suffer some kind of Very Special Episode where his straight friends have to stick up for him in spite of his homosexuality or anything like that. It's just a natural trait of his character, without any particular significance given to it other than the fact that it's acknowledged openly. I loved how simple and honest the "reveal" was, with Kipo mistaking a night of birthday celebrations for a date, only for Benson to have to let her down gently with an awkward and completely plaintive "Yeah, I like you as a friend, because I'm gay!" Beautiful stuff.

I swear I'm not biased toward this show's art style just because purple and pink are my favorite colors.

Anyway, that more or less sums up my thoughts. Kipo & The Age of Wonderbeasts is a fun and engaging ride, rife with imagination and adventure, rendered in a cool and visually distinctive style, and served up with a killer soundtrack. The story is solid, mixing the best of episodic adventures and overarcing plot, and focuses strongly on its main theme of not just hope, but willingness to WORK for hope. Great for kids, fully enjoyable by adults as well. Should you watch it? No question about it, yes!

If you've already seen Kipo and are looking for something else like it, here are my recommendations. I already mentioned it above, but if you like sci-fi flavored adventures with black families in leading roles, absolutely check out My Dad The Bounty Hunter. For more stories that contrast brightly-colored whimsical fantasy adventures with a post-apocalyptic underbelly, Adventure Time pretty much wrote the book on that one. Alternately, for an anime variation, something like Humanity Has Declined might be up your alley. You MIGHT also like a very recent series called Train To The End of The World, which draws on a few similar themes and goes ham on wild dreamlike visuals, but has a different overall flavor.

Bottom line is, I want more animated series like Kipo! Let's keep up this energy!

If this gif doesn't sell you on the show, nothing will.