ANI-MOVIES, *Over The Hedge

The 90s comic strip Over The Hedge by Michael Fry managed to get its own full-length animated film from DreamWorks Animation in 2006. Adapted by Meatballs writer Len Blum and Brother Bear writer David Hoselton, this feature was directed by DreamWorks regular Tim Johnson and former Disney animator Karey Kirkpatrick. The story is loosely based on the comic as it shoveled in several original characters in order to make this an "Ocean's Eleven with critters" cross-genre movie. Not only was the cast widened to fit this heist movie parody, but it stars several celebrity actors as opposed to standard voice actors which might have made it more endearing. Original comic characters like The Tree That Knows Stuff were completely erased so we could have William Shatner playing an overacting opossum with pop singer Avril Lavigne as his embarrassed daughter. The cast went through numerous celebrities who were first considered to be in the film like Bill Murray and Harold Ramis even though they weren't talking to each other at the time, as well as Jim Carrey and Gene Wilder, but the two main characters were filled by Bruce Willis playing a Hudson Hawk clone raccoon along with Garry Shandling as a worrisome turtle. Paramount released this as they handle most of DreamWorks cartoon flicks, even though they managed to make it a hit, despite the fact that they never made an obligatory animated holiday special from the show.

Set in the Midwest lives shifty raccoon RJ who owns a miniature golf bag with a dimensional pocket in it capable of containing nearly anything that can be dropped into it, and he's trying to get the last bag out of a vending machine just at the tail end of winter. RJ attempts to make off with the hidden stash of hibernating bear Vincent who wakes up and frightens into losing the entire wagonload of. Vincent gives RJ a week to get him the whole lot of snacks back, specifically a brand of canned chips. Now on the hunt for more food, RJ comes across a new suburban area that just sprouted up during the course of a single season, which also surprises a jumbled family of forest animals who discover that they're turf has been turned into haven for blue-collar workers. RJ convinces the critters lead by a paranoid turtle named Verne into helping him gather a ton of food, although he doesn't tell them he's doing it to pay off a debt to an angry bear. The team manages to gather plenty of food to fill up the hollowed-out log they all live in, so the fussy homeowner president calls an officious exterminator who considers himself the Dirty Harry of pest control. RJ manages to work his way into the animals' hearts much to Verne's dismay who trusts his twitchy tail over giving into RJ's schemes. It gets so bad that they lose all the snacks they took from the nearby houses which lie over the hedge that they live behind. RJ gets them to pull together for one big haul from the irritated homeowner president even though she's rigged her lawn with every illegal kind of vermin snatcher possible. Vincent decides to pick this time to collect his debt while a huge chase between the bear, a ticked-off woman, and a fanatical exterminator. This leads to some fantastic Looney Tunes shenanigans and cartoon sight gags in one long final chase. Things of course work out for the backyard critters, and RJ finds a place in his new family of friends.

Over The Hedge diverges from the original source material quite a lot, so some comic strip purists might find the movie more than a little disheartening. DreamWorks did an exemplary job on the CGI-animated production. The extended cast might seem a little much, but it does pan out as it is a spoof of crime movies. The casting of SCTV regulars Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara as the parents of a trio of porcupines is good as they've played Midwestern couples in various other projects, plus Nick Nolte did go out of his way to sound like a bear probably much to the delight of Rifftrax fans, and others like Wanda Sykes and Thomas Hayden Church make it enjoyable, but hands down Steve Carell as the high-strung squirrel Hammy was so memorable that he became the unofficial mascot of the movie despite being a secondary character. This is an unoffensive family flick that covers a wide range of ages and is largely replayable.

Creature Commandos: Season 1 Analysis

After a slight bump in completing his run of the MCU’s Guardians Of The Galaxy, Hollywood executives finally got over themselves and allowed James Gunn to conclude the trilogy. While his status with Marvel was up in the air, Gunn did the more praised sequel to DC’s Suicide Squad, now titled “The” Suicide Squad. With films like the sequels to Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Shazam not performing well, Warner decided to reboot the DCEU somewhat with The Flash movie into the reconstituted DCU, largely under James Gunn’s supervision. This involves some elements from The Suicide Squad and the Peacemaker TV series, but the first real installment of this new universe was the animated series Creature Commandos created specifically for the Max streaming service focusing on one of DC Comics’ more obscure superhero teams.

The Creature Commandos started out in 1980 in the pages of Weird War Tales about a black ops team during WWII made up of a vampire, werewolf, gorgon, and a Frankenstein lookalike. This military monster platoon went unused until DC’s New 52 with Frankenstein: Agent Of SHADE which included several different supernatural soldiers, including a young female version of Father Time. Up until now, the Creature Commandos only had a few adaptations outside of the comics including a pair of animated shorts done for DC Nation, an appearance on Batman: The Brave And The Bold, and a team up with Sgt. Rock in one of the DC Showcase one-shots. This new Max series was the first time the Commandos got their own show.

Taking place sometime after Season 1 of Peacemaker, the Suicide Squad has been outlawed by the US Government, so Amanada Waller now has to fall back on using non-human recruits for Task Force X which is now referred to as Task Force M for “monster”, also called the Creature Commandos. Lead by Rick Flag Sr. after his son was killed in The Suicide Squad, this new team consists of the Bride of the actual Frankenstein’s monster, Weasel who survived the events of The Suicide Squad, a leftover WWII android called GI Robot, fish woman Nina Mazursky, and former Batman villain Dr. Phosphorus who is an atomic skeleton that can melt anything.

The first mission for this group is in the fictional country of Pokolistan where the Bride was created centuries ago. The ruling Princess Ilana is under threat by the sorceress Circe from Wonder Woman’s people who is leading a rebellion against the crown. Flag and the Commandos have been brought in to protect Ilana, and manage to capture Circe, but this gains the attention of Eric Frankenstein, the Bride’s intended mate who has been hunting her all this time. Circe reveals to Waller that she started her rebellion to stop Ilana from eventually teaming up with the supervillain Gorilla Grodd and taking over the world which she saw in a vision, but it’s all a ruse cooked up by Ilana working with Clayface who had infiltrated Waller’s staff disguised as an Amazonian expert. Flag gets wrecked by Clayface while the Commandos are sent back to Pokolistan to assassinate Ilana. Nina gets killed by Ilana, but the Bride just shoots the Princess anyway since she killed Nina who she now thinks of as being her only friend. The mess gets cleared up with Flag in a coma, but the Bride gets new members into the Commando including King Shark who somehow got caught by Waller again.

This is where the first part of the planned DCU is supposed to launch from in their Gods And Monsters chapter, which by the way has nothing to do with the similarly titled Justice League animated movie. This will continue in the upcoming live-action Superman movie, although how much is unknown, even though Rick Flag Sr. is supposed to have a part in it. All DCU titles are planned to be tied together, but this doesn’t include other DC Comics franchises like The Batman 2 or The Penguin TV series. Creature Commandos did give hints of the larger DCU landscape with brief appearances by token heroes like Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and a few Teen Titans, as well as the members of Easy Company from WWII that GI Robot served in, plus a few incarcerated villains such as Chemo and Shaggy Man.

The cast for Creature Commandos was done with the idea of having the voice actors playing the same characters in live-action projects. Frank Grillo as Rick Flag Sr. is a good idea, although it’s hard to see him as being Joel Kinnaman’s father as he’s only a little over a decade older than the Rick Flag Jr. actor. Indira Varma makes for a good take on the Bride, even though she’s minus her extra set of arms she normally sports in the comics. James Gunn’s brother Sean pulls double duty as the voices of GI Robot and Weasel, neither of which would be played by an actual person in live-action. Alan Tudyk returns for yet another DC roll as Phosphorus that also probably be animated in live-action. Zoe Chao is the water-breathing Nina who here is like a female version of Abe Sapien from Hellboy, although her death in the show marks her off the list. Finally, David Harbour as Frankenstein is a good fit, but what part he might play in further DCU storylines is unknown as he is not a part of the Commandos like he is in the comics. Viola Davis returns as Waller, so her future in the DCU is pretty solid. Anya Chalotra as Circe was also good casting as she could play the saucy sorceress in a movie.

A good portion of the series is shown in flashbacks similar to how the first few seasons of Arrow were going over the characters’ origins. The plot cuts back and forth from the past to modern day, like when the Bride was learning how to speak and eventually having sex with Dr. Frankenstein which leads to Eric Frankenstein killing his creator out of a jealous rage. We don’t get much on Weasel or GI Robot’s origins, but how they ended up in Task Force M. Phosphorus on the other hand has a tragic backstory as he was mutated by Batman-regular Rupert Thorne who he murders and takes over the criminal empire of. Nina has it worst of all as she was born with her lungs outside her body and her scientist father altered her into being an amphibian who had to spend her whole life wearing a water suit that kept her alive which left her tormented by other teenagers.

