TV Review: The Dragon Prince Book 1: Moon (2018)

The Dragon Prince Book One: Moon (2018) created by Aaron Ehasz and Justin Richmond

A magical kingdom is divided in half. The humans live in the west, the elves in the east. They used to live together in harmony until the humans used dark magic. The elves and the dragons banished humans to the west, with the dragons maintaining the boarder. The humans attacked and killed the dragon king and destroyed his egg (and thus his offspring). In revenge, the elves sent a small team of Moonshadow Elf assassins to kill the human king. The story begins with that attack. One of the elves, Rayla, can't go through with killing humans. She pursues the king's young son Ezran and older step-son Callum through the castle. In a secret room, they all discover the dragon egg still intact. Rayla realizes this changes everything and the three young persons make an uneasy alliance to return the egg to the dragons.

They don't enlist the aid of their elders because both sides are caught on the brink of war. The king's counselor, Viren, wants the war to go forward and has been using dark magic to help things along. With the king dead and the princes missing, he takes over, making things harder for everyone.

The show has a lot of heavy elements (racist attitudes between the elves and humans; some really dastardly political manipulations; torture of prisoners; black magic) but manages to have many lighter moments and fun action sequences to balance them out. The focus is on the kids' journey with the egg and their slow overcoming of their differences. The characters are interesting for both old and young viewers (my four year-old, nine year-old, and eleven year-old all love the show, as do I). Co-creator Aaron Ehasz was head writer and co-executive producer of Avatar: The Last Airbender, and this show is very much in that style.

The story manages to have a big finale that clearly leads into another season. The show is available streaming through Netflix and word on the internet is Book Two will come some time in 2019. We can't wait.

Looks good, but also vague

Recommended.