"The Pilot," originally called "Starting From Scratch" is Animated Inanimate Battle's Pilot episode, created in 2018. It has been taken down twice, but it has since been reuploaded in 2020.
A triangular drawing demigod, Oodle the Doodle, suddenly appears one day in the Blank Slate, albeit suddenly ending up in a state of comatose. The inhabitants of the Blank Slate - who are all talking objects - are curious to know who he is.
Full Recap
The pilot starts off in a near empty, yellow-and-white void known as the Blank Slate, where a large group of talking objects - 60 to be exact - encounter a triangle-shaped entity they've never seen before. Curious about the being, one of the members of the group, Album, suggests that someone should poke it. Glove grabs Toothpick, pokes the being, and throws her away after claiming it to be alive. Toothpick lands next to Candle and explains that she's tired of being picked on by everyone. Cork overhears the conversation and mentions that Coconut would not stop bothering him, even saying it is like he has a schedule for when to beat him up. Lo and behold, though, Coconut has overheard of this and has apparently scheduled him for exactly that. He then pounds Cork, squishing him flat.
After looking at the triangle with her trusty partner Telescope, Nabla states that it isn't from the Blank Slate. She suggests to cut the thing open to view its insides, and asks Pitchfork if she could help. However, she refuses and scolds her for asking for her to do such a thing. Thankfully for the math symbol, Album allows her to use her, saying she's pretty sharp. Nabla tries to cut the triangle using her, but it doesn't work. However, almost immediately after, Album notices a scratch on her head and freaks out about it. Nabla is confused about this overreaction and tells her that it's just a mere scratch, when Album tells her that she wouldn't understand her fear of the minor injury and runs off. We meet the shunned, lone guy Bone, who just walks in trying to say "hi" when Album yells at him. Everyone complains at him, with Glowstick telling him "BEGONE HEATHEN."
Meanwhile, Ketchup curiously asks the twin Food Dyes, Orange and Yellow, which one is evil. Orange tells him it's Yellow. Envelope, the self-proclaimed town crier, tells the three about a town meeting. Orange Food Dye is confused considering that they live in "the middle of freaking nowhere", in her words. As Frisbee shows off his javelin-throwing skills to Shot Put and Chalk, Leek tries to mitigate his problematic bladder, but is unable to leak due to thinking his best friend, Hailstone, is looking at him, to which she denies.
This pilot contains examples of:
- Bring My Brown Pants: What Leek says when Hailstone gets nearly hit by Frisbee's javelin seems to suggest this. Thankfully, he pees behind a bush.Leek: ...there it goes.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: This episode has this all over!
- None of the objects had any limbs or faces, and the assets are notably less detailed and/or unpolished compared to the episodes following it. Also, everyone - including Oodle - talks through subtitles.
- Orange Food Dye had more lines than Yellow in this episode, when the later episodes depict the former as the quiet one and the latter as the more talkative one.
- When Oodle recovers the characters he killed, the line box is black. In later episodes, it would be green.
- The version of the ending theme, Bounce House, played in this episode lacked a bass.note
- Eaten Alive: Oodle eats Leek in this episode. Granted, he most likely didn't know he was alive.
- Establishing Character Moment: There are plenty of them! Where to begin?
- Let's start with Oodle, who (upon finally snapping from his comatose) showed god-like abilities such as shapeshifting and reviving dead people. He even says that he is a demigod three times in the episode total.
- Album freaking out about her scratch.
- Nabla doing research on Oodle during his comatose and showing it on her chalkboard.
- Fireball wanting to see what Oodle's blood looks like.
- Frisbee throwing a javelin.
- Leek having trouble relieving himself and finally going behind a bush when he is prompted, such as fear. (AKA: Frisbee throwing javelins)
- Nails on a Blackboard: Or Hanger Hook on a Blackboard, as it seems. Either way, Hanger deliberately does this as an attempt to get Oodle out of his comatose.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Oodle almost plays this, but is eventually convinced to stay by Leek's heartwarming speech.
- Small Role, Big Impact: While Leek had a pretty minor role in this episode, the biggest part of it is delivering a heartfelt speech to Oodle, ultimately making him stay and start the show.
- Speak of the Devil:
- Stylistic Suck: This episode is lower in quality than the other episodes with its Early-Installment Weirdness.
