but we make a lot of time making sure we balance it out.” “We do go to some dark places, but we don’t wallow in it. I think I’d be bored if I was working on a show that was just grimdark,” Richmond says. “I’m glad we’re taking that approach instead of making a show that was silly all the way through, or just dark. It helps that the characters are genuinely fun and relatable they win your heart nearly immediately and hang onto it throughout the first three episodes. Relying on the characters, who are ids, automatically frames the plot at the right level of light-heartedness, even in a dark world. When Giancarlo was boarding the show, which was a Herculean task, and I know we’d ask him ‘What do you think about the bigger conflict?’ and he’d reply ‘We need a joke here, guys, this is so heavy.’ I think there are a lot of people pushing from a lot of angles, and I think everyone really respects the characters. “We always try to be as true to the characters as we can. On the other hand, too many jokes, and the show would veer into bathos. Not only does the show need to balance the epic fantasy world-building with relatable individual storylines, but they can’t steer too dark. It is a tricky thing to build empathy with heroes meant to appeal to kids while building a dark and dangerous fantasy world. Our heroes are starting to build connections in the world, but they live in societies that are on the verge of a war after conflict and violence on both sides. Reyla, a Moonshadow Elf, is hesitant to kill and quick to trust humans. The entire world seems set to define the differences between people - whether that is an elf’s horns and long ears, or a prince and a step-prince - and the lessons haven’t sunk in for the youngest members of the cast yet. Callum and Ezran are in a mixed family their mother has passed, and Callum is a step-prince, which leads to a few whiffs of scorn and signs of tension. Our main trio, Callum, Ezran, and Rayla are up to the task.
Their journey means something, both to the individual characters and for the world as a whole. Thankfully, when Rayla meets Callum and Ezran and they set out to deliver the unscathed Dragon Prince’s egg back home in an effort to avert war, we do care.
but to stick it all needs to mean something. It’s a difficult task fantasy concepts like a massive dragon king roaring on mountains, mobilizing his armies against the humans are awesome and visually impressive. įrom there, The Dragon Prince homes in on little stories while building up the world and connecting the small-scale struggles of individual struggles to the overall struggle. Then, we zoom right in on our core cast of characters: Rayla, a Moonshadow assassin who takes pride in her people but is hesitant to kill, and the Princes Callum and Ezran, who are royal step-brothers. The show has the unenviable task of introducing us to this massive world in the first episode, and they take the approach of giving us the very big picture, with a quick rundown of the last thousand years of war. The first episode sets the scene for an epic conflict: 1,000 years of warfare, six mystical elements (and the comparatively new, dangerous Dark Magic) a human kingdom under siege by Moonshadow elves and a cast of compelling characters caught in the middle of it all. If it maintains its level of quality while continuing to chase its ambitious goals, The Dragon Prince should be a worthy follow-up to the team’s past projects. Even in the face of these high expectations, the show, which mixes CGI and traditional 2D art, kicks off with an impressive introduction.
#The dragon prince season 1 episode 1 av club review series
With a creative team coming off Avatar: The Last Airbender, Star Wars, Uncharted, and Justice League, the new animated series The Dragon Prince, now streaming on Netflix, was building hype before prospective viewers even knew what they hyping over.