So, I think my latest rabbit hole is going to be the independent animated series and pilots that have been popping up with increasing frequency on Youtube. After Vivienne Medrano's pilot for "Hazbin Hotel" made waves in 2019, spawning two different series, other animated projects have started getting more traction. Many of these are truly independent crowdfunded projects, but some are coming up through smaller animation outfits like Glitch Studios and (the possibly defunct?) Rooster Teeth that have been doing web animation for a while now.
In general I'm delighted that this is happening. While animation for adults has gained a foothold in mainstream American culture, the audience for it has definitely been underserved. All of these new projects are aimed at young adult sensibilities, often with a lot of explicit violence and adult language. I'm sure this isn't true of all the creators involved, but it often feels like I'm watching the collective backlash to decades of animation being gatekept by fussy network executives who either want super-safe pablum or shows to sell toys and other merchandise. Sure, we have "South Park" and "Rick and Morty," but this new batch skews younger, more anarchic, and definitely more Internet savvy.
I'm going to put down a few quick thoughts on the shows I've watched recently. "Hazbin Hotel" and "Helluva Boss" have already been covered in prior posts.
"Long Gone Gulch," by Zach Bellissimo and Tara Billinger - Most of the people involved with this pilot previously worked in the animation industry for shows on Disney or Cartoon Network. You can definitely tell by the animation quality and the actors involved. There's a lot of cartoon violence, but this is fairly family friendly, and I'm not surprised that this was almost picked up by a studio until COVID ruined everyone's plans. As a short, it's a fun watch, and the creators do a good job of establishing the main characters and the nutty frontier town that they inhabit.
"Murder Drones," created by Liam Vickers and Glitch Studios - There's two seasons of this, but I stopped after the pilot. I don't find this visually appealing at all, and the dialogue is very shrieky and sarcastic. I like the premise of a world where the humans all died out and a bunch of angry chibi robots remained to form their own society, but the overreliance on edgy humor and very thin characters is not doing it for me. The CGI animation is also pretty rudimentary and just not interesting to look at. I can barely even tell the robot characters apart.
"The Amazing Digital Circus," created by Gooseworx and Glitch Studios. I saw some of the press describe this as an adaptation of Harlan Ellison's "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream," which they wouldn't have gotten away with if Ellison were still alive. The existential nightmare with circus graphics is more interesting than "Murder Drones," but again, this is a show that's focused on being edgy and dark instead of doing anything interesting with its characters or storytelling. Will Ponmi ever escape the circus? So far I don't know enough about Ponmi to care.
"Lackadaisy," created by Tracy Butler and Fable Siegel - I remember stumbling across Butler's characters regularly on Deviant Art many years ago, and it's wonderful to see them in animated form. This is the best looking pilot out of the ones I've seen, when it comes to the character designs and animation. Anthropomorphized cats are nothing new, but the "Lackadaisy" gang are bursting with personality. I don't know if the story's quite there yet, but the major characters and Prohibition-era setting are definitely making a good case for additional episodes.
"Ramshackle," created by Zeddyzi - Language is the most adult element here. Otherwise, the characters and story are pretty mainstream friendly. The short seems self-contained, but I could definitely go for more adventures with the street rat trio and the deeply troubled, socially bifurcated town that they inhabit. The humor is absurd and silly, the socially conscious themes are compelling, and I really like the designs and animation. There's an old-timey, "Little Rascals" vibe combined with a more modern sense of anarchy that really works.
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