'Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts': Release date, plot, cast and all you need to know about the Netflix series
A new animation series 'Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts' is all set to be unleashed on Netflix. Based on Radford Sechrist's 2015 webcomic 'Kipo', it features a young girl making her way through a world of mutant animals, who learns how to survive and get home with help from her ragtag crew.
Shedding light on the series, Sechrist said Kipo is like "Dorothy from Wizard of Oz, but instead of ruby slippers she has converse on."
Listing his inspirations as 'The Walking Dead' and 'Game of Thrones', he confessed he wanted to do a gritty, dark drama in the same vein but ended up creating comical concepts on cartoon-animals.
Revealing he decided to "lean into it," he said his pitch was, "it's like 'The Walking Dead' but instead of zombies, everything trying to kill you is adorable."
Release date
The animation series is all set to release on Netflix this January 14, 2020.
Plot
The story revolves around a 13-year-old girl, who leaves her underground city to explore a post-apocalyptic wasteland. The new world is ruled by sentient mutant animals together with her new friends Wolf, Mando, and Benson.
Cast
Karen Fukuhara
Karen Fukuhara voices Kipo Oak, an enthusiastic and curious young girl in the series. The actress is known for her role as Katana in 'Suicide Squad' and as The Female (Kimiko) in 'The Boys'. She is also known for voicing the character Glimmer in the Netflix series 'She-Ra and the Princesses of Power'.
Sterling K Brown
Sterling K Brown voices Lio Oak, Kipo's father, in the animated series. The actor starred as Randall Pearson in the NBC drama series 'This Is Us' and clinched two Primetime Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award. He is also known for his supporting roles in 'Black Panther' (2018) and 'Waves' (2019).
The other stars in the cast include Sydney Mikayla as Wolf, a weapon-wielding survivor, Coy Stewart as Benson, a happy-go-lucky boy, Deon Cole as Dave, a talking insect, and Dee Bradley Baker as Mandu, an adorable mutant pig.
A few other guest stars on the show are Dan Stevens as Scarlemagne, a power-hungry monster, Lea Delaria as Molly Yarnchopper, the Timbercat, Joan Jett as Camille, the rocker snake and John Hodgman and GZA as Billions and Billions, the cosmically-curious wolves.
Director/Writer
The post-apocalyptic tale is created and executive produced by Radford Sechrist from 'How to Train Your Dragon 2' and ' 'Once Upon a Time' writer Bill Wolkoff.
Trailers
DreamWorks rolled out a new trailer for 'Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts' and captioned the video, "When Kipo is separated from her family, she must learn to navigate a peculiar and dangerous surface world full of adorable, but deadly creatures! Luckily, she won't have to do it alone."
Dropping a one-minute teaser trailer back in June, DreamWorks posted, "There's no way to prepare for this unexpected new series: 'Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts'!"
Where to watch
You can stream the 10 episodes of the animation series on Netflix after it premieres on January 14, 2020.
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