When discussing adapting video games into either movies or television, it is unavoidable to bring up the past and how most adaptations of these are either bad or downright awful. This is mainly a trend when it comes to films as there really haven't been many tv shows based on video games. Because of that, when I heard that Netflix was producing an animated Castlevania show, I can't say that I had overly high expectations. For anyone who has never played a Castlevania game (no judging), it is a games series that was at its highest in popularity from the late 80s to the mid 90s that follows a member of the Belmont family, renown for their vampire hunting, as they attempt to kill the Prince of Darkness himself, Dracula. It's a great idea for a fantasy movie or show that I had always hoped would be adapted at some point. Recently, however, it became clear that in this state of cinema, Castlevania wouldn't succeed. Last year saw the failure of four highly anticipated video game adaptations in Warcraft, Assassin's Creed, The Angry Birds Movie, and Ratchet & Clank. Honestly, it was starting to look like we would never see a quality video game adaptation on the big screen. 2016 was supposed to be the year that finally broke the video game curse, but instead just added fuel to the ever-growing fire. While Castlevania might not be the big screen smash hit to break this curse, it is a small screen wonder that gives a little hope for the future of these adaptations.
So what is it that makes this show so good? I could drone on and on about good editing and solid storytelling, but instead I'm going to focus on the the big strength of the show that I haven't seen from a single video game adaptation yet: solid, well-rounded characters. It is undeniable how great the writers and voice actors did at crafting these beloved characters, making them three dimensional and quite likable. Trevor Belmont, our main hero, is a character that can be done very wrong very fast by making him pompous, melodramatic, or moody. Thankfully, he is a strong central lead to the series that the audience wants to see succeed. The real scene stealer, however, is Dracula himself. Unlike Belmont, we already know that Dracula can be done well, and that is where his problem begins. Dracula has had many iconic performances in film, especially from the likes of Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee, and Gary Oldman. How then can this Dracula stand out in an already crowded room? To make matters more complicated, he's animated, severely limiting any sort of body performance an actor could do. Additionally, we have also seen this character done horribly wrong. Look no further than Blade Trinity or Van Helsing to name a few. What makes this Dracula so good, though, is how sympathetic he is. His reasons for becoming the absolute evil he will become make sense given his predicaments. In fact, I would almost argue that I wanted to see him succeed to at least a certain point in his quest for revenge and justice. I've always had a soft spot for the character of Dracula, but I can't say I've ever actually seen his point of view and agreed with what he was trying to do. Hence, this show has actually given me a strength of Dracula I can't say I've ever seen before.
The heart and soul that was put into this show is quite obvious, which is great. Most adaptations feel like a shameless cash grab to capitalize off of an already existing audience. In fact, it isn't uncommon for a video game movie to have very little to do with the actual game that it is adapting. While these things may not be obvious to those watching with no experience playing the games, I do feel that the emptiness beneath the material is noticeable to anyone watching one of these adaptations. With this show, Castlevania was able to find two valuable traits in its producers and writers that are hard to come by: fandom and talent. It's easy to find fans that have no filmmaking talent or talented filmmakers who have no fandom, so that makes finding that perfect hybrid rare but extremely valuable. It is clear that Netflix has found this hybrid to put together this show that will hopefully begin to reverse the curse that has existed since the early 1990s.
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