Maya and the Three

It’s always great when a different culture is expressed through entertainment, but one of the best outlets used in expressing a different culture in a visual manner is art. Art can be so expressive and unique to an individual (and therefore a individual’s identity, style and culture) and it’s come across not only in paintings and drawings, but also in the art of animation, where several shows and movies can look and feel wildly inventive through different animation styles and qualities. One of the more striking visual styles was presented by Mexican animator, Jorge R. Gutierrez, is his 2014 3D animated movie, The Book of Life, which showcased a lot of unique visuals, interesting character designs and was heavily inspired and dripping in Mexican culture and identity. He previously showed this off differently with his 2007 Nickelodeon flash-animation series; El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera, which also displayed a radically different feel through its unique style and clear cultural touches. From one step to another, Gutierrez managed to secure a Netflix series chronicling the tale of a Mesoamerican Warrior in 2018, resulting in the limited series titled, Maya and the Three, being released in late 2021. Set in a world based on pro-colonial Mesoamerica and other indigenous cultures, the show follows warrior princess of the Tecca clan, Maya (voiced by Zoe Saldana) who is ready to celebrate her fifteenth birthday and forcibly abandoned her fighting spirit, but this future is prevented when the denizens of the Underworld come to sacrifice Maya, revealing that she is the daughter of the Goddess of Death, Lady Micte (voiced by Kate del Castillo) and that her sacrifice will bring power to the ruler of the Underworld, Lord Mictlan (voiced by Alfred Molina). After a failed attack attempt resulted in tragic casualties, Maya discovers that she is part of a prophecy where her and three other warriors from the other major clans are required to defeat Lord Mictlan. With her life now on the line, Maya sets of on her journey to round up these other warriors, encountering a Rooster wizard named Rico (voiced by Allen Maldonado), an albino huntress named Chimi (voiced by Stephanie Beatriz) and a barbarian warrior named Picchu (voiced by Gabriel Iglesias). Managing to form her team, Maya and her three, along with the prince of bats, Zatz (voiced by Diego Luna), who also wishes to help her, head to the gate of the underworld to fulfill the prophecy and stop Lord Mictlan. A story sprawling over nine episodes, Maya and the Three manages to stick the landing at the end from an otherwise rocky start, resulting in a flawed and mediocre, but otherwise decent show.

Upon beginning this show, it doesn’t present itself in the best manner, with the first two episodes not only being slow, tonally messy and awkwardly unfunny, but also packed with a lot of lame and outdated cliches that really drag the story down; a princess wanting to be a warrior but being told she can’t, a prophecy about vanquishing an all-mighty evil, a group of outsiders coming together to form a familial bond, etc, etc. It gives the impression that this story isn’t going to take advantage of its mountain-loads of unique elements to tell something drastically new, despite containing all the qualities that should result in something more original. However, once the story gets going and the team starts to form, the show does pick up slightly; with less annoying cliches, a stronger direction and conflict being presented (Maya’s need for vengeance clouding her judgement which could ruin the prophecy and destroy the world), the team she forms have much more personality and charm than those in the earlier episodes, and while the show never truly gets away from its shortcomings like its weak childish humor, its overly comedic and even shallow tone and relatively basic narrative direction, it shift towards a more character-focused and team-building adventure is much stronger and more engaging than what was presented earlier. It also knows how to build to an appropriate end as the climax to this series is quite effective and impressive; it features some great action, almost all the characters that played big parts in the show return, its visually engaging, it finishes off on a slightly unexpected note, and even if the stakes and consequences don’t feel as strongly as they should, it does feel climatic enough to make it work. The biggest flaw with this series is how it handles its narrative and how the overall goofiness of the environment really lowers the consequences and makes everything feel shallow. The pace of the show seems to vary wildly depending on what it is deciding to focus on in the moment; the first few episodes are annoyingly slow and leave the audience stewing in the boring cliches, but the period involving forming the team is sadly too quick and results in certain bonds not feeling as strong or impactful as they should (especially with something that happens at the end of the second act).  It doesn’t feel like it’s taking advantage of being a show and instead just feels like a stretched-out film with extra side quests added on to lengthen the running time. Considering that Gutierrez worked predominantly on Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network shows before he made his own work (which also share a similar vibe), it becomes apparent that Maya and the Three also carries similar attributes like the exaggerated animation with most comedic designs, the messy tone that leans more goofy when it shouldn’t predominantly, and the somewhat shallow nature of the story, which doesn’t match the almost ‘’lord of the rings’’ scale that this story is trying to adopt.

