Back at 2010, DreamWorks Animation released How To Train Your Dragon, a story about a young viking who befriends a deadly dragon by showing compassion. After learning the tactics of training a dragon, he changes his entire town of Berk and thus the battle between vikings and dragons ended. It became a critically acclaimed hit and started a trilogy with the second film in 2014. A year later, after the end of the Cartoon Network series Dragons: Riders and Defenders of Berk, Netflix, after making a deal with DreamWorks Animation in 2013, decided to make another TV series that takes place before the second film.
Race to the Edge continues the story line as Hiccup and his band of dragon riders find a Dragon Eye that unlocks many secrets. But little do they know that many dangers lie ahead as new villains want it for other purposes, so it's up to them to work together, make allies along the way, and save Berk.
Now that it's been five years since it came out, I'll review this show. So I won't do any spoilers to those who haven't seen this yet.
This show is perfect and one of the best DreamWorks/Netflix shows next to Trollhunters and Voltron: Legendary Defender. Not only is it well-written and provides character development for not only Hiccup, but everyone else including his friends Astrid, Fishlegs, Snotlout, Ruffnut, and Tuffnut along with the return of Dagur the Deranged. And the new villain Viggo, voiced perfectly by Alfred Molina, is great. Calculating, manipulative, and smart is what he succeeds at.
The music score from John Paesano (who scored the Maze Runner movies) continues to do a solid job in retaining the motifs of John Powell's score from the movies while giving it's own identity, the pacing is very good to the point where it can have quiet moments for the characters, and the voice acting from everyone involved apart from Alfred Molina is also great. Jay Baruchel continues to impress as Hiccup by giving the character pathos, authority, and a sense of humor when needed, America Ferrera also shines as Astrid who continues to give support for him and her team while Ruffnut and Tuffnut still bring some comedic levity that isn't overdone. There were some instances where Snotlout can get somewhat annoying, but not too much while Fishlegs is still the expert on reading the tactics of any kind of dragon.
And last but not least the animation and it's very impressive. The visuals are very good and the character animation lifelike and expressive. Even the action sequences shine brilliantly.
Overall, Dragons: Race to the Edge is a great continuation of the Cartoon Network series and one of the best Netflix shows of the past decade. Go check it out! :)