The main story is engaging as the Commandos are conflicted between completing their mission while under threat of torture by Waller. This combined with their inhuman nature makes them even more outcasted than the villains used in the Suicide Squad. The Bride and Nina form a working friendship which a lot of fans probably hoped would sprout a budding same-sex romance, but Nina’s death at the end of the season ruins that idea. Season 2 of this show has added a few more faces to the roster, so this will hopefully expand the chance for deeper character relationships.

Creature Commandos has four separate studios behind it including James Gunn’s own Troll Court Entertainment, Peter Safran’s Safran Company who he runs with James Gunn, DC Studios that have handled the DCEU since its inception, and Warner Bros. Animation which has been behind nearly all the company’s production including Looney Tunes, Scooby-Doo, and some of Adult Swim’s programming. The animation is done in 2D, so the token argument of the uncanny valley is invalid. The action scenes are a hard R-rating, especially with Phosphorus just burning through people’s skulls. As a beginning to the new DCU lineup, Creature Commandos is a good starting point, although this ain’t for the Teen Titans Go! crowd, so keep the kids away.

ANI-MOVIES, *Lady And The Tramp

For their first animated movie to be done in Cinemascope, Lady And The Tramp was Disney's adaptation of Ward Green's story, Happy Dan. The comic strip writer went on to do the Scamp spinoff which ran in newspapers for years. The change in format meant Disney had to redo their painted backgrounds, but ultimately delivered a sterling cinematic production which is one of the few Disney classics that doesn't have a traditional villain, plus it's shown from the point of view by dogs with how they see things living in the human world. Even though the movie came out in 1955, the story took a retro approach taking place sometime after the turn of the 20th Century. Despite the film being billed as a puppy love romance, it's more of a slice-of-life from the perspective of neighborhood canines as the romance between the title characters doesn't even show up over half through the movie.

The beginning part has the puppy Lady being given to a husband to his wife for Christmas and how she works their way into their hearts. As time goes by, the couple come to expect a baby, making Lady question what her place in the family is. A wandering stray dog called Tramp fills her in on what it means for a dog when a child is on the way. After the baby is eventually born, Lady learns to except the infant into her life. However, the parents get called out of town for some reason, leaving the baby in the care of their aunt Sarah whose Siamese cats make Lady look like a troublemaker. Lady escapes being muzzled as she runs into Tramp and he shows her what the collar-free lifestyle is like. The two dogs truly bond at the memorable dinner scene which almost didn't make it into the original cut of the movie. Tramp realizes that Lady needs to be with her family, even though a divergence of him scaring some chickens gets Lady in the pound. Lady gets let out by Sarah which literally lands her in the doghouse, but she notices a nasty rat sneaking into the baby's room. Tramp follows the rat up and kills it, making Sarah think that a stray dog tried to attack the baby. The mother and father finally show up and help clear Tramp's name. Tramp is adopted by them, and he and Lady have a few pups of their own, one of which gets his own sequel.

Lady And Tramp contains some of Disney's more memorable animated productions released in between their fantasy romps of Peter Pan and Sleeping Beauty. The movement of the animals has much more detail than was normally given to their regular sidekick critter characters. The cast is amazing with the voice of Droopy, Bill Thompson, playing multiple roles. One voice actor in particular of note it the underappreciated Larry Roberts as Tramp who never went on to do much more in his career after this film came out as the character is a fast-talking carefree loner who likes pulling scams on various humans and other animals. Most longtime Disney fans don't give Lady And The Tramp the credit that it should get because of its simplistic plot, but it's the mundane realism that made for a grand outing for the cartoon kingdom which makes it a great feature for both kids and adults.

MISC. MANGA, *Godzilla's Monsterpiece Theatre

Tom Sciolo has done his own Jack Kirby-inspired takes on franchises like G.I. Joe, Gobots, and Transformers, so when it came to the King of Monsters, he borrowed a title from Sesame Street and made the 3-issue mini-series Godzilla's Monsterpiece Theatre. Each issue was doubled the size of your average comic book, so IDW Publishing put this out in prestige format where we get to see Sciolo's bright colors and thick character outlines. This is one of the first times that we get to see Godzilla take on various literary figures making this as tale of the colossal kaiju mixing it up with The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. "Godzilla vs. Public Domain Characters" is the best way to sum this up without giving too much away.

