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The Dragon Prince Season 1 Review

The Dragon Prince is an animated fantasy television series created by Aaron Ehasz and Justin Richmond for Netflix. The first season premiered in 2018.

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“Oh, really? Wow! I’m a mage!“

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Set in a fantasy world on the fictional continent of Xadia, the story centers on the human princes Callum and Ezran and the Moonshadow Elf Rayla, who seek to end the thousand-year-old conflict between the human kingdoms and the elves whilst taking care of the infant Sky Dragon, the Dragon Prince. Written by a guy who also did ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’, the movie was clearly influenced by that iconic series in tone, approach and overall feel, which was wonderful as it was high time that we got another show done in that vein.

My main issue with this series is the animation. I find it rather rough and cheap-looking. On the one hand, I do admire that it has a different aesthetic that isn’t hand-drawn, but is more of a CGI 3D show. But the problem here lies in its choppy movements and weak character animation, making for a look that very much evokes the 2000s. The backgrounds at least fared much better as they were colorful and well detailed.

But I loved the score that was suitably epic and fantastical. The sound is also great. The show effortlessly evokes the feel of a Medieval European fantasy through its score, backgrounds and terrific world building. I also loved the emphasis on animals and exploration as the show functioned well as a spirited adventure story too. The action scenes are also quite well executed and the fantastical elements are excellent, but the series for now relies way too heavily on childlike humor than on moving the story forward, resulting in a somewhat slow pace.

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With that being said, there is a lot of charm to be found in that humor and character-based approach. Yes, some jokes were way too immature and not good, but many made me laugh or at least chuckle and I found the show’s sense of childlike playfulness and goofiness quite endearing. The dialogue is a mixed bag, but when it works it’s wonderful.

Prince Callum is our hero. He is a typical goofball, a guy who is cringe-worthy in his sense of humor and quite clumsy, but he worked because he was voiced by Jack DeSena, who voiced Sokka in ‘Avatar’, so that nervousness and geeky personality was well evoked by him. Prince Ezran is among the standouts as this wonderfully endearing and likable kid, who is so kind-hearted that it’s difficult not to love him.

The highlight, however, is Rayla, a teenage elf assassin who is the show’s most complex character. Paula Burrows voiced her in a frustratingly uneven manner as she goes in and out of a Scottish accent frequently, but the character was terrific. Her troubled past is well explored, her dynamic with the boys was excellent and she gets to have the best fight scenes in the first season. For now, the show’s treatment of the elf and human rift is simplistic how it’s handled, but it works in the context of family-friendly storytelling.

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I did not quite care for Claudia and Soren, both being too immature in their humor, though they will undoubtedly be more important in future seasons. As for Lord Viren, he is a superb villain that is at first somewhat on the gray side, but after a while he becomes a full-blown bad guy and I loved how genuinely creepy and powerful he was throughout this season. He raised the stakes just on his own significantly.