Wolf King

To start Netflix has shown us that they are perfectly capable of making entertaining, and high-quality kids television shows. I stumbled across Wolf King because every now and then I do like to check the coming to Netflix page. After watching a trailer I began to feel excited. Similar to the cadets show of 2023 It's always the under advertise shows that Netflix produces that are always the best.

I decided to start episode one as something to put on in the background. I was quickly drawn in by the very colorful, storytelling and beautiful animation. The story also adds to the wow factor of the show we've seen fantasy over and over again But I think that the wolf king does it right, especially for the main audience. It is supposed to be targeting, which is children. Parents can trust this show not to throw anything in their child's face that they wouldn't otherwise want their children, seeing unlike the dragon prince which was a phenomenal show, regardless of intended audience.

Needless to say, I ended up finishing The show completely in one sitting, and I would recommend this show for both audiences and adult audiences.

I read a few of the original books many years ago, and only faintly remembered them. Of what I didn't remember, was the characters acting extremely stupid. Characters don't talk when a single sentence would solve everything, and it feels like an artificial way to create drama and tension. Not to mention, most of the characters feel static throughout the show, and never seem to learn from their mistakes. One character in particular (the main supporting one you first see) is particularly insufferable, and seems to be part of the unfortunate belief that strong female characters need to be jerks to everyone around them. Not to mention, the story is very much 'tell, not show', which means we never actually SEE the reasons that the main conflict needs to happen. We don't see the kingdom struggling- just a few scenes with the guards. I actually don't mind the animation style and framerate, but I DO wish they had actually shown the transformations, since they always use camera tricks to avoid actually animating them. It's frustrating, since transformation sequences are one of the coolest things when it comes to were-beasts. I was looking forward to this, but I will sadly have to pass on the second season.

The story, characters all seem good but the framerate made me stop half way through. It's trying to impersonate a stop motion movie but fails that and just quickly gave me and my partner a headache. I am ok with classic comics and cartoons at 15-18per second but this is way below that. Just comparing with Arcane makes it unwatchable. Unfortunately for the writers the tech did not serve this story well.

I am sure it is possible to reprocess this and add more frames , this is just cgi interpolation at the end of the day. Otherwise it'll join the raft of programmes that tried too hard to be innovative and stick out of the cloud and failed in the process.

I will say that I was not familiar with this series before I started watching it. But I'm a sucker for any animated fantasy or sci-fishow that says it is HD Dolby Vision. Netflix, on the whole, usually makes sure that these animated series look top-notch. I point to Arcane as an example. Blue Eyed Samurai is another example. Both are beautifully animated show. The Dolby Vision really makes the show pop. So I don't understand all the other reviews that talked about frame rate and being unwatchable and such, because I've had absolutely no issues viewing this show. It looks fantastic on my OLED.

As for the show itself, I was not familiar with the books or the story before I started watching it. I will say, it feels like they've left some connective information out or assumed that the viewer should know certain things. I don't believe the show is developed enough story wise for somebody who is not a book reader to completely understand the nuances of the show. It also seems like there is a lot of material that they are trying to cover in eight episodes. Eight episodes might have been sufficient if the episodes were an hour each. But at 30 minutes, it feels like they're leaving out some crucial plot points and background information.

That being said, I am enjoying the show. The voice acting is good and I would definitely watch a season two if the show does well enough to earn one from Netflix.

The art is beautiful, and that beauty is what carried me through to the end of the season.

The plot, at a very high level has all the basics, and an interesting premise. But when going through the scenes, *all* of the main characters are unbelievably stupid. Worse, they're just sketches of characters. We don't get to actually know or really understand anyone. We don't even find out a key "were" aspect of one of them until the 2nd to last episode... and we don't find out why some that should have powers don't..

There are hints of intrigue that stop early and go nowhere, or mean absolutely nothing.

If the writing was an attempt to make it accessible to younger audiences... what we got was a jumble of half-starts and shallow excuses for random hand-to-hand fight scenes. I don't know if it was the writers or the producers that screwed this up; but I'm left with naught but disappointment and sadness for the animators.

My family won't be getting exposed to season 2, just in case the stupid is catching.