*Season 3 premise spoilers.*
*Note: Diego Luna’s character in this franchise has so much autism. I did my Tales of Arcadia rewatch and wrote these reviews a while back, before I knew that I was autistic and got better at recognizing coded characters. So I never call the character autistic in these write-ups, but it’s obvious that so much of my love for him is related to his autistic-coded traits. When I get through posting all my Tales of Arcadia reviews, there will be an epic Unhatched Observations post coming!*
I wasn’t sure what I was getting into as I started Guillermo del Toro’s sprawling Tales of Arcadia animated franchise on Netflix. I knew that all of the shows featured the voices of some great actors, and I knew I was most excited for 3Below, which starred Diego Luna and Tatiana Maslany. After nearly three full seasons of Trollhunters, this backdoor pilot/teaser for what’s to come offered up our introduction to the protagonists of the franchise’s second series.
Quickly, the overall premise of Trollhunters: for centuries, a magical amulet has chosen the Trollhunter, the Chosen One “good troll” to do battle against bad trolls and other evil creatures, protecting their society from assorted magical threats. In the pilot of the show, a new Trollhunter is chosen, but entirely unprecedented, this time it’s a human. Enter Jim Lake, Jr., a teenager from Arcadia Oaks. The amulet gives him a magical sword and armor, and with the help of his new troll buddies Blinky and AAARRRGGHH!!!, his best friend Toby, and his crush/eventual girlfriend Claire, he fights to keep both Arcadia Oaks and the underground Troll Market safe from the forces of evil.
By this episode, late in season 3, we’re elbow-deep in a whole series worth of plot arcs. The Trollhunter crew has just revived Merlin from some sort of magical cryostasis in the hopes that he can help them stop Morgana, the sorceress aligned with the Big Bad trolls. Merlin gives our heroes a laundry list of items he needs for a crucial spell, but collecting the items becomes more difficult when the principal recruits Jim to help out a pair of new students, the oddball siblings Aja and Krel. Jim, Claire, and Toby frantically try to keep the increasingly odd new kids distracted as they search for everything Merlin needs.
Since I knew there was overlap between the different Tales of Arcadia shows and again, all the series have a strong voice cast, I decided to watch the whole thing from start to finish. I’ll be honest, I find Trollhunters on the whole to be enjoyable but kind of unremarkable. It certainly has its moments, and if I was a tween, I’d probably like it more. But generally, I wasn’t wowed. As I made it to season 3, I started to get antsy waiting for this episode.
Cue “In Good Hands,” instantly my favorite episode of Trollhunters and a story that got me really excited for 3Below. Because Jim has missed so many days of school due to Trollhunter-related absences, the principal points out he’s in danger of having to repeat 10th grade. He offers a bargain: because Aja and Krel, who are both “a little strange,” are having “difficulty fitting in,” the principal will smooth over Jim’s absences if he takes the new kids under his wing.
And what new kids they are! Aja and Krel are an immediate delight, bursting onto the scene with enthusiastic confusion and fascination. Tatiana Maslany voices bubbly, off-kilter Aja, while Luna voices her standoffish but brilliant little brother Krel. As soon as they’re entrusted to Jim, they run off to examine a bicycle and exclaim over Toby’s “robot teeth” (a.k.a. braces,) with Krel prying his mouth open so Aja can take pictures of them.
Side note: for the sake of spoilers, I won’t get into Aja and Krel’s “deal” until I start reviewing 3Below, but it’s blatantly obvious that something is up with these kids and it’s ridiculous that the Trollhunter trio writes off all their weirdness as them being “European.” Like, at this point in the series, they’ve met changelings, encountered situations of body possession, have used a mask that allows someone to essentially shapeshift into someone else, and dealt with their teachers accidentally getting dosed with this troll dust that made them act all feral. They know their way around the strange and unusual, is what I’m saying. So to look at Aja and Krel’s bizarre behavior and simply say, “I think they’re foreign exchange students”??? Holy xenophobia, Batman!
That weirdness aside, I absolutely love Aja and Krel in all their cracked wildcard glory. Since we’ll be spending so much time on this franchise, I’ll do a character-of-the-week thing to go along with my Y tu Luna también reviews, and who better to start with than Aja? Krel’s sister has a definite quirky-girl thing going on, though I’d say she doesn’t quite so full Manic Pixie Dream Girl, just because she does have a bit of an edge to her. In this episode, it’s fun to watch her ask Claire if she’s a “council princess” (since her mom is a city councilwoman) and later hack into the town’s electrical grid. Maslany’s voice performance is instantly endearing and funny.
Krel presents a major contrast to his sunshiny sister. While their introductory scene portrays him to be relaxed and eager when he’s alone with Aja, putting him with the trio causes him to go stiff, standoffish, and a little suspicious. With a posture that brings to mind Brainy from Supergirl and an aloofness reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes, he examines the world around him with a guarded interest. Neither he nor Aja have much of a social filter, but while she expresses that largely through her exuberance, Krel comes across as more superior. When Aja enthuses over riding in an elevator, Krel drawls, “I am so bored.” He admits to being fascinated by Claire’s refrigerator—“How do you know the light goes off when you close the door?”—but also asserts, “I do not trust it.”
But despite not being as immediately cuddly as his sister, I still love Krel from minute one. Luna’s performance is terrific, hitting all the right notes of intelligent, wary, a bit morbid, and kind of arrogant. And again, funny. When the trio realizes they need Aja and Krel’s help to complete Merlin’s list, I love Luna’s matter-of-fact delivery as Krel explains what he’s built for them: “Capacitor—I made it from the microwave.” And when he needs extra metal for his contraption, he demands, “Toby, I need your robot teeth.”
For my first/last impressions, I’m going to do Tales of Arcadia as a whole, with additional notes as I finish each series. Here we go!
Recommend?
In General – At this point in the franchise, I would’ve said “maybe,” but this episode is a breath of fresh air that feels like a promise of really fun things to come. So it’s a definite “yes” to this episode, with an eagerness for the upcoming 3Below.
Diego Luna – Absolutely. Krel is fantastic, and a lot of that is down to Luna’s performance. This is a different sort of character for him, and he plays it so well.
Warnings
Gross-out humor, scary moments for kids, dark imagery, and some “don’t try this at home.”
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