Divus is a Dutch stop-motion Web Animation series created by animator and doll repaint artist Dollmotion.
The series opens in a forest on a shot of an abandoned baby squirrel, holding a strange golden cube. Cutting forward 20 years, the now fully grown baby, Penny, has a crush on her fox roommate, Alex. Meanwhile, Alex's sister, Felicia, discovers a mysterious folder labelled 'Divus', containing names and information about individuals with special powers.
Divus can be viewed on its own Youtube Channel here
. The official Instagram page can be found here where behind the scenes information and supplementary material is revealed along with in-character Q&A’s.
Divus started as short skits placed at the end of doll repaint videos in 2017, before being uploaded as fully fledged episodes at the beginning of 2019. The series was moved to it's own dedicated Youtube channel in 2021, which is linked above.
Divus contains examples of:
- A Dog Named "Dog": While most characters have a Species Surname; some characters also have given names which allude to their species. These include every member of the Lupus family, Vulpini (taxonomic rank for fox-like animals) and Eland (Dutch for moose).
- Ancestral Weapon: Mortus Felis’ Sword. The family still has it in their possession centuries after he died.
- Art Shift: When Pyrus tells a ghost story about Mortus Felis in the opening episode, the animation style shifts from stop motion with dolls to Cut Out Animation to both denote it is a story and to create an eerie atmosphere.
- Beast Man: The Divus universe is populated by these. Characters are not born with many animal features, but develop them over time. Younger characters resemble Little Bit Beastly before growing animal like snouts, claws and/or digitigrade legs around the age of 22.
- Big "WHY?!": Harris gets one in "Shopping".
- Don't Go Into the Woods: Canis tells Felicia not to go into the Anima Forest in “He is never home”. She ignores this. See Enchanted Forest.
- Or Offspring: The rule in this universe. Additionally, egg-laying species can only give birth to an egg-laying species. While Emu Aves has many bird children, she also had platypus offspring- since platypus lay eggs. Species who do not lay eggs cannot give birth to an egg-laying species.
- Enchanted Forest: The Anima Forest, nicknamed “The Death Forest”. It is said that those enter get lost and never find their way out, likened to the Bermuda Triangle, which is why it is so remarkable to other characters that Penny was found there as a baby. This is later explained to be because the forest is linked to the Deus and the forces of nature cause it to be close itself off to those without a blood relation to the Deus. After the resurrection ritual, this effect is lifted. It is mentioned there are 9 points like this around the world.
- Halloween Episode: “Divus Party” is revolves around a Halloween party. The debut episode “Love and Mystery” also features scenes set at Halloween.
- Like Brother and Sister: Alex originally sees his relationship with Penny as this before he realises he has romantic feelings for her.
- Love Confession Episodes 1 and 3 include storylines where Penny and Alex attempt to confess their feelings to each other.
- Love Triangle: Between Penny, Alex and Pyrus in Episode 1.
- Love Doodles: Penny draws one of Alex in the opening episode.
- Meet the In-Laws: Episode 2 features Pyrus meeting Penny’s dads, Harris and Henk Talpa.
- Mind-Control Eyes: If someone is being mind controlled by a Lupus Divus, their eyes turn pink. Averted when being controlled by the Golden and Silver Cubes or by Imperus Lupus..
- A Minor Kidroduction: The very first scene shows Penny as a baby before skipping forward 21 years to the present day.
- Orphan's Plot Trinket: The Golden Cube. Penny was found with it in the Anima Forest as an infant. It is later revealed that it did indeed belong to her birth mother Lectita, passed onto to Penny and Gregory.
- Parental Fashion Veto: Felicia’s uncle objects to her outfit in “Divus Party”, claiming the dress she is wearing is Age-Inappropriate Dress despite the fact is 19.
- Protective Charm: The Golden and Silver Cubes. Individually, they can be used to block the powers of a Divus or Deus, and make a Deus mortal and able to be killed. When used together, they can be used to control the mind of a Divus.
- Race for Your Love: The plot of “Goodbye”. Penny races to the bus stop before Alex can board a bus to the airport. Hendry convinced Alex to stop and buy baked goods from Olivia’s bake sale, preventing him from catching his bus, enabling Penny to catch up to him and confess her feelings.
- Seeks Another's Resurrection: James plans to bring the Deus back to life so he can kill Morphio Vulpes, creating a second line of Divus and become the Vulpes Divus for that line.
- Species Surname: Nearly every character has a surname alluding to which species they are, usually the Latin translation of said animal.
- Stop Motion: Uses toymotion in the form of modified fashion dolls. The opening episode also uses cutout animation during the ghost story scene.
- Terrible Pick-Up Lines: Alex uses one of these on Sabrina in the first episode. Predictably, it doesn’t go down well.
- What Does She See in Him?: Daisy and Harris do not understand why Penny is so attracted to Alex.
- You Remind Me of X: Vulpini tells Pyrus he reminds him of her girlfriend, Kaiyo, as early foreshadowing for the reveal that Kaiyo is really Pyrus’ missing sister, Violet.
