The Dragon Prince was created using 3D computer animation, with cell shading and a reduced frame rate to resemble traditional 2D animation. The first aspect of the show that will be hard to ignore is the animation. It has its moments of comedic gold that audiences of all age can giggle at, but it also isn’t afraid of having its serious and threatening moments. The writing also shares a lot of the positives of The Last Airbender. However, The Dragon Prince’s main antagonist is more of a manipulator who is hidden in plain sight, which provides an interesting change to the narrative formula.

While in The Last Airbender, the threat of the fire nation led by tyrannical Lord Sozin gave audiences a clear-cut villain to rally against. One welcome change is the villain of the show. From episode one, it covers everything you need to know going into this story and provides a good narrative hook to draw us in. However, there is another thing this series took from Avatar: the great storytelling.

Other things like the elemental based magic, the weird creatures, even referring to the seasons as books are something to note as well. It even seems to follow a similar narrative structure as the show: a group of unlikely young heroes adventure across a fantasy land during a tipping point in the in-universe’s history. Released on Netflix on the 14th of September, right off the bat, it’s obvious that The Dragon Prince has a lot of influences from The Last Airbender. However, a hidden threat wishes to stop the princes and take over the throne of the human kingdom before pushing the lands into all-out conflict. The story takes place just after this event and follows the adventure of human princes Callum, Ezran and their unlikely elven ally Rayla as they venture across the land in the hopes of bringing an end to the war between their species. However, humans eventually kill Thunder as well as destroying his only egg and heir. To keep the uneasy peace, Thunder the king of dragons guards the border between the realms of man and magical beings. All is well, until humans discover dark magic, which causes them to be exiled from Xadia. Prior to the events of the story, in the magical land of Xadia, there are six natural elements that the world draws magic from: the sun, the moon, the earth, the stars, the sky, and the ocean. Created by Justin Richmond, who co-directed Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, and Aaron Ehasz, the head writer and director of The Last Airbender, this animated series is engrossing, though not on the same level as its predecessor.

As usual, the hub of new and creative ideas – both successful and rubbish – known as Netflix has come out with a new series, The Dragon Prince.

Ever since the conclusion of The Legend of Korra, fans of the successful Avatar franchise have been looking for a new animated fix, and finally, it is here, though not in the way they may expect.

The dragon prince season 1 review