*Premise spoilers, which spoil the ending of Wizards.*
Oh boy.
Not to get too dire, but this epic feature-length culmination movie had a lot of Tales of Arcadia fans metaphorically quoting that T.S. Eliot line about the way the world ends. Pound for pound, I don’t think it’s a full-on abomination, but the bad parts of it are very glaring, and what’s worse, it can take away from some of the enjoyment of the previous series. Other than Aja and Krel, I’m not super invested in the franchise as a whole, so I don’t take the film as a betrayal, but it’s certainly the most dubious of the Tales of Arcadia properties and a pretty unsatisfying finale. Here we go!
At the end of the Wizards, two-thirds of the ancient Arcane Order, Bellroc and Skrael, gain possession of the all-important Genesis Seals. They can be used to end the world, but for that, they need their now-unwilling third cohort, Nari. Douxie is determined to protect her from the others, but as the world is facing its greatest danger, all the heroes of Arcadia Oaks (and Akiridion-5!) must come together, led by a Trollhunter who’s doubting his abilities.
Our final character of the week is Nari of the Eternal Forest, voiced by Angel Lin. Perhaps because she is the creator and guardian of natural life, she’s not down with her siblings’ plan to destroy everything and throws her lot in with the heroes. She often comes across like a cryptic little sprite, but she has a lot of strength, and that’s one thing that is displayed well in the film.
The other main thing you need to know from the end of Wizards is that the Trollhunter amulet was destroyed. Without it, Jim has no magical armor/sword, and although he’s still determined to fight with everything he has, he’s not sure whether he’s even still the Trollhunter anymore. This is an understandable character journey for Jim in the film, but it’s frustrating to see him throwing himself ill-equipped into danger for the sake of proving himself—it gets him and his friends into trouble, since his friends are then distracted trying to keep him safe. I think of the first Thor movie, where Thor has similarly been stripped of his powers. When the Destroyer attacks Earth, Thor urges Sif and the Warriors Three to face it without him, acknowledging that, with his mortal body, he would only get in their way. I get that Jim is still a teenager, so it might be tough for him to make a mature decision like that, but he doesn’t really recognize that there are other ways to lead.
Another thing this plot does is make it clear that, rather than being the Avengers: Endgame of Tales of Arcadia, the film is, first and foremost, a Trollhunters story. Jim is the protagonist, and while Aja, Krel, and Douxie are all protagonists in their own series, they make contributions here but are ultimately secondary to Jim. Which is aggravating, especially as someone who likes 3Below best. The film includes major players from all three properties but doesn’t really use them well. The story doesn’t take much advantage of fun combinations of characters we haven’t really seen together before, and favorites get sidelined or underused.
On the other hand, being underused might not be the worst thing, since a few of the more prominent characters are served poorly by the story, forced to act out-of-character for the sake of the greater plot. Toby and Steve, two characters who normally bring a lot of comedy, are almost purely comic relief here, with Toby getting saddled with the Clueless Sidekick bit too often and Steve getting stuck in a truly dumb side plot. Aja, though, is the hardest hit. She’s also out-of-character, but in ways that specifically frame her as wrong, not just as trivially comical. She’s given the task of being pretty much the only character to openly question whether Jim is still the Trollhunter, and because we’ve already established that Jim is the One True Protagonist here, that makes everyone else clutch their pearls over how she could say such a thing. But the thing is, her points are valid. The world is close to ending, so maybe they ought to put a pin in coddling Jim’s ego and recognize that they may need something stronger than The Power of Believing in Yourself. Essentially, the film goes the “Lucas from season 1 of Stranger Things” route with Aja—her arguments do make sense and shouldn’t be ignored, but because they place her in opposition to a character we’ve already been told to love, it automatically places her in the wrong. It’s an unfortunate position to put Aja in.
I don’t want to be entirely down on the movie, because it does have some genuine good stuff in it. I like the fun arrest montage when a subset of the gang gets brought in for doing blatant magic in public. Douxie shows off an impressive display of power, and he later has some excellent stuff with Nari. The eponymous Titans, when they show up, are coolly designed—they’re like giant mech golems, gargantuan creatures built of the natural elements and piloted by members of the Arcane Order. We get a brief appearance from the always-welcome James Hong, Varvatos gets a few good moments in, and Claire proves herself to be a total boss witch. The action in the final battle is pretty cool-looking.
When it comes to Diego Luna/Krel, he falls into the underused category. Which, again, considering what the movie does with Aja, might not be the worst thing. Even though we see frustratingly little of him, the film does establish that he’s fully integrated into the crew now. He stays more on the tech side of things, away from the front lines, but he designs some sweet stuff for the team. Not to mention, he irritates the more analog members of the gang by filling their base of operations with dance music. “It helps me concentrate!” he explains, without apology.
Once the main action starts, though, he’s literally nowhere to be found. Krel’s offscreen entirely for more than half an hour. Like, we don’t even get Guy in the Chair moments from him? He could’ve come in handy as the team divides and conquers, helping the different groups coordinate across distance. While he’s back for the third act, it’s wild that we just plain don’t see one of the Tales of Arcadia protagonists for such a big chunk of the film.
But despite his limited screentime, Luna still makes the most of it. Krel has a great role to play during the arrest sequence—Luna’s triumphant delivery of, “…And your mom!” gives me life. He also has some good deadpan reactions and some endearing moments during the final battle.
So that’s it! The end of all the Tales of Arcadia projects. Final thoughts:
Recommend?
In General – Eh. It’s not all bad, but it’s not very good. A disappointing ending that many fans of the franchise actively hate.
Diego Luna – Argh, I might! I can’t help it. Luna is just so much fun as Krel. There is a very solid chance that this character will end up in my eventual Top Five/Ten post for Luna. Even when he doesn’t get much to do, his performance never misses.
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