A feel-good fantasy mini-series

"The Book of Life" animator/director Jorge R. Gutièrrez's long awaited Netflix animated miniseries "Maya and the Three" is about a courageous teenage princess, fighting the evil Gods of the underworld to save the world from destruction.

The nine-episode series is densely rich with mythology, and celebrates culture on an epic scale. "Maya and the Three" is a fantasy adventure series which follows a spirited princess with the heart of a warrior who embarks on a journey to fulfil an ancient prophecy that foretells the coming of three great warriors who will help Maya to defeat the evil Gods and save humankind.

The series is inspired by indigenous cultures, and is set in times of Gods and prophecies. The story is about Maya (voiced by Zoe Saldana), princess of Teca Kingdom wanting to be the great Eagle Warrior, joined by three courageous warriors in her mission to save humanity from the dark lords of the underworld. She is more interested in becoming a better fighter, than attending her royal duties. The first chapter of the series opens with princess Maya celebrating her 15th birthday, and getting ready for her coronation but everything changes when she learns that she is going to be sacrificed by the ruler of the underworld. Lord Mictlan (the God of war) wants to sacrifice her for power - and if she does not surrender, than he is going to destroy her kingdom. She also learns about the true prophecy. According to the prophecy, an eagle warrior and three jaguars will one day defeat the dark lords of the underworld. Therefore, she travels across the neighbouring lands (Luna Island, the Jungle Lands and Golden Mountains) to gather a team of courageous warriors. In her adventure, Maya is joined by Rico (voiced by Allen Maldonado) Prince Zatz (voiced by Diego Luna), Skull warrior Chimi (voiced by Stephanie Beatriz) and warrior Picchu (voiced by Gabriel Iglesias).

"In art school, I met artists from Puerto Rico and Peru and Argentina and Brazil and that became the inspiration for Maya finding all these different warriors from different lands." Jorge R. Gutièrrez said in an interview. In the movie, the director wanted to have a strong female lead.

At the heart of this series, I found that the message is that Maya does not want to be treated differently, just because she is a girl. In a scene, we see someone from the audience shouting , "This is no place for a girl!", when she joins a fighting competition. 

At the end, Maya and her friends (who were broken) realises that the world is not going to fix them, therefore, they would have to fix themselves.

Through this extremely courageous depiction of "Maya", the director wanted to honour strong and independent female figures in his life, whom he views as warriors.  "Maya and the Three" is an emotional, action-packed, fantasy miniseries that take its viewers to a completely new world. Visually this series is beautiful to watch, and every scene is a feast for the eyes. It is worthwhile watch for kids and grown-ups at the same time.

The author is a freelance journalist.