Why You Will Fall in Love With THE DRAGON PRINCE

Please allow me to gush for a minute. I was a little nervous about Netflix’s The Dragon Prince. It was yet another cartoon that I was reluctant to watch. It looked more grown up than my girls were ready for. I suffer from depression, and sometimes I lose interest in everything. I take care of what I need (like the gaggle of children and pets in my house at all times) but finding something that makes me feel entertained is difficult.

We have a policy that if I’m going to let my kids watch it, I need to watch it with them (so I can turn it off if it is too scary or inappropriate) or have watched it beforehand. I didn’t want to watch The Dragon Prince. However, I wanted to entertain my children with a non-screen time activity even less. So the cartoon won out. And I’m so glad it did. I love it. They love it. And I’m pretty confident that you will love it too.

The animation with The Dragon Prince is lovely. It is done in the anime style, which I can be annoyed by if poorly done. It uses computer animation to combine 2D/3D hybrid drawing. The style might remind you of Avatar: The Last Airbender. That’s because The Dragon Prince is co-created by Aaron Ehasz, one of the creators of Avatar. Because of the hybrid artwork, the show is able to be more realistic than 2D animation but doesn’t end up looking like a computer-generated show. The characters are animated so that their emotions are evident without pulling from campy anime styles. For example, there are no heart eyes or chibis to be found here. Just strongly expressive faces and body language.

The Dragon Prince

The story within The Dragon Prince is a good one. By that, I mean it engages the younger crowds but holds elements that make it interesting for older people to watch. There are inter-relational conflicts that most people on some level can relate to. Brothers, step-siblings, father/son, brother/sister. The conflicts, though foreign in content, are familiar in style. Most people know how it feels to be insecure or to second guess someone who is older or perceived as wiser than themselves. It was easy for everyone watching to find something to connect with.

On top of this, The Dragon Prince manages to normalize several things that are usually difficult to do without seeming preachy or condescending. What things? I’m glad you ask! First the fact that sometimes evil looks good. For kid’s shows especially, it is easy to paint in broad strokes of black and white, good and evil. And this show has some of that but also? It shows a family struggling with making those choices. It shows a character who appears to be good doing evil.

There is a great deal of wrestling with doing the “wrong thing” for the “right reasons,” however that shakes out. There is also a beautiful story arc of enemies becoming best friends over time. The enemies are from different people groups, one being a fae and the other a human. There is a long-standing feud between the groups that they manage to see past to form a friendship and alliance.

The Dragon Prince

Second, there is a nuance that you don’t usually see in a kids’ show. There are same-sex couples within The Dragon Prince. The couples are seen at a passing glance. And there are several instances of couples just being themselves. It isn’t “the point,” but it does a great job of allowing that to exist without drawing a huge amount of attention. It is rare to see that. Some families may have strong feelings about this very thing. They don’t want their children exposed to things they disagree with. I would counter that we live in a world with billions of people who are different from ourselves. It is crucial to normalize how others may be different, but the difference isn’t what makes them good or bad.

Plus, I like how relationships are shown outside of just romantic ones. The father/son dynamic is a regularly examined one. There is an instance where a young man confronts his father about something evil. The father deflects and subtly insults the young man. It shows the very real struggle a child would have dealing with deception from their parent. Finally, every people/creature group has its dialect; many of them aren’t ‘English,’ but no one draws attention to it.

There is racism, but the dividing lines are much different than in the real world. Multiple races are represented on screen (most notably a young prince who is clearly of mixed race), and there is literally nothing said about it. It just is, and no one cares. One of the big bad guys is a pasty white dude, and one of the heroes is black.

With free time being something of a commodity for many families and multiple streaming services offering hundreds of thousands of viewing options, choosing what to watch can be challenging. With its beautiful animation and inclusive and creative storytelling, The Dragon Prince is a whimsical delight. It will create opportunities to discuss real-world issues in a non-threatening way. The Dragon Prince is absolutely worth the time you’ll spend watching it.

This article was written by Chrissy Gochnauer.