User reviews

I stumbled upon this show on my kid's channel and I soon found myself pleading with my kids to watch it together! 🤣 Of course there's the stunning Meso American design envisioned by Jorge Gutierrez but by the 2nd of 9 episodes i knew it was an entirely different kind of animation - tragic backstories of outcasts, important characters that die, and emotional moments that are given space to land that I found myself tearing up multiple times. The story considers power from not only individuals, or even families, but communities.

Brilliant animation & beautiful modelling on the likes of clay modelling. Colourful characters, literally too. Beautiful music. The story though is nothing spectacular. It was just above ordinary apart from a heart touching emotional climax.

I enjoyed Maya and the Three. I found the Mesoamerican Mythology that it was built around really interesting, particularly the gods that populate the mythos - as well as the indigenous cultures. It provided a new and insightful view into that rich and wonderous world.

The show has good energy and charming characters, along with good animation that brought the series to life, while honoring the cultures that the show's born from. However, despite the unique and rich civilizations it derives from, parts of the show was unexceptional and not unusual - having familiar plot points that have been seen elsewhere.

All in all, a refreshing watch with a renowned voice cast. Really enjoyable.

Perfectly crafted mini-series that will bring joy and tears to you! :-). All the voice actors, especially Zoe Saldana and Diego Luna, bring life to the magical fantasy story! But, the warm writing of the characters and their growing relationships with ups and downs makes this truly delightful! :-)

I'm Mexican-Cuban American and the GOURGEUS representation in this show is just beautiful. The visuals are some of the best I've seen from Netflix. The story is incredibly charming. And the character designs are one for the books.

This show is amazing I love the animation and voice acting the fights are beautiful.. well everything about this show is beautiful. Whoever said this show is to violent is tripping.

Oh my god, this is good. The animation is beautiful, the characters are so well writen, the character designs are incredible! Pls pls pls watch this! I haven't finished it yet but so far it's one of the best cartoons on Netflix.

Really liked the overall style, and the animation was top notch. Also the dynamic screen resolution was executed pretty well, although it sometimes felt a little gimmicky. Though the story was good, it did have it's sappy eyerolling moments. And some character dialogue felt a little unnatrual. But all in all, great series.

7/10: unique and well executed, but does have it flaws.

This is one of the best animated cinematic events ever! The story is epic. The artistry is unparalleled. I love that it creatively celebrated Mexican and Latin American culture with such vividness and imagination. I loved that all of the female characters were powerful and the storyline didn't center on them trying to find a prince. They were bravely saving the world. The magic, mysticism, folklore and grandeur in the story will make this last for generations. I'm just blown away by the beautiful graphics and heartwarming storyline. I hope they are already booking the creator, Gutierrez, for more fantastic adventure series. Everyone must see this show... maybe see it two or three times! I hope it hits number one on Netflix immediately. I'm surprised there isn't more merchandise out in celebration of this show... yet. Well done. Amazing work of art!

Lets start off with the good parts, beautiful designs inspired by what looks to be Mayan/Aztec/Mexican culture. (I don't know enough to say which one is the main inspiration). The animation is obviously 3d animated, but is inspired by stop motion animation mainly in the mouths.

The show is good, but I'll have to agree, probably not for young children as they talk a lot about death and human sacrifice. (Which does make their target audience a question mark as they've also made much of it to appeal to younger kids exclusively)

The pacing to me felt like a climax, that's it, just a climax. The entire show starts on a high point and just keeps on trying to outdo itself throughout all 4-5 hours run time.

Think of it like a run on sentence in plot form. "And then and then and then"

Its exhausting to sit through sometimes.

I found myself liking any character who didn't shout their lines all the time, or (god willing) could sit still for a second.

"BUT WHEN YOU TALK LIKE THIS FOR HOURS ABOUT HOW YOURE GOING TO DIE IF YOU DONT KILL SOMEONE AND THERE IS NO TIME FOR YOU TO STOP, MIERDA!( random Spanish word)

<- this is how they speak. (Very few exceptions) the entire run time.

I enjoyed it, and watched the entire thing, but, I dont think I could stand a second watch through (and I'm known to rewatch things incessantly) because there's just something about it, could be the overly complicated designs that have no negative space, at all. The shouting characters using latin, tagalog, Spanish and English interchangeably (none of which make sense in pre colonial mexico) or the plot that only has one mode. But it puts a weird feeling in the back of my head, like an almost headache.

Anyway 7/10. Worth a watch if for nothing else but the visuals, leave younger kids who may not be ready for character deaths and talks of human sacrifice, and the adults might want to avoid if you currently have a headache already.

Weird writing, great graphics, too violent for kids; and WTF Mayans speaking spanish doesnt make sense, I wish there was a show or a movie where natives would look the way they really were.

It's absolutely fantastic. It's visually beautiful and the story is epic. We loved The Book of Life & clearly this is going to be another family favorite.

I like this show, it's pretty funny. Children and adults can enjoy this. The animations are ornate and extremely detailed. Voice actors in this mini series are completely committed to their characters and the fact that it's Spanglish makes this twice as good.

I binged this series to the end! It amazes me how a children's series made me reflect on all the loved ones I've lost and how much I miss them. My elders always told me, "Be kind to people because you never know the battles they face". This show reminded me to practice reverence for others during their life journey, and most importantly to stay encouraged and in good company through the personal battles I face everyday. Many thanks for creating this series.

My kids and I saw it in English and we loved it, but me being Mexican I wanted to watch it with my brother and his kids in Spanish. The dubbing in Spanish was terrible! The characters do not sound Mexican at all! The accents are from other Latin countries (not all) and that was disappointing.

But the art was super fun (we love the book of life) and the story was entertaining. The music not so much I wish they included some pre Hispanic melodies.

Look there are things about this production that are great for all, exciting and are terrific and while I am a fan of the filmmaker and so many names in this cast, this is an Aztec story. It is an Indigenous story set in a time before the Spanish Conquistador invasion. Sadly, I feel a huge opportunity has been missed here. Granted I do not doubt the sincerity of the filmmaker and the cast, yet it's a bit messed up in this time of giving people representation that the cast truly lacks Indigenous representation. Sure, I don't doubt that many latinX cast members have some Native heritage, but the characters are not mere descendants, they are full-blooded. What is wrong with letting people who are half and up to full-blooded Native people voice these characters? If it was a modern day story about people living in Mexico, you could truly celebrate the multi ethnic heritage, albeit the cast is dominated by white European and Afro-Latin representation, yet this is about ancient Aztecs. There are loads of LatinX folks with strong Indigenous heritage and actors of Native heritage in the US that should have gotten these roles and opportunities to be involved behind the camera as well. Think about it, if this were a live action tv show, would the same actors have been cast? No, of course not. It's sad that in this time period of more cultural awareness that this is missed.

And this show made me make an account to do so. Absolutely the best show i have seen in a LONG time, the animations were breathtaking

100/10 if it allowed me to, absolute art.

I love how they followed a Mayan/Aztec story line. Every character is cute, and so much fun. However the purist in me, and my degree in history argues that none of these native peoples would speak spanish at this point in time. That being said, as a more modern marriage of past and present, I love it.

This is good but if it's supposed to be pre-colonial why are they all speaking Spanish? Its a shame that they didn't take more care to make this factually and historically correct. Its a bit insulting towards the. Mesoamerican and other indigenous cultures of South America.

The whole family binge watched it in a Sunday, and we all were captivated by the series.

Originally we put it for our kids to watch a single chapter but my wife and I got interested in the story and we all watched the whole series during the day.