Indeed, Maya and the Three may be structured like a fantasy trilogy like Lord of the Rings, but it's formatted like a miniseries, with every three episodes comprising their own mini-movie, complete with a teaser for the next arc. The story follows plenty of familiar fantasy tropes, with the forming of the fellowship guiding the first act, but it helps that Gutiérrez gives each character a complex and relatable backstory that makes us care for them as they go to literal Hell and back. And so she embarks on a quest to find three mighty warriors from across the lands in order to defeat the gods and save humankind before it's too late.
Zoe Saldana voices Maya, a Tecan warrior princess about to be sacrificed to the God of War on her quinceañera, until she decides to take destiny into her own hands and rewrite the prophecy. Even after nine episodes and four-and-a-half hours, there simply isn't enough time to take in the world of Maya. Each of the four lands is visually distinct, vibrant and full of details in ways few live-action blockbusters are, mixing indigenous art with modern sensibilities to create a world that is rooted in history and exudes culture, but still feels new and fantastical. Gutiérrez makes his Mesoamerican world a feast for the eyeballs. There's the Aztec-inspired kingdom of Teca, the magical and Caribbean-like Luna Island (literally a floating city on a moon), the Jungle Lands with their pyramids inspired by the Mayans, and the fearsome Golden Mountains, a clear reference to the Incan capital of Machu Picchu. Set in a time of gods and prophecies, the world is divided between four Meriamerican lands. Don't be mistaken by the vibrant animation and the kid-oriented rating, as there is enough thrilling action, shocking deaths, mature subjects, and references to everything from anime to Kurosawa to satisfy even hardcore genre fans.
The result is an animated fantasy epic that is both familiar and fresh. The Netflix animated event Maya and the Three imagines the camera going south to show what is happening at the same time in Mesoamerica, telling a similar story of warriors, princesses, gods, and the end of the world, but through a lens that we haven't seen before at this scale. Between Lord of the Ringsand Game of Thrones, fantasy has become a genre synonymous with European folklore, medieval castles, and white knights.
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