Wakanda's eyes are now flocking to Disney+.
Marvel Studios animation has only been created for Disney+ original animation series for four years, but during this time they have put together a versatile library in which a number of styles and tones are carried out: the relapse on Saturday morality X-Men '97The Ditko-and-Romita Panels Comes-to-Life-Look from Your friendly neighborhood spider-manThe mouthy galactic adventures of I'm big. So far, her most visually refusing series has been What if…? -but this timeline hopping head tour gets hard competition from the new anthology eyes of four-episoden anthology from Wakanda. The idea of long-standing Marvel Storyboard artist Todd Harris, Eyes of Wakanda Swings for the fences with an increased mix of 2D and CG animation, Luminous production design of The princess and the frogCraig Elliott and rich art direction of The boxing trolls'August Hall. Unfortunately, the stories that drive these episodes will not be at the same level. It is an assortment of 50/50, the opening and closing episodes best illustrate the potential of an animation series that follows the history of Wakanda's secret spies, The Hatut Zeraze -also known as Dogs.
Your longstanding mission is to integrate yourself into the outside world to get lost vibranium artifacts, which, if you fall into the wrong hands, could relieve Black Panther's hidden kingdom. In the first season, the eyes of Wakanda covers four key moments in their history and extends over the Bronze Age, the Trojan War, the beginning of the Chinese Ming dynasty and the first Italo-Äthiopian war. The episodes differ in their visual stories and bow to the cultural aesthetics of their periods and precise representations of the people living there. If there is a implementation, the variety of conflicts that Harris and his fellow Wakanda director John Fang gives plenty for inventive action sequences and combat styles.
Another plus for the eyes of Wakanda is how it fits the Marvel Cinematic Universe. These are largely independent stories, so you connect with the spectators whether you have seen the Black Panther films or not. Everything you need to know is contained in the half -hour terms of the episodes, and there is a solution and closure for every story, which means that there is nothing that is exhausted on a certain episode. But not even a series that can clearly escape from the ethos “everything related to” the MCU, and the finale of the first season (unnecessarily) succumbed to the wall of Wakanda in the wider franchise.
The best episodes – the series opener “Into the Lion's den” and the final “The Last Panther” – apply because they reveal new aspects of Wakanda to the viewer. Eyes of Wakanda is closest to find his sweet spot when it focuses on his original characters, as is the failed Dora Milaje candidate Noni (expressed by Winnie Harlow) or if it deals with the Afrofuturist side of the films by dirty Wakandan technology with sci-fi concepts. But the middle episodes “Legends and Lies” and “Lost & Found” suffer from predictable action. They are also held back by chunky mixtures of humor and pathos and some difficult news.
Both the positive and negative eyes of Wakanda make the short episode regulations of the series unfair. Four episodes are not enough for Harris and team to set a consistent tone or to completely demonstrate the potential of their premise. Because there are so few episodes here, Wakanda's eyes never find his creative groove. It feels more like a sampler than a coherent season of television.
However, this does not apply to animation. Studio Akas Breathtaking, Sepia-tinted title sequence teases all four stories with an elegant 2D animation, while axio animation does outstanding work within the body. The color pallets are alive, the lighting is dramatic and it is clear how much time and passion were built into every frame. Elliott's background is worthy and demand that the spectators here and there click on the pause button to absorb the depth and width of their beautiful pictures.