Created by Todd Harris, Eyes of Wakanda is a return to the world of Black Panther, as the four-episode anthology series tells stories in the history of Wakanda. Eyes of Wakanda Is a co -production between Marvel Animation and Ryan Cooglers Proximity Media, with which it is the second project to come as part of the exclusive television contract of five years, the Coogler's production company Made with Disney in 2021. The Black panther Director serves as the executive producer for the series, which is penetrated in the Wakandan culture and courses, which was introduced in his two films but has introduced new characters. The four stories follow the Hatut Zeraze or was dogs that are Wakandan Spies into the outside world to restore the stolen vibranium technology.
Eyes of Wakanda Has a convincing premise that shows enormous potential in its four episodes, which run on Disney+for about 25 minutes (without final loans). There are some great moments that are scattered in these stories, but the mini series falls off its promise, especially because of the limited time and storm storytelling.
Eyes of Wakanda Peaks in his first episode, staged by Harris and written by Geoffrey Thorne. “Into the Lion's den” follows (expressed by Winnie Harlow), a banished member of the Elite Warrior of Wakanda, Dora Milaje, when she followed a former member of the Wakandan Royal Guard, who was a pirate king, known as The Lion (Cress Williams). With her VIESE, who pour back in the ranks of Dora Milaje, Non accepts this mission by Dora Milajes leader to put down the lion and get the technology he stole from Wakanda when he tried to his own empire in Crete 1260 BC. To establish.
The premiere shows all the strengths of the series and serves as a perfect introduction to its narrative format. Eyes of Wakanda Has an elegant animation style that looks like a moving painting, with lively colors that run off the screen. The series follows a trend that Sony animation popular After the publication of 2018's Spider-Man: In the spider verseApplicant to hand-drawn and hyperstylized aesthetics to your computer-generated 3D designs. The show also creates its own visual identity as Harris Recently told Animation magazine.
“More than anything I wanted to feel that the show feels as much as possible as possible,” said Harris, a long -time storyboard artist for Marvel Studios. “I took influences from the amazing American painter Ernie Barnes and the illustrator Dean Cornwell in the early 20th century with some energy from the fine artist Charles Bibb.
With Craig Elliott, as a production designer and Axis animation studio, who deal with the animation itself, serves as a production designer and Axis Animation Eyes of Wakanda has dynamic action sequences, breathtaking landscapes and characteristic character designs. And as Non -i, the Löw fights Eyes of Wakanda Creates a clever premise that could show dozens of installments in several seasons.
But the series loses dynamics after the premiere because it succumbs to the familiar pitfalls of the anthology series. And even his animation sometimes falls away, since the illusion of this picturesque aesthetics of less polished computer -generated images give way, especially in close -ups. It is always a challenge for an anthology to present a new series of characters and to tell a number of satisfactory, self -contained stories in half -hour narrative windows. Eyes of Wakanda is ambitious to its extent, with each episode changing its surroundings to another era and nation in which the war dogs have embedded themselves, from the trenches of the Trojan war to the Battle of Adwa in 1896 Ethiopia. In addition to mythical heroes and events from world history, there are also some exciting connections to the MCU. The third episode shows an old iron fist (Jona Xiao) from China from the 14th century, and the plot of the final revolves around a canonical moment and an artifact Black panther that I won't spoil here.
There are many fascinating ideas in the series, but with so many of them that were presented at the same time, and too little time to completely explore them. Eyes of Wakanda Invised payments often produce, while it tries to connect their stories properly by the end of each episode. Episode 3, “Lost and Found”, is a particularly disappointing episode that does not take advantage of the reintroduction of the iron fist after a poor Netflix era. The figure is largely wasted in a bizarre story in which it throws itself into a Wakandan facility to regain the head of a statue that an arrogant war dog was stolen from her temple. “Lost and Found” is a self -referential story that interweaves in the new mythology Eyes of Wakanda As an iron fist, a gallery full of reposse artifacts of the war dogs (including those in the previous episodes) are built, and the final takes on a similar posture to tie its four loosely connected stories together. But it is difficult to sell this solution if there is so little material built
Most of the problems of the show seem to be due to Marvel's publication strategy, which feels bizarre of his introduction to the rollout What if…? Although both series are anthologies, Eyes of Wakanda has offered much less opportunity to explore his premise than the predecessor: while What if…? Had two seasons of nine episodes and one season with eight episodes, Eyes From Wakanda Seems to end after a single four-episode run. The first season of What if…? was also published after a weekly schedule, while the last two seasons have been released over two weeks. And Eyes of Wakanda saw his full publication suddenly grew up by 26 dayswith limited marketing to make it out; It is First teaser premiered On July 1, apply the previous publication date of August 27th
It is difficult to say what decisions the brevity of this mini series determine. Eyes of Wakanda reaches higher heights in its four episodes than What if…? achieved in the vast majority of his 26 chapters. It starts with Eyes of WakandaThe outstanding visual style and extends to a superior, more original idea for a connected anthology than the multiple frame of his predecessor.
Eyes of Wakanda Could easily add more episodes in its existing narrative structure or the leadership of consequences star Wars' different Stories Anthology and focused on one of his convincing protagonists in subsequent missions. It could even have concentrated on a prepared character like Nakia as a protagonist for one or two adventures. Nakia (played by Lupita Nyong'o) was introduced Black panther As a former war dog that makes it the perfect topic for this series. In view of the fact, how many MCU actors have reproduced their live action characters for language roles in the framework of the language roles What if…?It does not seem unlikely that Marvel or Coogler Nyong'o can convince to strengthen this series with their star power.
If Eyes of WakandaThe biggest (and most frustrating) mistake is that it is not enough, that's a sign that the creative team is concerned particularly. If Eyes of Wakanda Does not get the chance to survive the name for limited series. The animated anthology can be a wasted opportunity for Marvel animation to continue to build its own legacy. With the exception of an upcoming Preschool series When the next animated publication of the studio later arrives in August, another anthology mini series with four episodes will be. Marvel zombieswhose view of the heels appears more dubious Eyes of Wakanda
The Marvel animation had an Emmy-nominated hit with 2024 X-Men '97 and a solid season of season Your friendly neighborhood spider-man In January. But four years after the foundation of the Marvel Studios subordination, Marvel Animation is still trying to find her way.
Daniel Chin
Daniel writes about television, film and scattered topics in sports in which the New York Knicks are normally involved. It often covers the infinite cycle of superhero content and other areas of nerd culture and fandom. He is based in Brooklyn.