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‘The Wingfeather Saga’ Season 1 Sings a Wondrous Finale

Thanks to sincere storytelling and positive changes from text to screen, Angel Studios’ animated fantasy sings with success.
on Mar 13, 2023 · No comments

Season One of Angel Studios’ The Wingfeather Saga has reached its fiery conclusion.

Based on Andrew Peterson’s book series by the same name, this season adapts the events of the first Wingfeather book, On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness. (See our book review.)1

How my young son loved the show

Watching the series with my six-year-old boy, who has not yet read the book, is a hoot. He has fresher investment in the characters than I do.

Whereas I have twice-fold impressions of the characters and the story and can look forward to specific scenes (several of which the finale contained), he simply takes the story as it comes.

Sometimes my son has serious questions:

  • Is this a dangerous story? (His reason for asking: “Because they are in danger a lot. Like a whole episode.”)
  • Why are there Fangs?
  • Why did they make the story this way?

Other times, he makes typically silly statements, like wanting a horned hound for a pet.

PODCAST - Wingfeather Animators

In Fantastical Truth episode 146. How Did Animators Adapt The Wingfeather Saga For Streaming TV?, CG artist Keith Lango takes us behind the studio scenes to explore how artists and animators brought Andrew Peterson’s fantasy to life.

At first my son responded to the show with a begrudging acceptance that Dad was choosing the evening’s entertainment. Later, every time we caught up and had to wait for more episodes, he was eager to know what came next.

How I loved the show, including many changes

I’ve enjoyed Andrew Peterson’s book and audiobook recording. So I was pleased from the start with the show’s ability to capture environment, character, and emotion, sometimes in very simple ways. The show, for example, doesn’t hammer down the idea of Podo disliking Peet, in way the book does. Instead the show largely gives us Podo’s looks and grunts to convey his feelings.

While the show makes many changes to the first book’s plot to accommodate the visual medium and compress the story into six half-hour episodes, the TV series keeps the heart of On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness.

For fans of the books, or new visitors to Aerwiar wondering if the show is worth watching: now’s the time to binge (or better yet, savor) the whole season.

It’s quite the ride, and there’s more to come with Season Two!

Elijah David lives and works in the Chattanooga area. He spends far too many nights reading when he should be sleeping and frequently finds his bookshelves have shrunk overnight. He is the author of Albion Academy, the first book in the Albion Quartet, and Paper and Thorns, the first novella in the Princes Never Prosper series. Though his only magical talent is putting pen to paper, Elijah believes magic lurks around every corner, if you only know how to look for it. He finds great stories as a Lorehaven Review Team reader. Meanwhile, he and his wife stay busy raising two small Hobbits and a calico cat.

What say you?