The Cuphead Show Season 1 will debut on Netflix on Feb. 18, 2022.
The Cuphead Show is a hilarious, surreal, chaotic cartoon that adapts the fan-favorite video game by mixing classic animation techniques with modern timing and humor. Though fans of Cuphead might miss the iconic finger guns from the game and may wish for a more faithful adaptation of the story, the show still provides one hell of a good time, with a focus on memorable characters, slapstick scenarios, and gorgeous animation. This cartoon proves Arcane was no fluke, and Netflix is in the business of making the video game adaptations we always dreamed of.
Adapting the award-winning video game Cuphead and inspired by 1930s rubber hose animation, including the works of the Fleischer brothers and Silly Symphonies, The Cuphead Show takes place in the magical Inkwell Island and follows brothers Cuphead (Tru Valentino) and Mugman (Frank T. Todaro) as they get into increasingly sillier and dangerous adventures.
Comprising 12 episodes of around 11 minutes each, The Cuphead Show is a bit of an anomaly in today's streaming animation landscape. The episodes are completely standalone, focusing on short, wacky misadventures that Cuphead and Mugman get into while procrastinating from their chores around the house. The only exception is a two-parter episode that follows the one overarching story of the season: Cuphead accidentally owing his soul to the Devil (you read that right, the Devil is an actual character here, and he is hysterical). Though there isn’t much serialization, and therefore not much of a need or an incentive to binge the show in one sitting, the fun scenarios and the believable and memorable banter between the brothers make it quite easy to keep watching the next episode.
On that note, though The Cuphead Show has the aesthetics of a depression-era cartoon, rest assured that it’s not all gloom and doom. Sure, there is some era-appropriate macabre imagery — you can't really escape it when the main villain is the Devil himself — but the humor and comedic timing of the animated series is much more modern. Exaggerated facial expressions, slapstick humor, and surreal characters make this more of an Animaniacs-like cartoon, one with one foot in the present and one firmly in the past. Take, for instance, an episode devoted to Cuphead and Mugman having to care for a baby bottle that was dropped on their doorstep, before realizing the baby is a maniac who loves to cause them pain and destruction, that plays just like the opening of Who Framed Roger Rabbit with Baby Herman, but with fewer lewd jokes.
Of course, the big draw of The Cuphead Show is its animation, and luckily the cartoon delivers on that front. Though a bit polished compared to the game, this is still an awe-inspiring show, mixing old techniques with new technology and offering animation-craft fans plenty of eye candy and references to rival an MCU film. It features everything from a rotoscope-looking dance number that calls back the iconic 1932 Betty Boop cartoon Minnie the Moocher, to an entire episode paying homage to Silly Symphony's The Skeleton Dance, all pieced together with fantasmagorical imagery and stereoscopic shots using live-action miniatures with 2D animated characters to create an eerie atmosphere.
Of course, some of the wackiness of those '30s cartoons is dialed down a bit in order to appeal to mass audiences, but the spirit of the "rubber hose" style of animation is very much present in the way the characters emote with noodle limbs. Whether you're a fan of Fleischer cartoons, or even shows inspired by them like Ren & Stimpy, Animaniacs, or SpongeBob, The Cuphead Show is a love letter to the animation medium — and if you're entirely new to the genre, it still offers plenty of laughs, memorable characters, and great visuals.
And while you may come to The Cuphead Show for the animation, it’s the characters that make the show worth binging, with an ensemble of relatable, likable, despicable, and outright memorable players making the Inkwell Islands a place worth exploring. The brotherly relationship between Cuphead and Mugman is a delight to watch, as they clearly care for each other, but also care so much about having fun that they may leave each other to lose their soul to the devil while getting distracted by carnival games.
The season also introduces Ms. Chalice, a character set to appear in the next DLC for the game, and she’s already making her mark as a perfect foil for the brothers. But the best character by far is Elder Kettle (Joe Hanna), the father figure who loves his boys but cannot get a single moment of peace in between all the chaos and mayhem. The voice acting for the show is pitch perfect, with Todaro and Valentino capturing the essence and energy of their characters and Hanna adding just the right amount of seriousness to these otherwise delightfully silly misadventures.
from IGN Reviews https://ift.tt/aRWq6B7
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