TVSquad

There's a long-standing tradition of porting successful animated movies to ongoing television series, with mixed results. DreamWorks recently delivered the manic Penguins of Madagascar, and now Nickelodeon is bringing Kung Fu Panda to the screen as a series. Think about this: Penguins is bringing 13 million viewers a week. Granted, they're 2-11 years old, but it's still a pretty impressive number. I expect Panda can bring even bigger numbers. Certainly my son will be thrilled. Now he'll have two reasons to watch Nick (he's in love with iCarly).

He dragged me to the movie, and I was ready to write it off as horrible before it started because I didn't like the title. It was a little too goofy. But the movie was infectious in its joy. The expanded cast of characters leaves to a great deal of potential, and the panda Po himself is so ridiculous as a kung fu master you can't help but enjoy it. And now I can force him to stop watching the horrible Skunk Fu! to get his anthropomorphic martial arts fix.

Dreamworks Animation and Nickelodeon are working together to explore the possibility of creating weekly series out of two Dreamworks movies. Paul Rugg (Freakazoid!) will write a spin-off from 2005's Madagascar that focuses on penguins Skipper, Kowalski, Rico, and Private. Tom Martin (The Simpsons) has been brought in to write the pilot for the series version of the upcoming Kung Fu Panda.

Due out in May 2008, Kung Fu Panda is the story of Po, the panda. While he is a kung fu fanatic, his body doesn't exactly lend itself to martial arts. But then events transpire that call on Po to save the day. It's like Hero, with more fur and slapstick comedy... and pandas... starring Jack Black. How can they go wrong?