Maya and the Three
Created by Jorge R. Gutiérrez
Written by Jorge R. Gutiérrez
Directed by Jorge R. Gutiérrez
Country of origin Mexico
Original languages Spanish
English
No. of episodes 9 Running time 26-44 minutes
Production Producers Jeff Bell, Phyllis Laing, Ken Zorniak
Production companies Tangent Animation, Mexopolis, Maya Entertainment
Distributor Netflix Netflix Animation
Voices:
Zoe Saldaña as Princess May
Gabriel Iglesias as Picchu
Diego Luna as Zatz, the Prince of Bats
Gael García Bernal as the Jaguar Brothers
Rita Moreno as Ah Puch
Alfred Molina as Lord Mictlan, the God of War
Allen Maldonado as Rico
Stephanie Beatriz as Chimi
Kate del Castillo as Lady Micte, the Goddess of Death
Danny Trejo as Cabrakan, the God of Earthquakes
Cheech Marin as Hura & Can, the Gods of Wind & Storms
Rosie Perez as Cipactli, the Goddess of Alligators
Queen Latifah as Gran Bruja
Wyclef Jean as Gran Brujo
Isabela Merced as the Widow Queen
Chelsea Rendon as Acat, the Goddess of Tattoos
Joaquín Cosío as Camazotz, the God of Bats
Carlos Alazraqui as Chivo, the God of Dark Magic
Eric Bauza as Vucub, the God of Jungle Animals
Grey Griffin as Xtabay, the Goddess of Illusions
Jorge R. Gutiérrez as King Teca, Maya’s father
Sandra Equihua as Queen Teca, Maya’s mother
Maya and the Three is a cartoon dealing with Meso-American culture. So why was the dialogue scattered with Spanish phrases? Doesn’t Meso-American mean “before the Spanish showed up and genocided everyone’s ass?” It struck me as a bit weird, and undermined the plausibility. But then I noticed that it was a Mexican production, originally done in Spanish and reworked in English. OK, so maybe I was overthinking this. There wasn’t a whole lot of English around in Meso-America, either. Tagalog and Latin show up in this before it’s over, so there’s no point in getting het up over linguistic fallacies.
The key word in the quibbling above is “Mexican.” Despite being marketed as a children’s cartoon, it is embued with a Latino sensibility that creates a much deeper and richer tale then one might expect to find in such fare. Jorge R. Gutiérrez wrote and produced Maya, and brought a deep knowledge of Mesoamerican styles and sensibilities to the fore.
The character and costume design in this animated series is mind-blowing. Much of the face masks and armour may be rendered outlandishly (King Teca eats, drinks and sleeps, and apparently reproduces in roughly 2500 kilograms of armour) but are, in fact, true to the carvings and illustrations that have survived from that era.
The mythology, viewed from my admittedly limited knowledge, seems true to its source. The story leads to a great battle between humans and gods, and most of them are based on figures from those ancient myths.
While the faces of the characters were a bit cartoonish, the motion and staging was as good as anything I’ve ever seen, and that includes the best that Pixar and China have to offer. I was astonished to learn the entire series had been rendered on Blender, a free, open-source program that can be run on all major OSes. When I last looked at it, well over ten years ago, it was a kind of a glorified animated gif program. It has come a long, long way!
Kids on a quest to save the world isn’t exactly a new plotline in animated series, but the richness of detail, the actual drama of the quest, and the personalities of the questors makes all the difference between hum-drum anime and something spectacular, like Avatar. Maya and the Three is very solidly spectacular, amazing to watch, and with a thunderous climax that captures the legendary storytellings of past great ancient cultures.
Now on Netflix.