“Buddy, you just made my list.”
     “What list?”
“My list of people I’m going to hit really hard!”

The Nickelodeon series, Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness gives us the further adventures of Po the Dragon Warrior and the Furious Five. This DVD set collects seven fun new adventures from the first and second seasons of the TV series:

• “Scorpion’s Sting” (Season 1, Episode 1)
  Tigress comes down with River Fever and the only thing that can heal her is the sun orchid, but it is guarded by the evil Scorpion. Po and Monkey go on a mission to retrieve the orchid, but Scorpion poisons Monkey, brainwashing him to “Destroy Po”. Meanwhile, Mr. Ping and neighborhood children try to cheer up Tigress.
• “Love Stings” (Season 1, Episode 23)
  The Autumn Festival is approaching and Po says he’s too busy practicing his Dizzy Kung Fu with Monkey to help is father make mooncakes for the celebration. Po feels sad for ditching his lonely father and decides to get his father a girlfriend. After a montage of failed dates, Po learns his father already had a girlfriend…Scorpion (Lynn Milgrim)! Po doesn’t trust her and suspects Scorpion has an ulterior motive…and he may just be right!
• “Owl Be Back” (Season 1, Episode 9)
  Po is flying a kite when he comes across the rest of the Five fighting Temutai (Kevin Michael Richardson), warrior king of the Qidan and his minions. When Po performs the Thundering Wind Hammer — one of the 7 impossible moves — everyone starts acting weird. They are afraid he is going to turn evil (dark, twisted and villainous)–like the fate suffered from the previous Furious Five member Fenghuang (Wendie Malick).
• “Monkey in the Middle” (Season 1, Episode 26)
  The Valley of Peace is being swept by a crime wave and Mr. Ping is the thief’s latest victim, losing his emergency noodle fund. The Furious Five goes on a hunt for this thief who leaves childish pranks at the scene of each crime to taunt his victims, but Po soon becomes suspicious that Monkey may somehow be involved in the robberies.
• “Crane On A Wire” (Season 2, Episode 18)
  Po holds a Jade Palace Master of Kung Fu Charity auction with the townsfolk bidding to spend a day with members of the Furious Five, but this is interrupted by the return of Fenghuang. Meanwhile, Crane loses his confidence as he becomes the joke of the village.
• “Kung Shoes” (Season 2, Episode 5)
  Po is sick of the constant training and complains to Master Shifo, who tells him of the test of the three needles. If he can pass this test, he will rise to the level of Celestial Phoenix and no longer need to train. So Po seeks out some black magic to help him with the challenge, but he ignores the warning that the magic shoes will come alive if he wears them for too long.
• “Qilin Time” (Season 2, Episode 25)
  Mr. Ping tells the story of the Qilin, a legendary monster that teaches misbehaving children a lesson, but he is met by laughter from his customers when he admits he believes the creature is real. So to regain his honor, Mr. Ping takes his reluctant son along to the Xin Xao Forest to hunt and capture a Qilin. On their journey they run into
  General Tsin (R. Lee Ermey), who wants to capture the creature as a trophy for himself.

I was amazed by he high quality of the TV series—the animation is top-notch and looks just as great and detailed as the original films. While only a couple of the original cast members return for the series—Lucy Liu as Viper and James Hong as Mr. Ping—the new voice actors do an excellent job making the characters sound and feel the same. I found this collection of episodes thoroughly entertaining. Each episode has an interesting, well thought-out story that usually has some kind of lesson for Po or one of his friends. And the humorous and witty dialogue and crazy antics of the characters had me laughing out loud throughout. Add to that the beautiful animation and there’s really nothing to complain about.

While the series airs in HD on Nickelodeon, this collection has only been released on DVD, but the picture quality is excellent and I can’t really find any fault with it. The sound is also great, capturing all the sound effects, dialogue and music. The one disappointing thing about this release is that there are not really and relevant bonus features included. I would have loved to see some kind of making-of featurette or interviews with the voice cast, but besides trailers and music videos for other DreamWorks releases, the only extra is an insert with a code to unlock bonus content for the Kung Fu Panda app/web game.

I definitely recommended picking up this release as the episodes are excellent, highly re-watchable and a lot of fun. However, I came short of giving it a Highly Recommended because I would really love to see complete season releases instead of just a few episodes at a time, as well as some bonus features—and preferably on Blu-ray.

What’s Included on the DVD:

Episodes:

• Seven episodes from the first and second seasons: (2:47:43)
  • “Scorpion’s Sting”
  • “Love Stings”
  • “Owl Be Back”
  • “Monkey in the Middle”
  • “Crane On A Wire”
  • “Kung Shoes”
  • “Qilin Time”
• Widescreen 1.78:1
• Audio: English DD 5.1, Spanish Surround DD 2.0, French Surround DD 2.0
• Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French
• Closed Captioned

Extras:

• “Scorpion Maze” App Power-ups
  The free “Scorpion Maze” app is available for iOS and Android devices or at kungfupanda.com/scorpionmaze. This DVD comes with an insert containing a unique code allowing fans to unlock power-ups and find exclusive downloads and more. (At the time of this review, the app was not available on any of the app stores, only the web site.)
• World of DreamWorks Animation (11:54)
  Watch music videos and trailers for various DreamWorks animated films and DVDs.
  • “Shrek” — “I’m a Believer” (1:17)
  • “Madagascar” — “I Like To Move It, Move It” (1:04)
  • “Kung Fu Panda” — “Kung Fu Fighting” (2:07)
  • “How To Train Your Dragon” — “Fly High” (1:52).
  • Holiday Favorites (5:34)
    Play All or watch trailers for “Shrek the Halls”, “Merry Madagascar”, “Kung Fu Panda Holiday”, “Gift of the Night Fury”, “Rise of the Guardians”, “Original Christmas Classics”, “Veggie Tales/Merry Larry”

Final Thoughts:

Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness is an awesome series that recaptures all of the fun and spirit of the Kung Fu Panda films. The quality of the animation and voice talent is on par with the original films. My only disappointments with this release is that it only contains 7 random episodes from the first and second seasons and no bonus features. However, the episodes themselves are really entertaining and have high re-watch value. This DVD is definitely worth checking out.