Starting out in the middle of The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby himself pulls together his own team of monster hunters called G-Force to destroy the rampaging giant lizard. They get help from brilliant minds like Jules Verne and Thomas Edison(although he probably ripped off most of the gear he claimed to have made)and chase the monster from America to England when they get help from an elderly Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson's niece who is also a doctor. Godzilla's rampage through London gets the attention of a certain vampire who is currently held up in Carfax Abbey. Dracula kidnaps Gatsby's wouldbe love interest Daisy in an attempt to get Godzilla to follow them to Transylvania, however the Time Machinist from H.G. Wells' story shows up to help G-Force. Dracula hypnotizes the Time Machinist and has him hand over a magical ring that he uses to turn Frankenstein's monster, a wolfman, and a mummy into giants to fight Godzilla. Gatsby himself has the ring used on him and helps defeat the other monsters including Dracula, then the two remaining titans battle it out. Godzilla returns to the ocean while Gatsby returns to his normal size and returns to his lavish lifestyle after Daisy turns him down as she's already married.

The artwork Scioli created for this comic is reminiscent of Hanna-Barbera cartoons and shows like Thundarr The Barbarian which Jack Kirby worked on. The gritty figure designs look like its right out of the Bronze Age of comics and really works for this outlandish premise. Godzilla himself here is more of a plot device in this story than an actual character, but that's nothing new as the monster is usually personified as a force of nature than an actual living creature. Tokusatsu fans should find this as being a different but refreshing change of pace from the regular Godzilla beat-em-up monster bashes, and hardcore comic fans will love the blending of kaiju and steampunk genres.

ANI-MOVIES, *Flow

Having succeeded in his first full-length animated movie Away, Gints Zilbalodis went on to direct the award-winning Latvian project Straume, known in English under the title Flow. Featuring CGI animation, this film took over five years to complete and was co-produced with assistance from animators in Belgium and France. One of the things about this feature was that there is no spoken dialogue throughout the entire movie as it is entirely populated by animals, and not the singing funny cartoon versions that Disney and Looney Tunes has, making this easy to sell to the international market. Flow was animated in the open-source software Blender, so the movie gives off the impression of an open world video game.

Set in a fantasy version of Earth, a great flood is spreading over probably somewhere in Africa, and all the humans have mysteriously disappeared leaving all the animals free to roam the remaining landscape, or at least as the water keeps rising everywhere. A grey cat runs across some dogs in the forest and loses them to find a giant statue of a cat constructed at the top of a mountain as the tide comes in. The cat gets a lift on a sailboat piloted by a rather smart capybara which is the largest rodent in the world, and encounters a large whale as they also pick up a ring-tailed lemur who is really picky about his basket full of shiny objects. They later pick up one of the dogs from earlier who is very loyal to the cat. A secretary bird befriends the cat, even defending it against his flock whose leader impairs one of its wings leaving the bird to join the crew. All five animals sail their boat to a town submerged which looks like it might have been an island city similar to Venice as they head to a base of giant pillars in the distance. They even pick up the rest of the pack of dogs who were stranded on a high temple. Once they reach the pillars, the cat goes overboard but makes it to the base of one of stone columns and climbs it all the way up to find his bird friend waiting for him where it appears to ascend into the heavens. The cat gained some experience swimming, so he makes it on a glass float from the lemur's collection and wakes up in a new forest where he finds the rest of his crew in the boat dangling from a tree. The remaining dogs chase off after a rabbit while the loyal dog helps the lemur and cat rescue the capybara from falling off a cliff. Afterwards the four of them run across the same whale from before beached in the middle of the woods where they think it dies, even though in a post-credits scene is shown to be still alive somehow.

Flow is a one-of-a-kind movie. It's a huge leap forward from Gints Zilbalodis' Away as it stars all animals. Obviously, these are not regular animals as cats would hate swimming in water, secretary birds wouldn't normally befriend felines, and capybaras are only indigenous to South America which is on the opposite side of the ocean. Flow isn't a violent movie, not even giving into the dog-eat-dog nature that animals would inevitably give into in a drowned landscape marooned on a small boat with other carnivores, so this can be enjoyed by the whole family. This sets a new standard in non-narrative films and how animated features will be done in the future.

