WondLa

Based on the series of books from Tony DiTerlizzi, WondLa follows Eva (Jeanine Mason), a young girl raised in an underground bunker by Muthr (Teri Hatcher), her robotic caretaker. Eva is keen to leave her bunker and meet other humans on the surface, but when her home is attacked by a mysterious intruder on her 16^th birthday, Eva discovers that Earth isn’t what she expected it to be – in fact, it’s no longer called “Earth” at all.  Soon accompanied by the cantankerous navigator Rovender (Gary Anthony Williams) and the giant tardigrade-like Otto (Brad Garrett), Eva and Muthr must traverse the familiar-yet-unfamiliar world of “Orbona” to find the last remnants of humanity.

The first season, which covers the events of the first novel in the trilogy, moves at a bit of a clip to cover a book’s worth of narrative ground over seven episodes. Still, even at this brisk pace, it’s a fun enough journey, doing a great job at creating a vibrant, compelling world – though it could have benefited from some more space to stretch its narrative legs.

The characters are perhaps a bit archetypal – the core cast consisting of a “rebellious teenager”, “concerned mother”, “cranky old-timer with a heart of gold” and “mascot animal” – but these archetypes help to keep the story more digestible for younger audiences and are done well enough here, with entertaining enough dynamics to keep proceedings interesting.

Visually, the show borrows heavily from DiTerlizzi’s original illustrations, smoothing things out here and there for animation’s sake but retaining the source material’s spirit and atmosphere. The only real issues with the visuals are that Eva’s new design reads more as a woman in her 20s than as the teenager she’s written as, which gets in the way of getting a read on her as a character, and that Otto – tragically – isn’t nearly as cute in the show as he is in the books.

The second project from Skydance Animation, and the studio’s first television series, WondLa has a few issues with characterisation and pacing that can be chalked up to being such an early instalment in the studio’s oeuvre. Despite these teething problems, there’s also a lot to like in the series’s first season and a lot of potential, with strong visuals and engaging character work to keep young audiences hooked for at least two more seasons (hopefully).

Umar Ali

WondLa is released on Apple TV+ on 28^th June 2024.

Watch the trailer for WondLa here: