Michael Epler, better known by his alias '''PilotRedSun'''
, is a web animator, most recognised for his avant-garde cartoons posted on YouTube. Said animations brought him a significant amount of notoriety, thanks to following principles of Stylistic Suck, while also featuring stories that lack context and turn mundane into surreal.
Aside from cartoons, PRS also makes electronic music, with the 2016 album "Achievement" remaining as his most popular release to date.
While PilotRedSun is treated as his main project, Michael has also published his creations under multiple different aliases:
- PokeRemixStudio – PRS' first YouTube channel, started back in 2008. There he published his remixes of various Pokémon soundtracks;
- Bittertooth – Michael's old FurAffinity account where he posted respective artworks, alongside with breakcore-adjacent music that wasn't available elsewhere;
- PilotRedSky – PRS' most recent musical project, which follows the story of a cartoonist Percy Roger Smith. Under it, he releases EPs that feature previously Patreon-exclusive tracks together with new ones.
For some audiences, PRS is best known for creating Garfielf – a Deconstructive Parody of Garfield that received a fandom of its own, spawning numerous parodies and tributes.
PilotRedSun's videos provide examples of:
- Adaptational Villainy:
- In the now deleted video angry, which was a parody of Angry Birds, Red the bird was portrayed as antagonistic against pigs for no real reason, who in turn showed fear towards his psychotic attitude.
- Foghorn Leghorn is portrayed as The Bully to Lil Nugget in Cooped Up.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Played for Laughs with Chloe the virtual dog. After being offered a treat, she suddenly roars and starts transforming into a grotesque, fractal-like shape until fading away entirely.
- Aliens Are Bastards: The only reason aliens went to conquer Earth in IPAlien was because one of them ordered a drink at a bar, and didn't receive the one he wanted.
- Anvil on Head: A deconstructed version is Played for Laughs at the end of Cooped Up – a giant safe falls on Lil Nugget, slowly crushing him into a paste of red and yellow.
- Art Evolution: Over time, Pilot has taken his classic MSP-adjacent style into a direction that aims to mimic Amiga animations. Prior to that, he also began using a more detailed art style that's based on photobashing and soft painting.
- Cerebus Roller Coaster: Pilot's animations constantly fluctuate between comedic and disturbing tones, and you never know which one he'll go with for the next story.
- Cooked to Death: The fate of the gas station clerk in Ultimate Fuel. He gets disintegrated inside a deep fryer for the sake of creating an equivalent of bio-diesel.
- Deranged Animation: Another integral element of Pilot's style. Sometimes it's taken to an extreme, with characters shown morphing into various shapes while moving, or being suddenly drawn with a very high amount of detail.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Implied in the music clip for "Along With Brew". Bottles of various alcohol are depicted on the stand next to Percy, meanwhile the rest of the painting suggests that he's been having serious problems with money for a while: his car is getting repo'd, and parts of his house look rundown.
- Gainax Ending: Cooped Up ends with a shot of Lil Nugget being crushed by school treasury. Remembering the video's loosely jointed plot, it's hard to say what exactly are we supposed to think of this (aside from the scene being a parody of Chicken Little, of course.)
- Gas Station of Doom: The setting of Ultimate Fuel, being located in the middle of an eerie nighttime desert.
- Mascot: A topic of multiple PRS cartoons. In them, an american food mascot is depicted giving a monologue, usually talking about the product they represent. These range from relatively tame, like quaker's oats, to outright disturbing, like pringle advert.
- I Am a Monster: Defied by the end of Grinch's Ultimatum. After making the choice of becoming a grinch, the main character ponders if he has truly turned into someone monstrous. But instead of entering a downward spiral, he decides to test the theory by going out to dance at a public place. It's apparent he had a good time doing that.
- No Ending: Not much seems to happen at the end of the third Burners short, besides from more cockroaches coming out of the carton box.
- Our Demons Are Different: In PRS' universe, a unique demon-like species exist, called "fiends". They have typical features like red skin, pointy tails, and sharp claws, but the rest of their appearance is similar to those of anthropomorphic lizards.
- Pyromaniac: The black haired guy in Burners takes any opportunity he can to start a fire.
- Salaryman: The last remaining employee in Mr. Fujiwara's Office.
- Sinister Geometry: Felonious Bolus is a living ball off flesh with a constant uneasy smile on his face, who is serving a long prison sentence for an unknown crime. It's implied throughout the video that, whatever he's done, there's a good reason he is kept in a high risk cell.
- Sorry Ociffer: This amazing exchange from Not so fast:Officer: Are you aware of how fast you were going?Driver: I'm pretty sure I was *turns head to the speedometer* ten... above- below the speed limit.Officer: You have a busted tail light, haven't you noticed?Driver: I don't see anything.Officer: Are you under the influence of any drugs or alcohol?Driver: Uhhhm... Let me check.
- Starving Artist: The state of Percy Smith by the time of "Climb Imba" and "Along With Brew". It's implied that he had such little success making a living off his paintings, that he had to put them up for a yard sale, and got his car repo'd.
- Stylistic Suck: One of the founding elements of PRS' animations, and perhaps the most recognizable to boot. As Pilot himself put it on his Tumblr:"When there is an error, it distracts the viewer. So when the video is composed of errors, it mesmerizes the viewer."
- Tap on the Head: Exaggerated in Ultimate Fuel – the gas station clerk gets knocked out by a Hershey's bar thrown to his head.
- Two Roads Before You: After the main character of Grinch's Ultimatum smashes his TV out of anger, Santa Claus forces him to make a choice between becoming a saint and a grinch. Whatever option he would've picked, it would permanently change him forever, as demonstrated later in the video.
- Virtual Pet: Chloe the dog from chloe OS.