ANI-MOVIES, *The Night Is Short, Walk On Girl

Intended as a spinoff of The Tatami Galaxy anime TV series which dealt with multiple timelines, The Night Is Short, Walk On Girl is based on a book by the same author, Tomihiko Morimi, who eventually wrote the equally absurd Penguin Highway. Anime director Masaaki Yuasa has a creative approach to his productions like Devilman Crybaby, Kaiba, Kick-Heart, and Mind Game, so his take on this trippy narrative fits perfectly. The 2017 anime movie went on to win several animation awards including Best Film which you will see why as the story carries on from one character to the other in one single night and how everyone is connected by the red string of fate, although not to the time-travelling extreme that Your Name took. Science Saru was the studio behind this creation and their unreal style that was later used in the Scott Pilgrim anime is out of this world.

Beginning at the night of a university festival in Kyoto, an unnamed young lady referred to The Girl with Black Hair starts her evening with some friends sampling alcoholic drinks and determined to try as unique a selection of booze as possible by gate crashing a multitude of separate parties and gatherings. While she is off on her excursion, an older student that the Girl treats as her Senpai is trying to finally confess his romantic feelings for her. The Girl carries on from weddings, to debate meetings, and the antics of the school's festival which is being highjacked by a roaming acting troupe whose leader is looking for the girl of his dreams so he can finally changes his underwear(don't ask!). The Senpai finds out that the Girl is looking for a children's book she cherished, so there is a good bit of it that takes place at an outdoor book fair which leads to some spiritual entanglements. While all this is going on, nearly everyone except the Girl catch a cold because of their interaction with each other. This leads to the Girl eventually making her way to Senpai's place after she hears that he is ill as well where the two youths finally confess their feelings.

The entire film isn't so much a single story but an ongoing narrative from several different perspectives about the meaning of life the fluctuates from exaggerated to dreamlike imagery at the drop of a hat. There are some annoying anime tropes in this like lecherous old men trying to grope young ladies in bars, and the cliche of someone working up the strength to reveal their hidden love for another, but these helps pace the movie out as it tries to cover a ton of material into a single feature. One of the more incredible bonuses in this are the musical numbers that the guerrilla theatre drama club keeps puting on at multiple locations throughout the movie, both in the English dub and Japanese language editions are exceptionally well done. Having an entire film take place over the course of a single night casted all with college students is a brilliant concept and should be explored by other anime creators as the slice-of-life stories of high schoolers is seriously overplayed. You can check out this broad-based acid trip brought to life which is available on streaming and Blu-Ray/DVD.

R.I.P., Jerry Eisenberg

 

The Dragon Prince: A Retrospective

A little over a decade after they started their streaming service, Netflix decided to come out with a different animated adventure series since Voltron: Legendary Defender was wrapping up. Instead of another sci-fi epic, they chose to give fantasy a shot, specifically high fantasy since Game Of Thrones was blazing trails and a greater emphasis on role-playing games was on the rise. Instead of it being a take on J.R.R. Tolkien, this was an original story crafted by some of the creators of Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Former Avatar writer Aaron Ehasz along with Uncharted director Justin Richmond set up their studio of Wonderstorm. They teamed up with Bardel Entertainment who animated the 2012 TMNT series to create The Dragon Prince for Netflix starting in 2018. This was done in CGI and is largely inspired by anime. There were some issues with the animation frame rate during the first season, but this was improved in later seasons.

The Dragon Prince was planned to be comprised of six seasons, but the show’s success gained them an extra season to conclude the series. Seasons 1-3 made up the unnamed first saga, while Seasons 4-7 made up the second part titled The Mystery Of Aaravos. There was a three-year gap between the release of Seasons 3 and 4, meaning loyal fans had to wait a long time during the intermission. Even though they were given an entire extra season to complete the story, there is still room for a continuation.

