Why You Should Be Watching Voltron: Legendary Defender
The second season of Voltron: Legendary Defender arrived on Netflix this week, and that should be [...]
Visuals
There's a reason that Voltron: Legendary Defender is often compared to The Legend of Korra. Both shows were animated by the superb production company Studio Mir.
Studio Mir's work is evident in Voltron: Legendary Defenders' character designs and the way the characters emote. It can also be seen in the smooth linework and motion.
The Lions and Voltron itself are animated with computer graphics, and they look no less stunning and fit seamlessly into the rest of the animated world.
That world is made up of many stunning locales, which are discovered as the Voltron Force travels from planet to planet. Voltron: Legendary Defender is a sight to behold.
Action
The great animation of Studio Mir would partly go to waste if not for Voltron: Legendary Defender's fantastic fight scenes.
The problem with shows involving giant robots is that audiences can often find themselves wondering, "Why don't these guys just call on their giant robots to help?"
The team behind Voltron: Legendary Defender has continually found new and creative ways to challenge the Voltron Force in battle whether they're inside or outside of Voltron and their lions. It turns out that forming Voltron isn't the solution to everything. Voltron may be the most powerful weapon in the universe, but it's only as effective as the five paladins who pilot it, and that helps to keep the show feeling dynamic and exciting.
Space Opera
From the very pilot for the series, Voltron: Legendary Defender takes on an epic scale.
Voltron: Legendary Defender does play with some tried and true archetypes - it is a show based on a cartoon from the 1980s that was designed to sell toys - but it uses those archetypes to tell a greater story.
When you consider that Voltron: Legendary Defender's creative team includes veterans from Legend of Korra, Justice League Unlimited, and Young Justice, it should come as no surprise that, in the early episodes of Season 2, layers of gray begin to form in what previously seemed to be a stark divide between good in evil. Within giving too much away, let's just say that not everyone living under the Lord Zarkon's rule supports the throne, and the Zarkon himself has an untold history with Voltron.
Legacy
As a reboot of the 1980s Voltron series, Voltron: Legendary Defender has some natural expectations that it is expected to live up.
Let's ignore the fact that most of the expectations are borne of rose-colored memories. Voltron: Legendary Defender is an expertly done modernization of a relatively simple, if not outright silly, concept.
Five robots that look like lions that come together and form a giant robot person, but with lion heads for hands and feet? Sure, why not. Voltron: Legendary Defender grounds all of that in the relationships between the paladins and in seeing their effectiveness at piloting Voltron and their lions improve as they grow closer.
The series is also modernized in terms of demographics. Pidge's season one secret adds a bit of gender diversity to the paladins. Changing black paladin Sven into Shiro and altering, without comment, the apparent racial identities of some of the other pilots and Princess Allura creates a much more diverse cast while still adhering to the core concept and ideas of the original series.
Charm and Humor
Perhaps more than anything, Voltron: Legendary Defender's charm and sense of humor will stick with viewers long after they're done watching.
The entire voice cast of Voltron: Legendary Defender is spot on, with the director and animation legend Andrea Romano, but comedian Rhys Darby's role as Coran, the royal advisor to Princess Allura, is particularly.
The character of Voltron: Legendary Defender aren't breaking too many molds, but they each have strong personalities and role within the larger group dynamic. When it all comes together, these characters form a family that viewers will find themselves wanting to spend more time with.
