I just finished binging The Dragon Prince, a new animated show on Netflix with 9 episodes. It is a spiritual successor to Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend Korra, created by some of the same writers and sharing some of the same voice acting (Sokka).



I realized within probably 2 or 3 episodes that this show was basically a clone of AtLA, sharing a similar story and mythos. The conflict features a war between humans and elves, instead of four nations. The mythos has 6 elements instead of 4, although the mythos feels more European-centric (LotR, GoT) than Asian-centric (AtLA). It has the same goofy humor. The storytelling and character building is very similar, following a group of children/teens (and their pet, Bait, a smaller clone of Appa) on their quest. There is also another group tracking and trying to stop them, much like Zuko and Azula.

The world building has been somewhat lacking so far, as Xadia doesn't yet have the depth of AtLA and Korra. There's been very little exploration of the elements or the elven and dragon mythos. Even the moon element is undeveloped given there is a moon elf in the party. However, there is a solid groundwork and given more time the world building could easily reach AtLA levels.

The animation style is quite different than AtLA, being more vibrant and combining 2D and 3D animation styles. I'm typically not a fan of this style of animation, but I felt it worked well enough. Some of the animation is very choppy and has low FPS. The animated battle/action scenes don't yet have the same have awesomeness as the elemental battle/action scenes in AtLA.

Overall, the first 9 episodes are a solid start and lay the groundwork for what could turn out to be an excellent series. I would currently rate it a 3.5 rounded up to 4, however I could see it eventually becoming a 4.5 as the series, characters, story, and world develop.

 

I really wish the pseudo-anime cgi animation thing would disappear. It makes me cringe so hard.

 

Watched the first episode. Seems charming enough. Really like the Sokka clone, various characters seemed interesting/fun. Hated the little brother though.

Also, love how the humans were exiled from the magic continent, rightfully so, might I add. Humans suck and the dragons and elves were correct to separate themselves from them.

 

I binged it when I had a few hours to kill.

Despite my hate of the animation style, it is actually quite enjoyable. Once you train your eyes to ignore the clunky movement of the character models, there are indeed many scenes that are visually appealing.

The humor is pure Avatar, dripping with the silly quips and jokes of Aaron Ehasz. Plot feels like a simpler, more kid friendly Avatar, but there is definitely room there to develop some mature nuance should they choose.

 

I enjoyed this, but felt like it finished too early. I finished the final episode, went to work, came home and realised I'd watched them all. I feel like really it needed two more episodes, to do a little bit of rising action and a climax, which it all seemed like it was building up to. The lack of any resolution or conflict at the end means the whole thing feels a little shallower to me now.

I enjoy the dark children, they have a good dynamic for 'villains' though I suspect they may join the party at some point. The moon elfs Scottish accent annoyed me though.

 

I've only finished episode one, but some thoughts so far:

I rather enjoyed the animation style, except for the occasional jerky puppet-like movement as if the characters are moving at 5 FPS. The humour, especially around dialogue, is much less annoying than ATLA was. The young kid is vaguely irritating, but the older cast seem fairly grounded. The prince seemed to have an interesting relationship with King Stepdad, which is so much better than the usual angstfest around royal steparents.

Although I'm completely exhausted of shitty elves in fantasy fiction, these 'dark elves' seem to be a little better than the usual Tolkein-lite fare. I like their little horns. The elves all had weird accents which didn't mesh, and I can't tell whether I like the notion that they're a large and divergent nation with many regions, or if it felt instead that a bunch of random voice actors had been jumbled together.

I'm not certain this will get rave reviews, but as OP said, there's the groundwork here for something good to emerge after a bit of plot and setting development.