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Trollhunters
I realized I've only been talking about this show on Tumblr and haven't made a proper post about it here yet! ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
aqwt101 recced to to me last year. I bounced off the first couple of episodes the first time I tried, because it's very little-kiddish at first (although visually beautiful), but it turns out to be SO GOOD by the end. Like aqwt101 said, by season 3 it doesn't even feel like a kid's show at all.
What is it? 3-season CGI animated show on Netflix, produced by Guillermo del Toro, now complete but the first in a trilogy of 3 different shows set in the same town and sharing some of the same characters. Therefore, it has an ending, but leaves a lot of loose ends for the next show to pick up.
What's it about? It is, in the beginning at least, a "team of plucky kids vs. monsters" action/quest show. A secret (and gorgeously animated) world of trolls exists underground, side by side with the human world. The protagonist, Jim, is a high school student who picks up a magic amulet that turns him into the Trollhunter, who is the trolls' Chosen One. A human has never done it before and no one (least of all Jim) knows how to deal with having a human as their warrior-avatar. His mission is to hunt down threats to the troll world, while trying to hide his secret second life from his mom/teachers/etc, with the help of his friends. Eventually an ever wider pool of characters get involved.
Why is it awesome/why might I want to try it? I posted a list of enticements on Tumblr, which I'll just replicate here:
• Gorgeous CGI animation.
• Excellent voice acting (including, among others, Kelsey Grammar, Mark Hamill, Anton Yelchin, Anjelica Huston, Clancy Brown, and Tatiana Maslany)
• With Guillermo del Toro involved, you may expect that "monsters are people too"/"everyone deserves love no matter how monstrous" is going to be a major theme, and it definitely is.
• A bilingual Latina heroine played by a Latina voice actress
• Villain redemption arcs. So many villain redemption arcs. Nicely layered characters in general.
• Badass female characters (who admittedly don’t get to badass much in the first few episodes, but this part gets much better later on)
• No love triangles! (There are a few passing hints in that direction, but it never really develops as more than mild jealousy for an episode.)
• Characters named things like AAARGGGHH!! and NotEnrique (because he's definitely not Enrique. It makes sense in context).
• Flesh-eating garden gnomes.
• The humor is really, genuinely funny (for the most part) and sometimes very dark. Some of the episodes are flat-out hilarious. And then it'll do a sudden 180 turn into angst and heartfelt feels.
• Surprisingly dark plots involving things like mind control, genuinely creepy spirit-world stuff, and character deaths.
• Cool worldbuilding and good plotting.
Basically it’s a really cool show that turned out to be way more awesome than I thought it was going to be from the standard-kids-show tone of the first couple episodes. The character interactions are wonderful and I love how even the villains' storylines are layered and interesting. It started to remind me a lot of Gargoyles as it went along.
What might turn me off? Some of the show's humor relies on stereotyping more than I'd like. Details under cut: The hero's BFF is a fat kid who is the butt of a number of fat jokes (e.g. trying to squeeze through windows, can't reach his feet to put on his socks, is always eating). He's also a great character who learns how to fight, has a cute romance with a girl at school, etc., so it's not like he's only there to be the comic relief, but I found it occasionally offputting. Later on, one of the antagonists gets blinded in a fight and is subsequently the target of assorted blind jokes, like walking into walls and the like. (I actually did find this funny, in large part because he's an asshole who kinda had it coming, but just FYI.) There is no non-het romance and most of the human characters end up paired off, though I did like the romances a lot and found them well done.
Anything else? Come watch it so we can talk about! I also requested it in fandom-stockingand other people who request it might get treats from me.
No spoilers in comments, please! A spoilery discussion post is forthcoming.
aqwt101 recced to to me last year. I bounced off the first couple of episodes the first time I tried, because it's very little-kiddish at first (although visually beautiful), but it turns out to be SO GOOD by the end. Like aqwt101 said, by season 3 it doesn't even feel like a kid's show at all.
What is it? 3-season CGI animated show on Netflix, produced by Guillermo del Toro, now complete but the first in a trilogy of 3 different shows set in the same town and sharing some of the same characters. Therefore, it has an ending, but leaves a lot of loose ends for the next show to pick up.
