The Dragon Prince
Netflix 2018
Created by Aaron Ehasz and Justin Richmond
Produced by: Bardel Entertainment (co-produced by) MadisonWellsMedia in association with Netflix & Wonderstorm
Series Directed by Villads Spangsberg
Series Writing Credits
Aaron Ehasz (7 episodes)
Voice actors: Jack De Sena – Callum; Paula Burrows – Rayla; Sasha Rojen – Ezran; Jason Simpson – Viren; and Jesse Inocalla – Soren
When the main writer, Aaron Ehasz, decided to do his own series, he doubtlessly hoped lightning would strike twice, and The Dragon Prince would be as widely loved as Avatar: The Last Airbender. So it’s not surprising that many of the elements that made Avatar such a hit would reappear.
The intro had a similar exposition-heavy voice-over, with a mythic figure standing in mid screen and manipulating six Primal Sources (Sun, Moon, Stars, Earth, Sky and Ocean). He explains that the continent of Xadia was one land, living in harmony, but then one day, the Fire Nation attacked! Oops. Wrong prologue. One day, a human discovered a seventh Primal Source, Dark Magic, and used it to slay the King of Dragons. This sparked a war between humans and elves, who were understandably upset that their pet barbeque starter had been greased.
An elite team of Elvin assassins is sent to kill the human King, and one of the assassins, having failed her team, joins up with the prince and his step-brother to flee the kingdom, having first acquired the Dragon Egg. If they can get the Egg to the Elves, the cause for the war has ended, and of course both sides are trying to chase them down.
The lead character Callum is voiced by Jack De Sena, who voiced smart-ass side-kick Soka in Avatar. It’s basically the same role, only now he’s the lead, rather than supporting actor.
You have the two boys, a strong female lead and a stubborn second female character. You have something called a glow-toad who is this show’s equivalent of Momo, and a giant wolf who cannot fly. Episodes are books and volumes. Tycho drums sound during action sequences. It’s all very familiar.
The artwork is gorgeous, as you might expect. The animation is substandard, little better than what we used to see in Saturday morning cartoons in the ‘80s, One of the best elements of Avatar were the wonderfully correagraphed fight scenes, and that is deficient here.
Like Avatar, the target demographic is tweens—8 to 13 year old kids. And it has enough of the same elements that made Avatar a successful cartoon with the Nick crowd that it should succeed with the fresh eyes of 2018.
But Avatar gained popularity far beyond its target audience with exceptionally strong characters (such as General Iroh, or Toph, and a half-dozen others) and a truly original world with well-thought-out depictions of how the characters interacted with that world and one another. Dragon Prince has shown only flickers of that thus far, although in fairness, Avatar hadn’t really hit its strike by episode nine, either. Iroh was still just a tea-swilling buffoon, Zuko an evil big bad with a scar, and Toph hadn’t shown up yet. So, early days.
This series has the potential to be as good as Avatar, but it is going to need more than the superficial elements to do so. Like the Dragon Egg, it flickers and waits, and we wait with it, hoping to be awed by what is born.