Another Netflix Original Series Was Just Removed

Nearly six years after its final episodes aired, Kipo and the Age of the Wonderbeasts has officially left Netflix.

In a May report, What’s On Netflix noticed that the animated show would be departing the global streaming platform at the end of June. That report was accurate; the series is now missing from the Netflix catalog.

Created by Radford Sechrist and developed by Bill Wolkoff, the show was produced by DreamWorks Animation and began airing its first season in January 2020. Two more seasons followed quickly, and the entire series, consisting of 30 episodes, aired in full by October 2020.

According to the outlet, just because a show is a “Netflix Original,” that doesn’t mean the streaming giant owns the rights. In this case NBCUniversal, who owns DreamWorks Animation, also owns Kipo and the Age of the Wonderbeasts.

Netflix and DreamWorks struck a multi-year deal back in the 2010s, which resulted in the creation of several popular titles. But the licensing agreement typically ends five to six years after the release of the final season.

Currently, the show isn’t airing on any streaming platform. But since NBCUniversal owns the show, it may eventually make its way to Peacock in the United States.

Kipo and the Age of the Wonderbeasts “quickly garnered a passionate cult following,” according to the outlet. While not as popular as other animated titles, it is a critical darling with a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Starring Karen Fukuhara as the voice of Kipo, the show focuses on a girl living in a post-apocalyptic Los Angeles. After mutants attack her underground home, she must team up with a rag-tag group of surface dwellers including a mutant bug and a four eyed pig.

In 2022, Reactor Mag called the show the “best show you’ve (probably) never seen.” The writer praised the show as “a charming, thoughtful, and endlessly watchable story,” and “a show that feels genuine, and is genuinely entertaining.”

“I hate that more people don’t know about this show!! It was one of my favorites in recent memory and a much-needed feel-good binge. The characters, the music, the COLORS, the story. It’s all so playful and I loved every moment,” one fan commented on the article.

“Folks, this is hopepunk, showing people pulling together and rebuilding after the literal, absolute end of the world as we know it. What’s more, it’s hopepunk that doesn’t shy away from the gnarly aspects of human nature,” another fan wrote.