What's it about? It is, in the beginning at least, a "team of plucky kids vs. monsters" action/quest show. A secret (and gorgeously animated) world of trolls exists underground, side by side with the human world. The protagonist, Jim, is a high school student who picks up a magic amulet that turns him into the Trollhunter, who is the trolls' Chosen One. A human has never done it before and no one (least of all Jim) knows how to deal with having a human as their warrior-avatar. His mission is to hunt down threats to the troll world, while trying to hide his secret second life from his mom/teachers/etc, with the help of his friends. Eventually an ever wider pool of characters get involved.
Why is it awesome/why might I want to try it? I posted a list of enticements on Tumblr, which I'll just replicate here:
• Gorgeous CGI animation.
• Excellent voice acting (including, among others, Kelsey Grammar, Mark Hamill, Anton Yelchin, Anjelica Huston, Clancy Brown, and Tatiana Maslany)
• With Guillermo del Toro involved, you may expect that "monsters are people too"/"everyone deserves love no matter how monstrous" is going to be a major theme, and it definitely is.
• A bilingual Latina heroine played by a Latina voice actress
• Villain redemption arcs. So many villain redemption arcs. Nicely layered characters in general.
• Badass female characters (who admittedly don’t get to badass much in the first few episodes, but this part gets much better later on)
• No love triangles! (There are a few passing hints in that direction, but it never really develops as more than mild jealousy for an episode.)
• Characters named things like AAARGGGHH!! and NotEnrique (because he's definitely not Enrique. It makes sense in context).
• Flesh-eating garden gnomes.
• The humor is really, genuinely funny (for the most part) and sometimes very dark. Some of the episodes are flat-out hilarious. And then it'll do a sudden 180 turn into angst and heartfelt feels.
• Surprisingly dark plots involving things like mind control, genuinely creepy spirit-world stuff, and character deaths.
• Cool worldbuilding and good plotting.
Basically it’s a really cool show that turned out to be way more awesome than I thought it was going to be from the standard-kids-show tone of the first couple episodes. The character interactions are wonderful and I love how even the villains' storylines are layered and interesting. It started to remind me a lot of Gargoyles as it went along.
What might turn me off? Some of the show's humor relies on stereotyping more than I'd like. Details under cut: The hero's BFF is a fat kid who is the butt of a number of fat jokes (e.g. trying to squeeze through windows, can't reach his feet to put on his socks, is always eating). He's also a great character who learns how to fight, has a cute romance with a girl at school, etc., so it's not like he's only there to be the comic relief, but I found it occasionally offputting. Later on, one of the antagonists gets blinded in a fight and is subsequently the target of assorted blind jokes, like walking into walls and the like. (I actually did find this funny, in large part because he's an asshole who kinda had it coming, but just FYI.) There is no non-het romance and most of the human characters end up paired off, though I did like the romances a lot and found them well done.
Anything else? Come watch it so we can talk about! I also requested it in fandom-stocking
No spoilers in comments, please! A spoilery discussion post is forthcoming.
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Adding it to The List.
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Do you think it would be okay for Fiona to watch? She watches Spongebob, Gumball, Teen Titans, and etc. (IDK if you are familiar with any of those kids shows)
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I hope you'll enjoy it if you watch it!
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:)
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...also so wondering about the villain redemption you've mentioned because they've laid a lot of seeds there! Next ep seems like it might advance that, if it goes how I suspect it will (and I've been good and have avoided all your spoilers but I'm getting increasingly curious about your OTP and whether we've met those chars yet~~~~ ;)
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... you know, it's also interesting because I was feeling like I really missed out on something not getting the unspoiled experience for this show -- I watched the first couple of episodes, noped out because I felt like it was too little-kiddish, skipped ahead to season 2, and ended up falling hard in seasons 2-3 and then really loved season one when I'd already bonded with the characters. I wished I'd gone through it in order and had been surprised more, which was why I was encouraging you to do that ... but now I'm wondering if already having that emotional connection to keep me interested was actually a really big help!
Anyway, I'm looking forward to getting your reactions after you've seen the next few eps. If you do actually want to be lightly spoiled for anything, let me know!
I also didn't realize that clip I pointed you to was actually as far along in the season as it was. XD Having watched it out of order (and I hadn't seen a lot of season one at that point) I thought that took place MUCH closer to the start of the season than it actually does!