The Red Eclipse!
is an animated web short by Insane Inkorporated about a group of villains plotting against a common adversary, the Red Eclipse. It was published on YouTube in June 2023.
This short is five and a half minutes long, so be warned that there may be unmarked spoilers below.
This web animation provides examples of:
- All There in the Script: Aviv Jacobi's name isn't spoken in the main short, instead featured in the credits.
- Bring It: Before fighting Encyclopath's henchmen, Origami settles into a combat stance and gestures for them to approach.
- Comically Missing the Point: When Jacobi tells the assembled villains that they all share a common problem, we get this:
- Contortionist: Origami is introduced by cutting herself out of the package she shipped herself in.
- Elemental Hair Composition: Miss Conduct's hair is pure energy, just like the rest of her body.
- Evil Old Folks:
- Verdict is a typical looking elderly cartoonish judge and he's also a supervillain
- Miss Conduct also has some aspects to her design that imply she's an older woman.
- Eye Scream: During her fight with the King Mook, Origami caves his face in with a headbutt. The man proceeds to spit out his own eyeball, get up, and carry on fighting.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: By pausing during the massacre, it's possible to see several moments where Origami shows herself to be Not So Stoic. For example, during the final sword fight with a King Mook, after he gets up following Origami's infliction of Eye Scream, you can see for a split second that Origami has a "holy shit, you survived that?" expression.
- The Ghost: In spite of being the title character, the Red Eclipse does not make an appearance.
- Hands Go Down: When the other villains discuss how to deal with the Red Eclipse, Blot raises his hand, hesitant.Jacobi: Do you have a piano?
(Blot reabsorbs his hand) - In Love with Your Carnage: Miss Conduct gives Origami her phone number after witnessing the latter's massacre of Encyclopath's mooks.
- Meaningful Name: If they ARE even their names/codenames, then each of the words on each of the Factotums' hats each roughly describe them. The short first one's hat says "cockalorum", which means "a self-important little man", the sole female one's hat says "termagnant", which means "a harsh-tempered or overbearing woman", etc.
- Opaque Lenses: Verdict's glasses are completely white.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Encyclopath speaks almost exclusively this way. Blot engages in Copycat Mockery, while Miss Conduct accuses him of having Delusions of Eloquence.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: Origami's massacre of Encyclopath's "factotums" is backed by "Hit the Road, Jack".
- The Stinger: After the credits, there's a short scene of Origami in her apartment, cooking on the stove. The camera zooms out to show a bunch of dollar bills on her table folded into origami cranes.
- Whole-Plot Reference: The premise is that the villains are meeting in a warehouse to discuss a way to dispatch the Red Eclipse, it opens with them playing poker while waiting for Aviv. All of this pays homage to the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Almost Got 'Im".