The cast is comprised of voice actor veterans while still largely starring newer voices to the field. Jack DeSena plays an almost duplicate version of his Avatar character Sokka as Prince Callum. Erik Dellums who was Avatar’s face-stealing Koh is the overarching villain Aaravos. Paula Burrows pulls double duty as main character Rayla and the reoccurring Opeli. Sasha Rojen continues the anime tradition of having an actress playing a main young male character of Ezra. Jason Thompson who normally does smaller rolls is the set turncoat Viren. Racquel Belmonte that Bronies will know as Kerfuffle expands her repertoire as the hero-turned-villain Claudia, and anime actor Jesse Inocalla is her brother Soren. Benjamin Callins portrays the transgender Terry. Former voice of Goku, Peter Kelmis is a blind sea captain and former Vegeta, Brian Drummond does various important parts. Other My Little Pony royalty includes Nicole Oliver as the dragon Queen Zubeia, Mane 6 singer Kazumi Evans is Queen Sarai, Flash Sentry’s Vincent Tong is the short-tempered Prince Kasef, and Sapphire Shores’ Rena Anakwe as Queen Janai.

The world of The Dragon Prince takes place entirely in a fantasy world on the continent of Xadia. There are six different magical sources: Moon, Sky, Sun, Earth, Sea, and Stars. The connection living beings have to each source is called the arcanum. Mages can use one of these magics at a time. Each arcanum has a tribe of elves that utilize them, usually through a source called a Primal Stone. There is also an Archdragon for each Primal Source, along with a dragon breed for each one. Another source called Dark Magic powered by living creatures is the only kind that humans can use.

Xadia is separated by a lava flow called The Great Divide. The Archdragons cast the humans out of eastern Xadia when they gave into Dark Magic taught to them by a rogue Startouch Elf named Aaravos. Zaird was a human mage that learned from Aaravos, and blinded the Dragon King, so the title was passed to Avizandum who was later killed by King Harrow and his mage Viren. Aaravos was imprisoned by the Archdragons centuries ago that Viren learned about. Harrow leads the land of Katolis, one of the five human kingdoms. Zubeia the Dragon Queen sent Moonshadow elves to assassinate Harrow and his two sons, Princes Callum and Ezran. Rayla is a young assassin elf who discovers Zubeia’s egg when they raid Katolis, and she abandons her mission to help the princes deliver the Dragon Prince back to Zubeia which eventually hatches with the name Azymondias who they call Zym.

The first story arc of The Dragon Prince dealt with Callum, Ezran, and Rayla finally bringing peace between the human kingdoms with the elves and dragons. The second and lengthier arc focused on Viren along with his daughter Claudia using dark magic to find Aaravos’ prison and free him from it, as well as the humans and elves trying to settle their differences. Taking a note from Avatar, this series has every season broken up into Books, each one lasting nine episodes, and all named after the different kinds of magic in Xadia.

The use of magic is the major plot device for The Dragon Prince. It sparks the war between humans and the combined dragon and elf forces. The two magical races think of humans as lesser beings that are not worthy of magic. Since Dark Magic can only work if the mage uses a magical creatures’ essence to be casted, it created great animosity. This led to the humans getting exiled to the western half of Xadia.

Succumbing to darkness is the main theme of the series. Similar to the Dark Side from Star Wars, Dark Magic corrupts the user which makes them treat magical beings as nothing but ingredients used to rise their power. Viren did start out as a well-meaning mage, but in order to save his son Soren’s life he sealed his mentor into a cursed coin and physically abused his wife to gain her tears all to learn a spell. The Dark Magic took its toll on Viren as his wife leaves him with his children growing up misguided. Soren eventually understands that kindness is the answer to this duplicity, although his sister Claudia went through unbelievable lengths to try and support her father’s insane campaigns, even willing to kill innocents to bring Viren back to life.

The key antagonist in The Dragon Prince is Aaravos, an unkillable elf whose daughter was sentenced to death by celestial lords for introducing humans to mage craft. His hatred for the other Startouch Elves drives him to bring the entire world in crisis using his dark sorcery along with his iniquitous nature which he would plant conspiracies and make long-term plans that would take years to unfold. Even when he is imprisoned, Aaravos is able to cause war between nations and tricking humans to falling for his schemes. He might be slightly justified in his crusade to unravel the cosmic order his kind established, but his extreme efforts don’t validate his actions.

Claudia is the one who falls to darkness the hardest. In the beginning she was just an eager young mage, but as the story went on, she became a full-blown Disney villain. She has her dark hair slowly turning white like Cruella, she morphs into a giant snake like Jafar, then into an octopus monster like Ursula, and by the end she is a Heartless straight out of Kingdom Hearts. It’s hard to imagine how she ever developed a romance with an innocent transgender elf like Terry with no explanation during the two-year gap between Seasons 3 and 4.

