Anyone who calls themselves a fan of animation, particularly television animation, should know of the name "Craig McCracken". He, along with the likes of Genndy Tartakovsky, Lauren Faust, Butch Hartman, Rob Renzetti, and Seth MacFarlane, helped shape an entire generation of cartoons fans on the small screen. He's best known for creating shows such as The Powerpuff Girls, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, and Wander Over Yonder. He has since taken his talents elsewhere to the streaming world with the help of Netflix, with his new show, Kid Cosmic.
Kid Cosmic is probably yet another one of my favourite Netflix animated shows, alongside Hilda, Castlevania, Love, Death + Robots, and Green Eggs and Ham. While I may not necessarily held it in the same regard as those aforementioned shows, it doesn't mean what we have here isn't already great as is. This show has pretty much everything requires to make an animated show successful. A lovable cast of characters, an emotionally satisfying story and character arcs, clever writing and comedy, resonant and effective themes, and great animation.
Let's start off with the characters. You have Kid, who is quite a handful. I won't lie, in the first couple of episodes, Kid was a mildly annoying character. His energetic and often arrogant and entitled behaviour and how much he antagonises certain characters could often be grating. But at the same time, the show knows how far to pull it back, and still give Kid moments of development and nuance to his demeanor. So while you will need a certain degree of patience with his character, it isn't to the point where he's downright likeable or unsympathetic. At the end of the day, he's just a kid who wants to prove himself, and the show is empathetic and understanding of his struggles, so in turn, we are too. Around the end of the first half of the show, you start to really care and empathise with Kid, and you want to root for him to prove his worth. He slowly matures over the course of the show, and becomes more and more endearing and empathetic as the show goes on, even as early as the first episode, as we're given glimpses into why he is the way he is. Overall, he's a great protagonist that you can really get behind, even with all the annoyances that he starts out with, because without them, his arc wouldn't be nearly as effective.
You also have the side characters, like Jo, Rosa, Papa G, Tuna Sandwich, and Stuck Chuck. All of them are really likeable and well-developed in their own right. They each have distinct and memorable personalities with you can connect with. My favourite of which is Rosa, who is just downright adorable and the animation gives her a lot of appeal and quirkiness that you'd totally expect from a toddler. She's just an absolute bundle and joy and energy that you can't help but love. My least favourite character of the group is Tuna Sandwich, mostly because most of his character is just him meowing whenever he sees the future, and can't really interact with the rest if the cast in a way that would be super fun or interesting. That is, until he actually finds his voice with the device that Chuck gives him. When he gets it, he turns into a character that really becomes his own, and it was something that was really welcomed and gave his character a new dimension. There are other characters too that serve their own purpose, and they're effective and fun in what they're used for, but in the end, it's the main set of characters that we follow throughout the majority of the series that are the standouts.
The humour and writing in general is just great. There is a surprising amount of dark and edgy jokes that I'm kinda shocked that the show was able to get away with, especially for a kid's show in this day and age. The way the show is able to juggle tones in that respect is very admirable and skillful in that respect. One joke in particular is this extremely dark punchline revolving around Rosa where she throws space monkeys out into orbit and finds them "sleeping", but Papa G comforts her by telling her that they are indeed sleeping, creating a scene that's not only hilarious in how dark it is, but also wholesome and sweet and how it portrays Rosa and Papa G as characters, all in just a few seconds. This is extremely clever and thoughtful writing that you wouldn't see in many other shows of this kind. There's also a joke with a shot showing Tuna Sandwich walking on the road all the way to edge of the screen that lasts at least over a minute. That's some Andy Kaufman trolling right there, and it's so hilarious how long the scene drags out with this one single shot. You'd have to have a lot of faith and confidence to pull a joke like that off, and it certainly wasn't wasted. Beyond that, the comedy of this show is something truly special, and is something that adults will definitely appreciate in how clever and witty and it often is.
The action is also something that's really worth commending. While the moment-to-moment is fast-paces and exciting on it's own, it's really the vast amount of creative and interesting ways the characters use their powers that really sell the action, and even to their development as characters too. A particular standout is with Kid, where he steals all the rings to take on the alien invaders called in by Chuck, and seriously struggles with how much power he has. But this also allows for a wide amount of creativity and variety in how he handles these powers, which is also telling of his development not only as a hero, but as a character. The actions constantly feels engaging and unpredictable as a result of the amount of ways these powers are used by the characters, and I really gotta give credit to the people who came up with and storyboarded all these different scenarios.
The animation and voice acting are also worthy of note. The animation itself has this stilted, choppy quality that isn't anything like Foster's or Wander, but as a result, it creates something that feels distinct and unique, and gives the world a sense of character and believability that you wouldn't get otherwise with smoother animation, while also paying tribute to the comics it was inspired by. It's kinda like Into the Spider-Verse in that sense. The voice acting has a lot of personality, and each voice actor really gives their characters a memorable performance and identity. They're part of the reason these characters are as good as they are.
That's pretty much the gist of why this show is so good in the first place. There's orher aspects to consider too, such as the soundtrack, the lovely colour palette, the more serialised approach to storytelling compared to McCracken's other works, the little details with the animation, and so on, but that's as far as I'm willing to divulge into with this series. Bottom line - Kid Cosmic is a great, well done effort by McCracken and his team. It's a show filled with a heart, passion, energy, and an odd sense of wholesomeness that you wouldn't see the likes of in other shows like Hilda or Green Eggs and Ham. It's a wholesomeness of it's own breed, that's brought out by it's innocent and resonant themes of what it means to be a hero, but most importantly, the comradery and almost family-like relationship the five characters have with each other. It's almost like Guardians of the Galaxy in that way.
