Netflix’s recent animated series, “Wolf King,” has taken the internet by storm. This fantasy adventure series will have viewers on the edge of their seats.
Since I’m a fan of animated shows, I just had to know more about “Wolf King.” So, I booted up Netflix and started watching the first eight episodes.
“Wolf King,” based on the book series “Wereworld,” tells the tale of 16-year-old Drew Ferran as he travels the world of Ulyssy to take down the current monarchy while also learning to control the werebeast inside him.
During a full moon, his adoptive mom tries to tell him something important about his birthright. Before she can tell him anything, an unknown beast attacks the two, and his adoptive mom dies trying to protect him. Drew runs away after the incident to find a lord who can tell him what he is and how to control the monster inside. Along the way, Drew makes friends who help him on his journey and help him control the beast within.
While watching the show, the creators briefly explained the world and how the current monarch came to power. I like the dynamic between the lords and Drew, as the lords are trying to protect their own. Drew, on the other hand, is trying to understand why he has this beast inside, as no one has given him a direct answer as to why this is happening to him.
The show’s animation is beautiful, with the highlight of the show being the transformations of the character from beast to human form. The creative team took their time to understand how to make the transformations look natural instead of forced.
One of the things I didn’t like was how the creators just threw the audience into the action right away instead of building up to it. The main antagonists rule the land with an iron fist as they are the ones who overthrew the previous rulers.
I would have liked to see them slowly build up to be the main antagonist of the show instead of showing them right away. They showed up in the first episode and didn’t feel like a threat for the majority of the show. They aren’t given enough screen time, and it would have given the audience more of a reason to care about the characters.
I would also have liked to see more of the side characters, as they had good on-screen chemistry with the main character. During some scenes, they were more fun to watch than the main character.
Another thing I would have liked to see was more of how the current monarch was able to take over Ulyssy and convince the other “lords” to be loyal to them. We might get more explanation in the second season of the show, but for the first season, it could have been better. There is even a character that no one talked about or was even mentioned until the last few minutes of the seventh episode. I would have liked to have seen this character teased or mentioned beforehand just to make us care about them since they are important to the plot.
The show does a decent job of telling the story it wants to tell, but it struggles to keep its audience invested in its characters. Since it’s a streaming series, the show is stuck to a limited number of episodes for its first season. It could have told a better story if it had more breathing room to explore that story.
I give this show three out of five Loper stars. While the show’s animation and character interactions were good, the show suffers from limited run time and a rushed story.
