Netflix Entices Cartoon Lovers with “The Dragon Prince”

An review of the Netflix original The Dragon Prince.

By Martin Schroeder, Reporter

The Netflix series “The Dragon Prince,” created by Aaron Ehasz-the head writer of “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” was a stellar cartoon despite the unusual animation style.

The Dragon Prince” takes place in the magical land of Xadia where the magical dragons and elves have driven the humans to the western side and divided the continent into two with a river of lava.

The border is usually enforced by the dragon king, Thunder, until he is killed by the largest human kingdom, Katolis.

The plot starts a couple of months after the murder of Thunder and the supposed slaughter of Thunder’s heir and titular character, with eleven assassins coming to kill King Harrow for revenge for killing both Thunder and the dragon prince.

Image courtesy of @thedragonprince twitter.
This is King Harrow, the father of Ezran and Callum.

The most notable aspect of the series is the animation style — a mix of hand-drawn backgrounds and computer-generated characters.

This upsets many viewers because the experimental style is currently very choppy.

However, this style allows the viewer to focus specifically on the characters against their two-dimensional background.

Another noticeable aspect of the show is that it was designed to be binge-watched as the entirety of the season is available at the same time.

This allows the creators to add more intricate detail that the watchers will be able to remember versus the traditional cartoon in which episodes are added weekly.

Unfortunately, this stops the show from exploring the setting to focus more on the plot and characters.

Overall, the first season is more focused on the main characters than anything else because it sets up the protagonists and the antagonists quite well.

It humanizes the antagonist, showing that they have human reasons and emotions and where they go wrong.

While with the protagonists, “The Dragon Prince shows their gradual development from reluctant allies to friends well.

Image courtesy of @thedragonprince twitter.
These are two of the protagonists, the brothers Callum (standing) and Ezran (sitting).

Overall, “The Dragon Prince,” which can be streamed from Netflix, is an above average cartoon, which should be watched when one has the time.