'Maya and the Three' Review
TV-Y7
Runtime: 30+ minutes per episode (9 episodes)
Production Companies: Tangent Animation, Mexopolis, Netflix Animation
Distributors: Netflix
Network: Netflix
Created by: Jorge R. Gutiérrez
Cast: Zoe Saldaña, Gabriel Iglesias, Allen Maldonado, Stephanie Beatriz, Diego Luna, Gael García Bernal, Alfred Molina, Kate del Castillo, Danny Trejo, Cheech Marin, Rosie Perez, Queen Latifah, Wyclef Jean, Jorge R. Gutiérrez, Sandra Equihua, Isabela Merced, Chelsea Rendon, Joaquín Cosío, Carlos Alazraqui, and Rita Moreno
Release Date: October 22, 2021
In a mythical world where magic is real and four kingdoms rule, there lives a brave and rebellious warrior princess named Maya. Maya embarks on a thrilling quest to fulfill an ancient prophecy, but can she defeat the gods and save humankind?
The world of animation is full of innovative visionaries and seasoned artists and storytellers whose signature art styles can easily be identified in an instant. You can tell when a project belongs to the likes of Hayao Miyazaki or Genndy Tartakovsky, and most definitely Jorge R. Gutiérrez. Seven years ago –– Wait… seven years ago? Jesus, I've been doing this for a long time –– he helmed his debut feature film The Book of Life, which was one of the best animated features of 2014. Now, he sets his sights higher and bolder with Maya and the Three, a CG-animated miniseries that just might be his magnum opus.
Whether it be television, gaming, or film, action-adventure epics based on Greek or Roman (or whatever European culture that has Gods) mythology get all the rave. Meanwhile, as far as Mesoamerican culture goes, you had Apocalypto and the year 2012. It’s expanded very recently with the fun Cartoon Network series Victor and Valentino and the adult Crunchyroll original show Onyx Equinox. Now, Jorge Gutiérrez, who always attaches a love letter to his home country in his works, does his darndest to give Mesoamerica that big mainstream push by applying the skeleton of an epic ala Lord of the Rings but making it as personalized as ever.
From an animation standpoint, Maya and the Three shows how Gutiérrez’s art style translated to 3D is a visual feast for the mind, body, and soul. This is the most stunning CG animation I’ve seen this year in terms of quality and style. Netflix Animation pulled out the big guns to give Gutiérrez and his team free rein with his scope. The animation services, done by the studio Tangent Animation, are high-class perfection, for they reach that Pixar tier and bring this world to life with state-of-the-art realism and detail. Characters straight-up pop out of the aspect ratio bars through numerous action sequences. The wild designs he and his wife Sandra Equihua conjure up for the ensemble of characters, from the human realm to the Underworld, are given life-like skin texture details. It has the same attributes as Pixar’s Luca where their characters are stylized by design but are given realistic textures, and boy is it beautiful.
As you follow Maya across different realms, assembling a ragtag team of misfits to help her and her kingdom, you become smitten by the background artistry. It makes every location element of this animated Mesoamerican world feel so alive. The kingdom of Teca bustles with Aztec-inspired life in architecture and scale, Luna Island has majestic artistry in color, and the Underworld is a fiery hellscape. Every location breathes a unique flair in color and design and makes this entire world feel as epic as movies of similar magnitude. Even the lighting is cinematic with such a –– and I’m sorry to keep going back to this –– Pixar quality. When it comes to the action set pieces and sequences, not even the word “epic” can do it justice. This is Mesoamerican Middle Earth and I just want to live there. Man, Tangent Animation went all out to show that they mean business. It’s a shame that they just recently shut down. Their third and final production is a major swan song and boy, do they deliver the best CG animation I’ve seen all year in both television and film.
If you’re familiar with Gutiérrez’s prior works, such as The Book of Life and El Tigre, you’re accustomed to his artistry but also his key components of storytelling. Family, Mexican culture/tradition, heroism, individuality, and death are themes commonly found within his stories, including Maya and the Three. This tale is one of legacy and family drama where headstrong princess Maya (Zoe Saldaña), who dreams of being a warrior, learns she has God blood in her and must fulfill a prophecy of uniting other bold warriors from outlying kingdoms to face the God of death himself, Lord Mictlan (Alfred Molina). She teams up with Rico (Allen Maldonado), a wizard with self-doubt, Chimi (Stephanie Beatriz), a reclusive Tarzan-esque Albino archer, and a charming himbo Barbarian warrior (Gabriel Iglesias). While they may look like familiar archetypes, the show goes in-depth with how truly broken they are and it immerses you so much that you fall in love with the central characters. Dialogue-wise, the writing blends the bilingual aspect well where English is a dominant factor, but Spanish takes a good percentage of dialogue blocks to make the story more authentic.
Don’t take the show’s TV-Y7 rating so lightly, for this gets heavy and dark regarding themes of loss and exploring how it can factor into your life, even from a psychological standpoint down the line. There’s a ton of tragedy the leads face in the series and it’s explored with sweet emotional nuance but oooh the deaths are brutal! There’s a line in The Book of Life where a kid goes, “What’s up with Mexicans and death?” This is relevant in Maya and the Three because the body count is high. Every single episode starts or ends with death. I admire the boldness of the series for tackling deep subjects while balancing a maturity and levity that I haven't witnessed in an animated show aimed at a family demographic since Avatar: The Last Airbender. Through the majority of the nine episodes, you get enough time and development with most major players that some of their pivotal moments catch you off-guard and leave you in tears.
Zoe Saldaña delivers an awe-inspiring performance as the titular lead, for she captures Maya’s fiery determination, scrappy strength, and loving heart that makes her such a fun lead to follow. The other voice actors also shine in their roles, giving committed and top-notch performances to the extent that some known voices were unrecognizable.
Another attribute of Gutiérrez that’s at full display here is how he’s a major nerd for eastern animation, incorporating techniques inspired by Japanese animation, especially during his action sequences. He throws in Voltron-type transformations to elevate the grand scale of enemies, comic transitions to add to the fast-paced, high-octane style of the action sequences, along with speed lines with a colorful background. It’s not even his first rodeo with this style, for it’s very prominent in the El Tigre episodes. All of his stories have similar attributes in storytelling, but they range in tone and style. El Tigre was his superhero comedy, Book of Life was his musical romance, and Maya is his epic action adventure. Oh, and the dude threw in a plethora of Easter eggs to give himself a whole cinematic universe that’s connected.
The show is expertly paced and has a natural build-up as far as episodic storytelling, especially if you’re a binge-watcher. The show rides high but the finale doesn’t stick the landing as it should’ve. Given that this is his Lord of the Rings-style epic, the latter half of the show tries to go full Return of the King. Now, imagine trying to cram the epicness of Return of the King’s finale into less than 40 minutes. There’s gonna be a manic, chaotic, overstuffed mess that’s both overwhelming and underwhelming. That’s where Maya’s finale stands. It plays more like the final Hobbit movie, Battle of the Five Armies, than it does Return of the King. As magnificent in action and scope as the finale is, the concluding chapter would have benefited from being split into two so all of the open threads could naturally close one by one.
Maya and The Three is a groundbreaking achievement from Jorge R. Gutiérrez and his team of collaborators with distinctive cultural significance in every facet. The CG animation is as grand as the storytelling in this beautiful and rich Mesoamerican fantasy. To hell with Dune! This is the visionary storytelling masterpiece that I would kill to see on a big screen. Not even a 50-inch can do this gorgeous miniseries justice. This project is a rare achievement that contributes to the argument that animation storytellers are also auteurs, and Gutiérrez is one of the modern greats.
