Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Bravest Knight’ On Hulu, Where A Not-Yet Knight Gets Lessons From Her Father (And Her Other Father)

When the new Hulu animated series The Bravest Knight was announced, it got a lot of publicity because the main character is in a same-sex relationship. But focusing on that would make you miss what the series is really about: The journey of a little boy from a pumpkin farm to protecting his kingdom as Sir Cedric. Read on for more about this show…

THE BRAVEST KNIGHT: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A kid in a red hood skips along the rocks in a river using a staff to help. When the kid is called home, we see that she’s a little girl named Nia (Storm Reid).

The Gist: Nia is a Not-Yet Knight, studying to be a knight under the tutelage of her father, Sir Cedric (T.R. Knight). He wants to teach her how to rescue someone out of a tall tower; the person, in this case, is Nia’s papa, Prince Andrew (Wilson Cruz). The lesson is to not just grab any old rope that’s thrown down to her, because you don’t know who is in that tower waiting for you. To give her an example, he tells a story from his time as a Not-Yet Knight.

After leaving his pumpkin farm, little Cedric (Chance Hurstfield) was in his second year of training, when an evil dragon let all the kingdom’s villains out of fairy jail. He’s determined to do his part, and goes down the darker of two paths. Along the way, he meets a troll named Grunt (Bobby Moynihan); he’s hiding under a fallen tree because the bridge he used to live under was taken over by a larger, meaner troll. He’s been wandering around for days and has lost his way, so Cedric volunteers to help him find his bridge again.

As they wander, they find a tower where they hear what they think is a girl calling for help. They start to go up the hair rope that’s sent down, and they find out too late that it’s a trap set by Trulla the witch (Donna Murphy) to ensnare overeager Not-Yet Knights. Cedric and Grunt join the other kids in the pit, and they all try to figure out a way to capture Trulla and get out of the pit.

Our Take: This wonderful new kids series is based on The Bravest Knight Who Ever Lived book series by Daniel Errico. He is also the executive producer of the series, which carries on the world he created in the books. The 12-minute episodes are generally structured the same way: Nia is being a pretty aggressive Not-Yet Knight, and Sir Cedric slows her down long enough to tell her a story about his journey to defeat the dragon and re-capture the villains.

The series is remarkable for a couple of reasons. The stories of Not-Yet Knight Cedric’s journey is serialized, so at the end of the first episode, they are told where they might find Grunt’s bridge, which takes them to a jousting tournament in episode 2, where they meet another troll named Susie (Rebecca Husain) and a tiny but expert jouster named Eyame The Green-Leaf (Reid). The idea is that Cedric and Grunt will likely encounter all of the people they meet more than once during their journey, and they will all help each other not only find Grunt’s bridge but defeat the dragon, as well.

The other remarkable thing is that Cedric is a heroic knight who is gay, not a gay character who is a heroic knight. The fact that Nia has two dads is just taken as a matter of fact. In fact, the episodes mostly revolve around Cedric’s stories as a Not-Yet Knight, about using his smarts as much as his physical skills, rather than what he and his family (which includes his buddy Grunt) are doing now. Will we see more of Nia and Prince Andrew as the season goes on? Who knows? But the adventures of little Cedric and Grunt are interesting enough to sustain the entire series.

What Age Group Is This For?: There’s some minor knight-related cartoon violence, but this show is completely appropriate for preschoolers and above, especially because it teaches about friendship, sharing the credit, teamwork and problem solving.

Parting Shot: After Nia climbs up the ladder she built while her dad was telling the story, she cuts off the rope her dad was climbing up. “Trust no one!” Grunt rolls in saying, “I don’t think she got the right lesson.” Sir Cedric replies. “She’ll get there. She has to.” Oooh…. foreshadowing!

Sleeper Star: This is a good place to say that future episodes will include the voices of RuPaul, Christine Baranski, Wanda Sykes, Teri Polo, Steven Weber, AJ McLean, Dot-Marie Jones and Maz Jobrani (who is in episode 2).

Most Pilot-y Line: Nothing we could see.

Our Call: STREAM IT. The Bravest Knight is one of those shows that your preschooler will love, and you’ll watch right along with them to follow the story of Cedric’s journey to becoming a full-fledged knight.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.

Stream The Bravest Knight on Hulu