Voltron: Legendary Defender

Being made of cats, the most powerful weapon in the galaxy has no need of
opposable thumbs.

Another Netflix original spectacular, Voltron: Legendary Defender is a reboot of the classic Voltron series, about five young heroes who pilot robot lions that combine into a giant robot to fight aliens. I don't know much about the original beyond that, so this is all new to me.

Season 1 introduces us to our five pilots. First a trio of cadets in the Galaxy Garrison: Lance is a hotshot, wannabe fighter pilot; Hunk a big, affable engineer; and Pidge a young technical prodigy and just really, really obviously a girl (to the point that I was quite confused when Lance and Hunk called her 'him'.) They are joined by former star cadet Keith, and legendary pilot Shiro, who went missing along with Pidge's father and brother some years earlier. Together they find the blue lion, which takes them to the Castle of the Five Lions to meet Princess Allura and her adviser Coran, the last survivors of a civilisation that used the great warrior Voltron in battle against the Galra Empire 10,000 years ago.

Clockwise from left: Hunk, Coran, Allura, Lance, Keith, Shiro and Pidge.

The five humans search for the remaining lions and become the Paladins, champions of order and decency. They face a couple of Galra monsters while the castle is repaired so it can fly, and then take the fight to the enemy. They liberate a Balmera - a living planetoid and source of vital energy crystals - from Galra miners, and infiltrate a shipyard, but when Allura is captured they have to risk everything on a rescue mission.

Coming from some of the creators of Avatar: The Legend of Korra, Voltron: Legendary Defender is both a love letter to the action cartoons of my youth, and a vastly superior interpretation of those same cartoons. In addition to a slick combination of hand-drawn and computer generated animation, it features strong - if not always subtle - characterisation and action scenes which effectively move beyond the standard model of 'fight as lions, fight as Voltron, sword and win.' The season has a downer cliffhanger ending, and I hope there will be more, although presumably not for a year or so. Curse this watching stuff close to the time of release!

Since they all fly, I did wonder why the Black Lion is the only one with wings, but it turns out they form Voltron's shield.