By Travis Johnson
Master fantasist* Guillermo del Toro smashes the teen angst of Spider-Man with the hidden world/urban magic vibe or pretty much his entire body of work and has come up with Trollhunters, a new animated series due to hit Netflix on December 23.
When ordinary teenager Jim Lake Jr. stumbles upon a mystical amulet on his way to school one morning, he inadvertently discovers an extraordinary secret civilization of mighty trolls beneath his small town of Arcadia. Strong-willed and seeking adventure but wholly unprepared for the responsibilities thrust upon him, Jim is forced to take on the exalted mantle of Trollhunter, sworn to protect the good trolls from powerful enemies bent on revenge. The first human ever to hold the honor, Jim abruptly goes from fighting his way through the daily mayhem of high school to joining a war that has raged for centuries, a conflict that now threatens all of mankind and troll-kind alike.
The late Anton Yelchin voices our hero Jim, while that is the instantly recognisable Kelsey Grammer pulling Obi-Wan duties as the benign mentor troll Bular. And yes, of course, it goes without saying that Ron Perlman is in the mix, because this is a GDT joint, after all.
The fairly hoary “chosen one” narrative model aside (And hopefully that’ll be upended in the course of the series) this looks like a huge bit of fantasy-flavoured family fun.
*You may quibble, but it’s true.
