Loved it- got across hard lessons felt with a family dynamic, mostly cared and somewhat engaged with the struggle of everyone. They managed to get in occasional words of wisdom without being overbearing.
I suppose it's mostly a child/teen audience this would appeal to. After all, the parental figure let ALL the kids go on endless adventures often involving incredibly dangerous fanciful creatures. AND, from about 9 to 15, they all had some serious blaster action in play, a ray of pure energy that fought and contained the creatures they were saving into traps made for transporting these last-of-their-kind creatures to a world where they could thrive again.
So kudos to have so many great and abstract themes of saving animals and caring for each other. I appreciated that there was not anything that was generic, i thought all 4 of the kids told me enough of their stories that I could relate and see the tragedy of their life / parenting that maimed them, and so cared about them in at least a basic way.
Once they got past the inherent defensiveness with each other, it was very cool that they had one big compelling challenge/demand to solve one after another. I was somewhat envious that I was not one of these young characters, given the adventure of a lifetime, a place to really grow up.
I could have watched much more and would have enjoyed seeing what they'd do with another season or two. I'm 66 by the way, just last week.
I'm really curious how it works these days. There are so many good actors and scriptwriting. Being able to create a group scene must be insane, unless you have strongly figured characters that will have a strong-known-understood response/reaction, making your job easier as the scriptwriter.
But at some point there HAS TO BE some back and forth FROM the raw script and everything you imagined TO the flesh and blood actors, who of course would infuse the ideas with some of their own gusto.
I'm just incredibly curious how different combinations of directors/producers/writers/actors/etc collaborate effectively. I think that the people on the ground interacting with these kids had a good heart/wisdom and could bring out the elan and inherent sweetness of all the characters. They knew well to stay away from corny, and made sure that the kids got to be kids.
Fantasy well played!
I suppose it's mostly a child/teen audience this would appeal to. After all, the parental figure let ALL the kids go on endless adventures often involving incredibly dangerous fanciful creatures. AND, from about 9 to 15, they all had some serious blaster action in play, a ray of pure energy that fought and contained the creatures they were saving into traps made for transporting these last-of-their-kind creatures to a world where they could thrive again.
So kudos to have so many great and abstract themes of saving animals and caring for each other. I appreciated that there was not anything that was generic, i thought all 4 of the kids told me enough of their stories that I could relate and see the tragedy of their life / parenting that maimed them, and so cared about them in at least a basic way.
Once they got past the inherent defensiveness with each other, it was very cool that they had one big compelling challenge/demand to solve one after another. I was somewhat envious that I was not one of these young characters, given the adventure of a lifetime, a place to really grow up.
I could have watched much more and would have enjoyed seeing what they'd do with another season or two. I'm 66 by the way, just last week.
I'm really curious how it works these days. There are so many good actors and scriptwriting. Being able to create a group scene must be insane, unless you have strongly figured characters that will have a strong-known-understood response/reaction, making your job easier as the scriptwriter.
But at some point there HAS TO BE some back and forth FROM the raw script and everything you imagined TO the flesh and blood actors, who of course would infuse the ideas with some of their own gusto.
I'm just incredibly curious how different combinations of directors/producers/writers/actors/etc collaborate effectively. I think that the people on the ground interacting with these kids had a good heart/wisdom and could bring out the elan and inherent sweetness of all the characters. They knew well to stay away from corny, and made sure that the kids got to be kids.
Fantasy well played!