Netflix fans I know that this review is coming late but i've finally seen all nine episodes of the companies latest animated show and I have to say that while I don't agree with the 100% score on RT it is a really good show so here is my review of The Dragon Prince.
The plot of this show is two humans and an elf have to try and get an unborn baby dragon back to it's mother. Yes I know that that summery doesn't make the show seem exciting but trust me there's alot more going on and I really liked the story it was very easy to follow and very epic at the same time and the story also gave me strong Avatar vibes but i'll get more into why that was later on in the review my only issue with the story is things get resolved in episode nine when it would have been more right to resolve them whenever the show ends.
Starring in the show are Jack De Sena as Callum , Paula Burrows as Rayla , Sasha Rojen as Ezran , Racquel Belmonte as Claudia , Jesse Inocalla as Soren , Jason Simpson as Viren and Jonathan Holmes as Runaan. The acting for this show I thought was really good it's not the show's strongest suit but i'll get to that later the three leads all have great chemistry together and all three do deliver solid performances.
In a world where everybody pretty much knows about everything it's a wonder that the team behind this freaking amazing show managed to keep it a secret for as long as they did they didn't even fully announce the show was being made until I think this year if this was any other show by any other company or team the second they said they'd make the show it would have been all over the internet so i'm glad that they kept it a secret for as long as they did.
The show is made by new company Wonderstorm Pictures and it's in the show's animation that we find it's strongest suit because my oh my is the animation in this show truly something to behold i'll admit that I was worried when I saw that it was basically done in CGI but the sell shaded look of the show does actually work in it's favor and that truly shines through both in the show's fighting scenes and it's backgrounds both of which or truly stunning.
I'm going to take a minuet here just to explain why I was late with not only thins review but my Hilda review the short answer is i've been on holiday this was in the cards for a while so I knew that I was going to miss seeing this show in it's first weekend so I made plans to start watching it as soon as I got back and no joke the second I got back home I logged online and I started downloading all nine episodes and I made sure to avoid all spoilers regarding the show.
This show does have a very strong connection to Avatar: The Last Airbender since it's co-created by Aaron Ehasz who was the lead writer and director for the show and is executive produced by Giancarlo Volpe who directed a large amount of episodes for the show so if you were a fan of Avatar then this is something that you might like to check out.
Going back to what I said before about getting Avatar vibes from this show there are alot of story beats and in some cases whole episodes which play out the exact same way as in Avatar and to be honest im not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing it could be good because Avatar was a good show and it's got the same team that worked on that show working on this one but it could also be bad because it's the same team that worked on that show working on this one so they should know that they already did that with a better show.
Unlike Avatar I cannot see this show getting confused for anime because unlike Avatar where it looked like an anime this one you know isn't an anime and that's because the characters look nothing like anime characters they look like characters you would see in a fantasy show but at the same time if you want to call this show an anime just based on it's plot and themes I wouldn't stop you.
There is another complaint that I have about the show and that's the opening to the first episode is so freaking long and it's not something you can skip over because there's a lot of story being laid out in those opening minuets and it made me wish that the creators found a creative way to get all of that information out of the way it's something that they could have done over a number of episodes instead of just doing it all in the opening minuets of the first.
I have to say that my personal favorite character in the whole show is Rayla she is such a badass character not only in terms of fighting skills but in the fact that she's willing to do what's right even if it means hurting her own people and that to me is more badass then just being good with a blade plus it helps that she has two badass blades.
Speaking of the fighting the action in this show is truly beautiful to look at and to me that's when the animation is truly at it's best and not all of the action scenes boil down to who can hit who the hardest either indeed one of the first action scenes in the show someone defeats there enemy by using magic and it's things like that that help keep those scenes fresh and exciting to see.
Overall The Dragon Prince was truly worth the wait in my eyes it might not be 100% perfect but it's damn near close and that's good enough for me and I cannot wait for book 2 or season 2 to start so the show gets an 8.5 out of 10 from me.