BurtonReviews Voltron Legendary Defender Season 2: Squad Goals

(Image sourced from http://www.superherohype.com/news/373829-voltron-assembles-in-the-official-trailer-for-the-netflix-series)

They’re back! Three days ago Netflix released the second season of their surprisingly grabbing and intensely cool animated show: Voltron. After literally watching Netflix until it refreshed itself and updated the show to include its second season, at 8:20am to be exact, I plunged into the show that last year surprised the hell out of me as it transcended being a goofy kid’s show and became a genuinely exciting and high calibre example of why cartoons aren’t just for kids. But was season 2 able to carry on this good streak, or did it just miss the mark in bringing all these excellent elements together to form one of the best cartoons around.

(Video sourced from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pvEw4R0vfY)

If you have no clue about what Voltron is; basically five lion robots form to make one colossal power house named Voltron. The lions and their pilots, a group of unique and loveable earthlings from all walks of life, must fight off the forces of darkness, an evil empire lead by the tyrannical Zarkon. So you know, no pressure.

While the story can sound like the typical “we’re gonna save the galaxy from an evil empire,” and it kinda is, it isn’t the main plot line that makes this show so special and likeable. It’s the fantastic characters assembled for this great show. Each is distinguishable and fleshed out in their own way, bringing both strengths and weakness’ that not only make you love them, but make the dynamics of the show so entertaining. From the always hungry and scared Hunk to the tech-wiz Pidge whose fascination with how the galaxy operates can make even the most jaded person open their eyes in amazement as she does.

I could go on all day about how much these characters have really left a lasting impression on me where I just want to spend more time with them as they visibly grow and become as stronger, better team, which creates some of the best moments of the show, either it be them finally taking down and enemy as a single unit, or just seeing them have fun having space-snowball fight. But without one element, this great scripting could all be for none, and that element is the voices that bring the Voltron squad to life. Each character of the show is not only well acted, but incredibly individual. Whether it’s Jeremy Shada who really brings out the childish side of pilot Lance in a way that isn’t annoying but absolutely loveable, or it’s Steven Yeun’s portrayal as cool guy Keith, who can easily switch from funny one liner to one line that really shined a light on the characters fragile emotional state; the voice work used in this show is second to none.

(Image sourced from http://www.comingsoon.net/tv/news/774319-voltron-legendary-defender-season-2-gets-premiere-date)

But this is a show about a giant robot beating the snot out of other giant robots, so the soul of the show would be lost if it didn’t look cool. But hot damn does this show look cool. Every aesthetic choice in this show is not only innovative, from the impressive myriad of unique alien races, to how the show even made the shape of a planet interesting and a novel to see as the default setting of sphere was turned on its head again and again as vast spiked mountains pierce space from a dome like structure that is dripping with vegetation.

This show does a great job at making its universe feel like a believable, living breathing thing, with languages that over the course of the show feel just as natural as English, and sciences that while at first feel abit flimsy, somehow by then end of an episode fit perfectly into the lore of the show.

And then there is the design of Voltron and the pilots themselves, the armour the pilots wear is sleek, uniformed with the variation and personality of the characters coming out with the colour of their lion (red, blue, green, black, or yellow) coming through on expertly placed colour highlights that really pop of the all-white main, and makes me really wish I could make these costumes in real life. And for Voltron himself, it’s hard to get a giant robot wrong, and thankfully they didn’t as both the lions in single forms, and the ensemble of the fully formed beast, always looks cool, never failing to create many badass and striking images whilst in the midst of a cataclysmic explosion.

(Image sourced from http://theplaylist.net/live-action-voltron-ready-form-universal-20161107/)

Speaking of cataclysmic explosions, the action in this show is ferocious, smooth and exciting as hell. When the pilots or Voltron has to kick it into high gear, you know it, as the fast paced hand to hand combat executed by the pilots, or the grand asteroid bashing fights won by Voltron are not only extremely well animated, but they grab you by the eye balls and refuse to let go.

What makes the action of the show even more enthralling is how each scenario is approached in a genuinely smart and surprisingly well thought out way. Hardly ever is it just: punch him till he goes boom, but the enemies are taken down in strategic and clever ways that always had me happily impressed with the quality of writing that has been put into this show.

However there is one pitfall to the writing of this show that had me confused and rolling my eyes at several parts throughout the entirety of this shows run, and that’s its strange affinity to the tried trope of Deus Ex Machina. At too many points does a completely random or unheard of saviour or power turn up in the nick of time and save the day with little rhyme or reason to how or why this almighty new ability has all of a sudden surfaced and has never been seen or heard of before. This over reliance on the Deus Ex trope took away from many epic battles and had me scratching my head in confusion time and time again.

(Image sourced from http://pop-critica.com/category/tv/animation/)

Another problem also surfaces when outside of the epic and smoothly choreographed action set pieces of the show, and it’s in the animation itself. Many of the animation techniques used to bring moments in the down times of the show feel lazy or under-developed, such as having an asteroid in space look like a cardboard cut-out flying n space instead of the rotation and glide of the space rock be animated in the impressive way that most other elements of the show are. Overall it makes the show feel, at times, under produced and stunted in its craft.

But outside of those two problems I have with the show, there’s really nothing else to complain about, but there is a plethora of things to praise and excitedly shout about. This show is incredibly fun, the action and set pieces are both smart and badass, the characters are likeable and well fleshed out, and spending time with them is a true joy, one that I can’t wait to experience again and again.

Voltron Legendary Defender = 9/10

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Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed.