It's the 2010s, and nearly all western animation is of the bug-eyed lolrandom humor variety. Fortunately, some shows (this, Infinity Train) are moving away from that, with other types of art styles, and more focus on storytelling. This show may (I hope) be part of a new trend for the coming decade.
So, a group of teenagers wake up with no memory in a locked room, with a typewriter, and poison gas that soon seeps in. They have to solve a puzzle and use some athleticism to escape the room, and once they do, they find themselves in a strange world. A strange world filled with randomness. It has a large forest, an amusement park, a desert, a graveyard, an icy section, and more. Filled with witches, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, zombies, minotaurs, and more. And if they call for help, a mysterious purple-skinned man shows up to warp them to another random location in the world, out of the present danger but into a new one.
The teens soon discover they each somehow have special skills and even powers. Skills and powers they didn't even realize they had. Powers such as controlling fire, speaking with animals, and powerful martial arts skills.
So, how does the cartoon hold up, and how does it play out?
The tone is mysterious and dangerous, but in a light-hearted way, with a lot of humor. To be honest, a lot of the humor annoyed me. I found a lot of it corny, and one of the main protagonists, Kai, is basically the Butt-Monkey whose misfortune we're intended to laugh at, along with having the usual "wimp" personality often played for humor.
Indeed, all three protagonists start out very flat with the cliches one might expect from such a show. We all know the "leader", "sassy girl" and "wimp who jokes a lot" archetypes. Fortunately, over the course of the show, they evolve beyond that into more fleshed out characters as they learn things about themselves and each other. There's actual character growth. And it sticks, especially since this is not an episodic cartoon, but one where each episode connects directly to the next, making it perfect for binge watching.
Basically, this cartoon is very similar to the kinds of young adult novels that have been making waves, such as The Maze Runner and The Hunger Games - stories about people who have to work together in an environment filled with random traps and dangers. In fact, it's due to these similarities that I feel it is actually less of a bold choice than I at first perceived it to be. It's not so much Netflix making something that goes against the current trend of bug-eyed lolrandom humor cartoons of the 2010s, as it is Netflix recognizing a new avenue for a current trend, and making a kid-oriented animated version of the types of movies kids and teens already watch. Heck, it does have some lolrandom humor to a degree.
Still, it's refreshing to watch, and even with THAT ENDING which I will not spoil, I enjoyed it. Another season, please.
WesternAnimation YA novels in kid-friendly animated form
It's the 2010s, and nearly all western animation is of the bug-eyed lolrandom humor variety. Fortunately, some shows (this, Infinity Train) are moving away from that, with other types of art styles, and more focus on storytelling. This show may (I hope) be part of a new trend for the coming decade.
So, a group of teenagers wake up with no memory in a locked room, with a typewriter, and poison gas that soon seeps in. They have to solve a puzzle and use some athleticism to escape the room, and once they do, they find themselves in a strange world. A strange world filled with randomness. It has a large forest, an amusement park, a desert, a graveyard, an icy section, and more. Filled with witches, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, zombies, minotaurs, and more. And if they call for help, a mysterious purple-skinned man shows up to warp them to another random location in the world, out of the present danger but into a new one.
The teens soon discover they each somehow have special skills and even powers. Skills and powers they didn't even realize they had. Powers such as controlling fire, speaking with animals, and powerful martial arts skills.
So, how does the cartoon hold up, and how does it play out?
The tone is mysterious and dangerous, but in a light-hearted way, with a lot of humor. To be honest, a lot of the humor annoyed me. I found a lot of it corny, and one of the main protagonists, Kai, is basically the Butt-Monkey whose misfortune we're intended to laugh at, along with having the usual "wimp" personality often played for humor.
Indeed, all three protagonists start out very flat with the cliches one might expect from such a show. We all know the "leader", "sassy girl" and "wimp who jokes a lot" archetypes. Fortunately, over the course of the show, they evolve beyond that into more fleshed out characters as they learn things about themselves and each other. There's actual character growth. And it sticks, especially since this is not an episodic cartoon, but one where each episode connects directly to the next, making it perfect for binge watching.
Basically, this cartoon is very similar to the kinds of young adult novels that have been making waves, such as The Maze Runner and The Hunger Games - stories about people who have to work together in an environment filled with random traps and dangers. In fact, it's due to these similarities that I feel it is actually less of a bold choice than I at first perceived it to be. It's not so much Netflix making something that goes against the current trend of bug-eyed lolrandom humor cartoons of the 2010s, as it is Netflix recognizing a new avenue for a current trend, and making a kid-oriented animated version of the types of movies kids and teens already watch. Heck, it does have some lolrandom humor to a degree.
Still, it's refreshing to watch, and even with THAT ENDING which I will not spoil, I enjoyed it. Another season, please.