Kung Fu Wa!

*Kung Fu Wa!*
Kung Fu Wa!
Original title	Kung Fu Wa
Genre	Fantasy; Comedy; Action; Magical girl;
Written by	Bo Fan; Xin Zheng;
Directed by	Bo Fan (Chinese); Rómulo Bernal (English); Elías Martínez (Spanish);
Composers	Bo Fan; Jordan Matthew Cox; Rich J. Dickerson;
Country of origin	China
Original language	Chinese Mandarin
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	52
Production
Executive producers	James Chen Gu; Selina She;
Producers	Thirty Sun; Xiaoqiu Zhong; Suman Wang;
Running time	11 minutes
Production companies	UYoung; Tencent;
Original release
Network	CCTV-14 (China)
Release	August 3, 2021 –; present

Kung Fu Sock (also known as Kung Fu Wa; Chinese: 天真与功夫袜; pinyin: Tiān Zhēn Yǔ Gōng Fū Wà) is a Chinese animated children's television series produced by UYoung Media and Tencent. Aimed at children ages six to nine, the Flash animated series follows a young girl who is bestowed with superpowers through the aid of a martial arts master turned into an anthropomorphic sock.^[1]

The first season premiered on August 3, 2021 on CCTV-14 in China, and on July 25, 2022 on Pop in the United Kingdom.

Plot

Eight-year-old Tee Zeng finds an unusual sock that is actually a Kung Fu master named Kung Fu Wa from another world. Wearing the sock transforms Tee Zeng into super heroine Kung Fu Girl. She and Kung Fu Wa must complete missions and protect their home, Starry Island.^[2]^[3]

Characters

Tee Zeng (alternatively named TZ (English dub) and Tee Yang (Spanish dub); voiced by Zhou Zhou (Chinese), Sofia Gomez (English) and Belén Marín (Spanish)) – an 8-year-old girl who lives above her family's laundrette, who turns into Kung Fu Girl through the aid of Master Kicko
Master Kicko (voiced by Fu Bowen in the Chinese), Alex Teixeira (English) and Juan Pablo Muñoz (Spanish)) – a Kung Fu master who was transformed into a sock
Hiro Hao/Sword Master (voiced by Jiasi Li (Chinese), Alex Machado (English) and Óscar Olivares (Spanish)) – Tee Zeng's friend from school
Manipulens (also known as Evil Star Lord; voiced by Zhankun Zhang (Chinese), Travis Roig (English) and Cristóbal Areite (Spanish)) – Kicko's rival who was transformed into a pair of glasses
Min (voiced by Mu Qiu (Chinese), Dariana Fustes (English) and Niksi Marín (Spanish)) – Tee Zeng's introverted, but adventurous best friend
Tee Zeng's mom (voiced by Chenjie Xiong (Chinese), Ghia Burns (English) and Betsabé Gutiérrez (Spanish)) – the owner of a local laundromat in Starry Island

Episodes

Series overview

Season	Episodes		Originally aired
Season	Episodes		First aired	Last aired
1	52		August 3, 2021 (2021-08-03)	March 29, 2022 (2022-03-29)

Episode list

Season 1 (2021-22)

No.	Title	Written by	Storyboarded by	Original release date	Pop (UK) release date	Prod. code
1	"Jenna's Flying"	Unknown	TBA	June 12, 2021 (2021-06-12)	September 5, 2022	TBA
2	"A Good-Night Dreams"	Unknown	TBA	June 28, 2021 (2021-06-28)	September 7, 2022	TBA
3	"McHannah & Star"	Unknown	TBA	August 10, 2021 (2021-08-10)	September 15, 2022	TBA
4	"Best Couple: A Fading Stars Of Pegasus Dust"	Unknown	TBA	August 10, 2021 (2021-08-10)	September 25, 2022	TBA
5	"Cry Babies And Friends I"	Unknown	TBA	August 17, 2021 (2021-08-17)	October 27, 2022	TBA
6	"Iron Hannah"	Unknown	TBA	August 17, 2021 (2021-08-17)	November 2, 2022	TBA
7	"It's A Hounderful Life"	Unknown	TBA	August 24, 2021 (2021-08-24)	January 31, 2023	TBA
8	"CB Stars Assembly"	Unknown	TBA	August 24, 2021 (2021-08-24)	February 24, 2023	TBA
9	"Murder, She Goat"	Unknown	TBA	August 31, 2021 (2021-08-31)	March 22, 2023	TBA
10	"Do The Minecraft Comforter"	Unknown	TBA	August 31, 2021 (2021-08-31)	April 5, 2023	TBA
11	"Music Room"	Unknown	TBA	September 10, 2022 (2022-09-10)	TBA	TBA
12	"Night Of The Cry Babies Part 1"	Unknown	TBA	September 13, 2022 (2022-09-13)	TBA	TBA
13	"Night Of The Cry Babies Part 2"	Unknown	TBA	September 21, 2021 (2021-09-21)	TBA	TBA

Broadcast

In 2021, the series was first released on Tencent Video in China. In June of that year, Federation Kids & Family, the family entertainment subsidiary of Paris-based film distributor Federation Studios, acquired the program’s distribution rights for most international markets; UYoung Media, however, would maintain foreign distribution rights for the Latin America market.^[4]

In April 2022, UYoung reached a deal with Discovery Kids Latin America to distribute localized dubs of the program in Portuguese (Brazil) and Spanish (for other Latin American markets); the Spanish dub premiered linearly on Discovery Kids on April 11, 2022, while the Brazilian Portuguese dub debuted on the regional version of the Discovery+ streaming service eleven days later on April 22. That same month, Federation reached a deal with British/Irish children’s networks Pop and Pop Max for the rights to an English-language dub of the series (which debuted on Pop on July 25, 2022).^[1]

A Russian dub (Russian: Волшебная девочка кунг-фу, romanized: Volshebnai͡a devochka kung-fu; English: Magical Kung Fu Girl) was released via streaming on Kinopoisk on December 1, 2022 and ivi on December 3, 2022; fledgling family entertainment channel FamilyJam acquired the linear television rights to the Russian dub in early 2023.

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Shah, Zeenya (April 26, 2022). "New international sales for Chinese animated series Kung Fu Wa!". Kidscreen. Retrieved August 18, 2023.
^ "Kung Fu Sock". TV Guide. Retrieved August 18, 2023.
^ "Kung Fu Sock, 12:00pm on Pop Max". Retrieved August 18, 2023.
^ John Hopewell (June 10, 2021). "Federation Kids & Family to Distribute 'Kung Fu Wa!' From China's Tencent Video and UYoung Media". Variety. Retrieved October 22, 2023.

External links

[kids-1] Shah, Zeenya (April 26, 2022). "New international sales for Chinese animated series Kung Fu Wa!". Kidscreen. Retrieved August 18, 2023.

[tvguide-2] "Kung Fu Sock". TV Guide. Retrieved August 18, 2023.

[3] "Kung Fu Sock, 12:00pm on Pop Max". Retrieved August 18, 2023.

[4] John Hopewell (June 10, 2021). "Federation Kids & Family to Distribute 'Kung Fu Wa!' From China's Tencent Video and UYoung Media". Variety. Retrieved October 22, 2023.

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