The other huge factor of this saga is rejecting prejudice. The main trio of Callum, Ezran, and Rayla put aside their differences and realize that unless they are willing leave their hatred in the past that neither the humans or elves will ever achieve anything. Both princes journey with the assassin who was sent to kill them and their father in order to bring peace to their lands, while the elf now allies herself with the very enemies she had sworn to kill. Forgiveness is easier for these characters since they are all still young. It isn’t as much until the second half of the series when the heroes are older that they become subject to being haunted by past anger. Even the ever-optimal Ezran eventually gives into hatred when confronted with the elf who killed his father.

Temptation is the conflict that most of the characters to fight for or against. It becomes easy for old tempers to rise again, even among the self-proclaimed somber elf nations. Despite the fact that the two former enemies of Amaya and Janai not only become the best of friends but the ruling queens of the Sunfire elves after their marriage, this still causes conflict between Janai and her brother feuding for the throne as he still despises humans. Viren and Claudia surrender to their selfish desires aside from them thinking that they are in the right, not realizing how Aaravos is manipulating them. Surprisingly, the simple-minded Soren figures out on his own that his family is wrong for committing acts of terrorism, even though they’ve used Dark Magic to save his life on two separate occasions.

The Dragon Prince is able to reach numerous marks in being an animated fantasy. In most cases, fantasy is inspired by a certain society or geographic location, which is why so many high fantasy stories are somewhere modeled after medieval Europe, this includes the majority of role-playing settings. Xadia takes a lot of hints from traditional sword and sorcery sagas like Camelot, but it varies between different cultures such as Asian and African. Along with the human kingdoms, the elf types are also diverse depending on their elemental powers. Whereas Avatar largely occurred in Asian-themed civilizations, The Dragon Prince expands it borders to allow for a multitude of cultures.

Being animated is a tremendous plus for the show to as it allows the creators to tackle various forms of creatures and otherworldly beings. The series carries the style and character designs originally forged in Avatar, except now it’s all 3D CGI with some hand painted backgrounds. Wonderstorm co-produced this with MWM Universe and Bandai Entertainment to craft a one-of-a-kind ensemble. This makes it one of the most unique fantasy animated series ever made, even among all the recent isekai anime. There is great attention given to the eccentricities of the abundant mythological sources that inspires it blending folklore from all over the world.

Representation is given a strong emphasis in The Dragon Prince. General Amaya, the aunt of Callum and Ezran, is a deaf woman who uses sign language to communicate along with her faithful attendant Gren, but she is still one of the greatest shield-wielders since Captain America. Amaya is also a lesbian who marries Janai the queen of the Sunfire Elves who were her former enemies, but during the two years of peace they both grew to love each other. There was another couple of lesbian royalty who were unfortunately killed off in a flashback. The non-binary elf Kazi and the transgender elf Terry are shining examples of LGBT+ characters, even though its still confusing as to how the elf-hating Claudia hooked up with a sweet cinnamon bun like Terry.

This Emmy Award-winning show is to me the single best fantasy TV series I’ve ever watched, animated or live-action. It was the first franchise I latched onto when I initially got into streaming, which was just after it premiered. The fanbase was small at first but increased significantly as the first half of the series unfolded, especially from the unplanned shipping of Callum and Rayla which showed how two people from completely different cultures can find common ground and eventually love. There are obscure references to pop culture such as The Lion King, Lord Of The Rings, Game Of Thrones, and Twin Peaks, so your average media junkie will find a treasure trove in this rich sprawling epic. The Dragon Prince has a strong enough presence in geek culture, partially due to its graphic novel midquel and prequels which fill in the blanks for some unresolved plots. Even though the series has officially ended, and Netflix is cutting back on its original animation series, it’s hard to say what kind of future there is for the show, especially with so many dangling story threads left begging to be finalized. There is still the threat of Aaravos looming for a return in a number of years making for yet another time skip where we could witness more mature versions of our heroes and villains. Hopefully, there will be enough attention given by fans to guarantee a follow-up of some kind, even if it's just in comic book format like Avatar and The Legend Of Korra did. Plus, you know you want to hear more of Dante Basco as the title character!