Want a fun animated series to watch? How about three?

Posted on September 25, 2020

By MARK VIOLA

When “How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World” brought the Dreamworks Animation-produced trilogy to a beautifully heartbreaking conclusion, I was left feeling a bit empty since the story had concluded. Trying to fill the hole left behind by Hiccup, Toothless and the rest, I went searching for something else. Dreamworks had produced a number of television series set in the “How To Train Your Dragon” universe for Netflix, but the drop-off from the film-quality animation to television was hard to swallow considering they both featured the same characters.

However, this did eventually lead me to another Dreamworks television series on Netflix, “Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia,” which would eventually be the first of three interconnected television series set in the ill-fated (but never boring) town of Arcadia.

These are definitely family shows with their intended audiences being kids and teens, but there is plenty to enjoy regardless of your age. Created by Academy Award-winning director Guillermo del Toro (“Pacific Rim”), the series manages to push the boundaries a bit on what we’ve come to expect from kids’ shows, adding a much-needed sense of stakes to the adventures without ever going too far. The best comparison I could give would be Nickelodeon’s “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” which is probably the best animated program to come out in the last 15 to 20 years.

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