Netflix has released the first stills for Maya and the Three, an original animated series from director Jorge R. Gutiérrez (The Book of Life). The nine-part fantasy story set in ancient Mesoamerica debuts this fall.
Maya and the Three quickly became one of my favorite series! It was a nostalgic journey to my past, when my obsession with mythology and culture began: Mesoamerican Mythology.
I used to walk through the Zocalo of my city, speaking of how Tenochtitlan came to be, how it was and how it fell. From then on, that passion only grew stronger until that love I had was killed by an abussive teacher.
That’s a long story for another day, but I want you to know this series brought back so many sweet memories from my childhood here, in Mexico.
I’ve finished Maya and the Three and whoa, that was great! Now that I’ve let it sit, I can talk about what I liked and what I’d have done differently. Overall, it’s a good series with a really interesting story, great storybuilding and… I guess the characters where okay. Let’s go (SPOILERS):
First of all, I have to say I didn’t like The Book of Life. It reminded me of The Corpse Bride, I found the characters boring and the design differences between female and male characters are too jarring. As I’ve said before, Maya has a good story, way better than The Book. There’s some pacing issues here and there but don’t distract much. And the world is incredible. Each one of the lands is beautiful and they have a lot of detail and work put on them. My main issue…
Character design. This gif summarizes it: male characters are mostly big, hulky, with grotesque features if they’re gods. And the female characters are tiny, thin, with big eyes and thick lips.
Maya felt the weirdest for me because… sorry for this, but she looks like a Bratz doll. Also, she’s supposed to be the daughter of this big, muscled man with small eyes and broad nose. But nope, she still looks a lot like a woman that is not her real mother AND has exactly the same body shape as her when she was younger. That doesn’t make any sense. What are you afraid of? Give us female characters with broad shoulders, small eyes and big noses! BTW, I also didn’t like her character much. I get she’s a teenager, but something was off with her.
Zatz doesn’t look like his father either, but his design is so cool I can forgive that. He’s also a great character. I really wanted to see how they told his love story with Maya and they really needed one episode more for just the two of them spending time together, because they had like two interactions, then kissed, then are lovey-dovey during the battle (which reminded me a lot of Eep and Guy).
Rico was good. Always love a good wizard story, even more if they’re struggling with their powers, and the Peasant Magic was such an interesting idea. I get he had to be the comedic relief but sometimes he, and other male characters, seemed dumbed down to make the female look smarter. Anyway, there’s also a lot of kids and babies designs that looked straight out of TOA but at least they spent more time making them different enough.
Chimi was… okay. She had a lot of potential, but they only let her make animal noises and made both Rico and Pichu fell in love with her. Speaking of…
…yet another underused character. He’s one of the lots and lots of characters who are big, strong and dumb. Like everyone else, he has a good backstory, but he gets killed too soon and doesn’t apport much to the rest of the story. And I get he was a Barbarian, but why did he have to talk like that?
I liked the rulers of the other kingdoms and the gods had interesting designs, still with that big problem of the gods being animal-like and almost monsters and the goddesses looking like normal humans.
The final battle was great. I already knew Zatz was going to die, but Maya’s sacrifice was a surprise. Lots of great scenes here. I love the idea of Maya and Zatz getting another chance in life and love in The Book. Didn’t like the Queen having twins out of nowhere and then Chimi and Rico having four kids in a couple of years after the events (aren’t they supposed to be teenagers?). The Sun and Moon thing is neat, maybe I’m used to that kind of legends. If only they had spent more time on Maya and Zatz’s relationship, it would have been even better.
Anyway, a good series, should have watched them sooner.
I’m really late but I’ve finally started watching Maya and the Three. Two episodes in and I’m hooked. At first, I wasn’t much into the whole “princess warrior” thing (that’s a trope I can’t stand) and the character design differences between male and female characters are a little jarring, but the story is quite interesting and the rest of the designs and worldbuilding are making up for my problem with the character designs. Can’t wait to learn more about the other characters and kingdoms!