Anyway, just go watch it. McCracken and his team deserve at least that much. This show deserves a long and prosperous future, and I have faith that Season 2 will be just as good, if not better than last season, especially with the interesting shift in perspective over to Jo, which I can see giving this show a long life-span if they decide to give each main character of the cast their own season to develop them, which would definitely be really cool.
Kid Cosmic is probably yet another one of my favourite Netflix animated shows, alongside Hilda, Castlevania, Love, Death + Robots, and Green Eggs and Ham. While I may not necessarily held it in the same regard as those aforementioned shows, it doesn't mean what we have here isn't already great as is. This show has pretty much everything requires to make an animated show successful. A lovable cast of characters, an emotionally satisfying story and character arcs, clever writing and comedy, resonant and effective themes, and great animation.
Let's start off with the characters. You have Kid, who is quite a handful. I won't lie, in the first couple of episodes, Kid was a mildly annoying character. His energetic and often arrogant and entitled behaviour and how much he antagonises certain characters could often be grating. But at the same time, the show knows how far to pull it back, and still give Kid moments of development and nuance to his demeanor. So while you will need a certain degree of patience with his character, it isn't to the point where he's downright likeable or unsympathetic. At the end of the day, he's just a kid who wants to prove himself, and the show is empathetic and understanding of his struggles, so in turn, we are too. Around the end of the first half of the show, you start to really care and empathise with Kid, and you want to root for him to prove his worth. He slowly matures over the course of the show, and becomes more and more endearing and empathetic as the show goes on, even as early as the first episode, as we're given glimpses into why he is the way he is. Overall, he's a great protagonist that you can really get behind, even with all the annoyances that he starts out with, because without them, his arc wouldn't be nearly as effective.
You also have the side characters, like Jo, Rosa, Papa G, Tuna Sandwich, and Stuck Chuck. All of them are really likeable and well-developed in their own right. They each have distinct and memorable personalities with you can connect with. My favourite of which is Rosa, who is just downright adorable and the animation gives her a lot of appeal and quirkiness that you'd totally expect from a toddler. She's just an absolute bundle and joy and energy that you can't help but love. My least favourite character of the group is Tuna Sandwich, mostly because most of his character is just him meowing whenever he sees the future, and can't really interact with the rest if the cast in a way that would be super fun or interesting. That is, until he actually finds his voice with the device that Chuck gives him. When he gets it, he turns into a character that really becomes his own, and it was something that was really welcomed and gave his character a new dimension. There are other characters too that serve their own purpose, and they're effective and fun in what they're used for, but in the end, it's the main set of characters that we follow throughout the majority of the series that are the standouts.
The humour and writing in general is just great. There is a surprising amount of dark and edgy jokes that I'm kinda shocked that the show was able to get away with, especially for a kid's show in this day and age. The way the show is able to juggle tones in that respect is very admirable and skillful in that respect. One joke in particular is this extremely dark punchline revolving around Rosa where she throws space monkeys out into orbit and finds them "sleeping", but Papa G comforts her by telling her that they are indeed sleeping, creating a scene that's not only hilarious in how dark it is, but also wholesome and sweet and how it portrays Rosa and Papa G as characters, all in just a few seconds. This is extremely clever and thoughtful writing that you wouldn't see in many other shows of this kind. There's also a joke with a shot showing Tuna Sandwich walking on the road all the way to edge of the screen that lasts at least over a minute. That's some Andy Kaufman trolling right there, and it's so hilarious how long the scene drags out with this one single shot. You'd have to have a lot of faith and confidence to pull a joke like that off, and it certainly wasn't wasted. Beyond that, the comedy of this show is something truly special, and is something that adults will definitely appreciate in how clever and witty and it often is.
The action is also something that's really worth commending. While the moment-to-moment is fast-paces and exciting on it's own, it's really the vast amount of creative and interesting ways the characters use their powers that really sell the action, and even to their development as characters too. A particular standout is with Kid, where he steals all the rings to take on the alien invaders called in by Chuck, and seriously struggles with how much power he has. But this also allows for a wide amount of creativity and variety in how he handles these powers, which is also telling of his development not only as a hero, but as a character. The actions constantly feels engaging and unpredictable as a result of the amount of ways these powers are used by the characters, and I really gotta give credit to the people who came up with and storyboarded all these different scenarios.
The animation and voice acting are also worthy of note. The animation itself has this stilted, choppy quality that isn't anything like Foster's or Wander, but as a result, it creates something that feels distinct and unique, and gives the world a sense of character and believability that you wouldn't get otherwise with smoother animation, while also paying tribute to the comics it was inspired by. It's kinda like Into the Spider-Verse in that sense. The voice acting has a lot of personality, and each voice actor really gives their characters a memorable performance and identity. They're part of the reason these characters are as good as they are.
That's pretty much the gist of why this show is so good in the first place. There's orher aspects to consider too, such as the soundtrack, the lovely colour palette, the more serialised approach to storytelling compared to McCracken's other works, the little details with the animation, and so on, but that's as far as I'm willing to divulge into with this series. Bottom line - Kid Cosmic is a great, well done effort by McCracken and his team. It's a show filled with a heart, passion, energy, and an odd sense of wholesomeness that you wouldn't see the likes of in other shows like Hilda or Green Eggs and Ham. It's a wholesomeness of it's own breed, that's brought out by it's innocent and resonant themes of what it means to be a hero, but most importantly, the comradery and almost family-like relationship the five characters have with each other. It's almost like Guardians of the Galaxy in that way.
Anyway, just go watch it. McCracken and his team deserve at least that much. This show deserves a long and prosperous future, and I have faith that Season 2 will be just as good, if not better than last season, especially with the interesting shift in perspective over to Jo, which I can see giving this show a long life-span if they decide to give each main character of the cast their own season to develop them, which would definitely be really cool.