Maya and the Three (2021)

 

Princess Maya of the Teca is celebrating her fifteenth birthday the same way she spends most of her days: humouring her bombastic father and squabbling with her mother, whom she finds over-protective and confining.  Of course, given that Maya spent the previous night illicitly participating in blood sports and begins her birthday with a dislocated shoulder and a blackened eye, her mother probably has reason to worry about Maya's safety.

And frankly, even those injuries are about to seem like a very minor concern.  Later that day, Maya's coronation ceremony is interrupted by the demi-god Zatz, bringing a message from Lord Mictlan, the God of War.  Lord Mictlan demands that Maya be handed over to him for sacrifice.

Fortunately, there is a prophecy about human warriors overcoming the Dark Gods.  So perhaps there is hope.  The thing about prophecies, though, is that they are slippery things, open to many interpretations, and whether either Maya or her parents truly understand what dangers they face, and how those threats might be overcome, is very much yet to be seen.

Maya and the Three is an animated series in a setting that is heavily based on Mesoamerican cultures, particularly that of the Aztecs.  I'm very pleased to see a show taking non-European inspirations for its setting.  I'm a bit more ambivalent about the fact that - at least in the English language version - it presents those Mesoamerican cultures as using Spanish terms and expressions.  While Spanish is now the dominant language of South and Central America, it's also the language of the nation that conquered and nigh-on destroyed several of those cultures.

I also think that, while nine episodes is roughly the right length for this story, several of those episodes would have been improved by being trimmed down in length.  Most run 35-40 minutes, which generally felt a little long, to me.  Certainly episode 8, at a comparatively lean 26 minutes, felt much more effectively paced than did most of the other episodes.

It's definitely not all bad news, though.  While perhaps occasionally a bit over-indulgent in the time it takes to tell its story, Maya and the Three has many positive qualities: several genuinely funny moments, a few touching ones, lovely animation, and a great voice cast.

Overall, while probably a little too long and potentially too intense for younger audiences, this is a solid show for those who are a bit older.