So I started watching the DOTA Netflix show yesterday, and I was very impressed by the quality of the animation, story and characters. I was never much into DOTA, yet this is still managed to hook me. Studio Mir (known for their work on Legend of Korra and Voltron: Legendary Defender), did a great job with the character designs and surprisingly adult tone of the story, which, in my opinion, greatly improved on the source material. The only thing I didn’t really like was the animation of certain creatures (that were done in 3D).
On that note, I think Blizzard could learn a lot from this show to make something of their own, specially since their first attempt into bringing Warcraft into other media didn’t go very well. This is something I’ve always told friends of mine: Warcraft would work as an animated series, not a live action movie. The series has dozens of complex storylines that intertwine, and a plethora of iconic characters with recognizable voices.
Blizzard always had some of the best animators in the business, with cinematics that rival and even surpass the level of polish and quality seen from big animation studios such as Pixar and DreamWorks. If they really wanted, they could pitch a Warcraft animated show in partnership with Netflix or whichever other streaming platform and give us the stories of Thrall, Arthas, Jaina and many other iconic characters in the right way.