I am starting this thread because (1) I liked to say something about a new (old) animation show in Netflix and several other Netflix originals same as this one that I would like to recommend to anyone who is going to spend his or her coming days and weeks most of the time “self-isolated” at home and would like to to clear up the mental cobwebs accumulated while reading from Book I through Book IV (with a couple more still to go) of Buffon’s “The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, fascinating, hard-to-put-down page-turner this great classic is.
So here I am letting you know of alternatives to starting right away, for a change, on the great cycle of tragedies by Sophocles generally known as the “Oresteia”:
(1) “Shaun the Sheep” is now a Netflix show, although it is still being created by the geniuses of stop-motion animation of Aardman in Bristol, UK. Famous for “Chicken Run” and the various “Wallace and Gromit”, both short and feature-length movies. Season 1, all ten episodes, is now available for solace in a time of mostly reading Buffon, Sophocles or watching the walls as a sort of ad-hoc meditation exercise.
Other animation shows in Netflix I think bear being watched by anyone ages 5 through 112:
(2) “Dragons Race to the Edge”, by the creators of the three movies in the “How to Train Your Dragon” series. The 3-D animation is unbelievably good, as well as the characterization of the main protagonists, as is the dialog and the absurd stories about dragon-flying Vikings that take time to discuss psychology and evolution supposedly in the Dark Ages. Worth to help pass the time while subconsciously digesting Buffon’s masterwork many implications relevant to our own age. The show runs for six series of thirteen 24-minute episodes each.
(3) “The Dragon Prince.” Dragons again, a true high-fantasy heroic quest across a magical land, with interesting and agreeable heroes and at least one very interesting villain that turns evil while trying to do good, precisely because was trying to do good. A very nuanced story indeed, with beautiful imagery and imaginative writing. Three seasons, so far, of nine episodes each.
(4) She-Ra and the Princesses of Power” A hybrid of Science Fiction and Fantasy that, for reasons that escape me, is considered an LGTB-themed series. I think that some people are trying too hard, frankly: more two little ones of these days usual Hollywood quick tips of the hat to the LGBT people: there is a bit of rainbow-colored imagery, one character has “two dads”, we get to see them in one episode and… that’s all. Besides, these are just animated cartoon figures from a kid’s show that may appeal adults as well, and do not show any indication of their deepest feelings for each other, besides “friends” or “foes”. So I would just watch it for what it is explicitly there and ignore the overblown scuttlebutt. Oh, there is also in this series a very interesting villain, or rather villainess (is that a word?)
(5) “Carmen Sandiego” Netflix’s remake of the old geography-teaching series and games. It is impressively done and a favorite of mine, except that only has, so far, two series of ten episodes each, which is far too few, I say.
(6) “The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance” By the Jim Henson Company, of “Muppets” fame comes this one season (so far) series that is a “prequel” to the events in the classic movie “The Dark Chrystal”, created back in the early eighties by the late Henson and his group of amazing puppeteers.
(7) “Trollhunters” I won’t say more about this animated series, other than it has three seasons of 52 episodes in all, with the both amusingly and beautifully drawn animation of stories produced by the most ingenious mind of Guillermo del Toro, stories that only a privileged mind like his can come up with. It is followed by a second series (*Three Below”), and a third one (“Wizards”) is in the works, the whole trilogy, still in progress, is called “Tales of Arcadia” (after the name of the imaginary Californian city where — and below which — the events take place.)
Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).
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