The characters for the show are given very nice and unique looking designs that not only make them stand out wonderfully, but the voice cast for the series is also really good too, with several familiar names backing up these roles both big and small; Zoe Saldana, Diego Luna, Gabriel Iglesias, Gael Garcia Bernal, Rita Moreno, Alfred Molina, Stephanie Beatriz, etc. It’s a pretty great cast and all of them know how to be funny, charming, and serious when they need to be, but because of the personality that this show is emulating, it’s doesn’t leave a lot of the characters feeling that distinct. Maya is not a very interesting lead ; she carries too many cliched plot-lines and character traits to really stand out from any other rebellious princess with a sword, but she isn’t unlikeable in any sense, just not that interesting. Most of her family are pretty one-note tropes as well, but they at least don’t stick around for very long. The main villain is also quite underwhelming; while the design is at least distinct and Alfred Molina could play a juicy bad guy in his sleep, his weak motivation, lack of screen presence and little personality makes him more of a plot device and a thing to overcome rather than an actual character. Much like the rest of the series, the characters get a bit more interesting and more fleshed out when they embark on their quest, especially the main four that tag along with Maya in the group. Rico, Chimi, Picchu, and Zatz are all pretty likeable interesting characters with great designs, engaging backstories that explain their personalities very well and even though they don’t convey that they form the strong bond that the show is building up that effectively, they are a nice team and they do work nicely off each other. Most of the other gods and villains that the lead’s face are given pretty elaborate designs and fantastical powers, but they don’t stick around for very long, most designs are weirdly lacking color and variety in build for a visual style this colorful and elaborate, and they don’t exhibit much personality traits to make them come across more than just mini-bosses. Most of the actors are pretty solid at their deliveries, but once again the rushed pacing and needlessly silly tone often times can kill a serious moment with a weird delivery. Zoe Saldana is very half and half as Maya; sometimes she nails the rage and pain of the character quite nicely, but other times the delivery can be a little stale or a little too over-the-top.

One of the things that does greatly stand out for this show is its visual style and one that Gutierrez seems to have adopted as his own unique vision. It is wonderful that he not only creates stories that are more catered towards his culture (opening up library for new stories to be told), but also uses an incredibly distinct look for the 3D animation to make it look very unlike a lot of other CG animated movies. This method of incorporating the Mexican culture through these wooden doll-like bodies with wonderfully unique looking faces and body-shapes leads to a lot of personality and a lot of distinctness, and it’s a style that doesn’t feel like its restricted to looking realistic or perfectly constructed, it can get crazy and hyper-exaggerated with some of the designs and its allowed to be extra colorful and extra vibrant. A lot of the environments unfortunately don’t have a lot of personality as there is very little time spent in a majority of them, which is felt moreso within a story like where the clans play a crucial part in the story, but the ones that we do get a chance to properly see, like the temple design of the Tecca, Luna Island literally being upon a half-crescent moon, or the hellish metallic music feel of the Underworld, are really impressive and carry that nice blend of crazy but creative energy that this world exhibits. It is a very great style with tons of personality and defining touches, and it helps out even more when it comes to the action sequences. Like how a good 3D animated property should operate, it knows how to incorporate its extra space to really showcase the movement of its characters, as well as how they interact with the world around them. While this show doesn’t have the most engaging or fleshed-out world, a lot of the action uses a lot of great shots and space to make it overly dramatic in the best way possible, with overly exaggerated attacks and anime-like lines highlighting the extreme impact of every hit and swing and clearly showing inspiration from several similarly dramatic action properties like Kill Bill, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Street Fighter . Most of the action in the opening act is a little overly quick, making it hard to keep track of what’s going on thanks to a lot of larger character’s designs being a little too cluttered with various knicks and bobbles blocking the audience’s vision, but the final battle has a lot of great shots, set pieces and motion, it knows how to end strongly.

Maya and the Three is not a perfect series and unfortunately doesn’t live up to its concept and visual style to create something just as uniquely special, but within that standard package is something that clearly had passion and care put behind it and is still a perfectly serviceable watch to get through. Its mini-series status probably worked to its detriment as what could have been used to expand upon a straightforward cliched story, instead didn’t give that much more focus to the story’s meat and potatoes and instead feels like a slightly increased-length movie instead of a proper series. Its clear that Jorge R. Gutierrez loves this universe that he’s creating as it seems like the three main properties he created share a common universe, so it would be interesting to see what he keeps doing with this idea, he just needs to better flesh out some of his stories and characters to make them more interesting and less cliched. Its not exactly a style-over-substance issue to a full extent, but it does teeter on that quite a bit, and it is something that will need to be remedy in later work. But Maya and the Three does have decent characters, a great look, some fun action, and a great finale, so it won’t be without its positives. Decide for yourself if this group-travelling story is one you’d be into, or if it needed more time to cook before being shipped out, Maya and the Three has spunk and beauty, but not that much grit and merit to truly stand out.