Infinity Train (Cartoon Network)

I just don't get why Infinity Train needs to sell toys, TBH. If you still were airing it on Cartoon Network, it would make sense. But who cares about the toylines of what's basically an HBO Max exclusive show.

It was still produced in-house as a Cartoon Network series, and subject to their approval or lack thereof.

I always assumed in-house comedies had the least urge to sell toys, or at least rely more on commercials than actual merch. I could understand the DC action cartoons doing so, since CN doesn't make as much money from third-party shows and they're usually more expensive.

Owen Dennis talked about how he once wanted to do an Infinity Train art book when developing the first season. He mentioned how all the people in charge of publishing (and thus could have said yes) where let go before the AT&T merger. However, we know that said merger was delayed, and when the new people came in, they didn't see pay much attention to the show.

https://mobile.twitter.com/OweeeeenDennis/status/1396867838137171968

Pretty impressed with how well the second Infinity Train Twitter campaign went. I was wondering how much traction it would get since Owen wasn't promoting it this time (outside a brief mention on his newsletter, anyway), but it's awesome to see that managed to trend at #1 in the US again, even if it only got a fraction of the tweets it got last time.

Also, HBO Max has finally launched in Latin America today, so those regions can finally (legally) enjoy Books 3 and 4.

Actually we cant enjoy it just yet it seems. I know because I really wanted to see a certain death dubbed.

Infinity Train is getting an art show at the Gallery Nucleus from September 25 - October 3. There'll be a two-hour live Q&A to open up the show that will be livestreamed on Zoom for free.

Here's hoping we get some sort of Book 5 announcement at the event, but even if that isn't the case, it's cool that this is being put together. Oh, and there's going to be another social media hashtag push on August 5 and 6.

I think companies have wisened up to social media pushes being the equivalent of spam campaigns from a few people. The art exhibit on the other hand sounds genuinely interesting, particularly with the mass cancellation.

I thought the last season was about a husband and wife before I actually saw it.

Give how the two chararter act? I can see how one would belive that.

I always kinda had a problem there was this mystery of the train & never really went anywhere.

Although unlike most of big mystery question things, I didn't really care because I was much more invested with the characters

I think it helps that we did slowly get answers to some of these questions over time, as each character does have an issue that ties into the mystery of the train.

Who the heck is in charge of this train? Well, Tulip also wants to know so she can get off, so her journey gives us that answer. How do people get on the train and get numbers? Well, MT wants a number, so she's going to help the audience find that stuff out to. It's probably the reason why Book 5 would have answered almost every remaining big question: Amelia becomes the false conductor for thirty years, so she'll need to learn a lot about how the train functions in the process.

That's true but the characters' development is what got my attention.

I mean I'm still pretty annoyed that we're not going to get the answers but right now I'm just grateful for being able to watch the show at the end of the day.

I'll be glad when I can legally watch this show instead of you know,resorting to youtube

It looks like books 3-4 are available on digital sites like Amazon Prime.

https://mobile.twitter.com/GoneSnail/status/1438263982486396933

Why are Books 3 and 4 rated TV-MA, though? I missed this post, so I just stumbled upon seeing these seasons on my TV's Amazon Prime app today and they're rated TV-MA while Books 1 and 2 are TV-PG. It's obviously just a mistake, but I don't quite understand how it would have happened when the first two seasons right are there and decidedly not labeled as mature audience fare.

Owen Dennis recently did an interview with Creative Block about his animation career. The one-hour mark onward has some interesting info about the show's production that hasn't been shared before, but the whole 90-minute interview is a really fun listen that gives insight into his creative process, life experiences, and thoughts on the industry.

Some things I thought were interesting, the first two admittedly being dumb executive stuff in the "disappointed, but not surprised" vein:

• When the pilot was picked up, one of the executives told Owen Dennis not to expect it to be greenlit to series because the main character was a girl. Ironically, the show would end up being picked up in part because the MeToo movement made Cartoon Network feel like they needed more shows with female leads, and Infinity Train was the only thing they had outside The Powerpuff Girls (2016).
• CN had a lot of pushback against Jesse being Native American; it took several months of talks to get the network to sign off on it, and even then, they had several guidelines restricting how he could be portrayed. The single reference they were able to make in the show to Jesse's culture (a throwaway line about him going to pow-wow) needed to be snuck in during post-production. Min-Gi and Ryan being Asian-Canadians got similar "why are you doing this Five-Token Band stuff?" reactions.
• Pretty much every studio in L.A. knows that adult animated drama is going to be the next big thing, but they still see it as risky, hence why the transition is being started as IP-driven projects like Arcane. Dennis feels like we're one or two big hits away from the floodgates opening, and he's hoping to be a part of that.

I feel so bad to hear about all the racist and sexist bullshit Owen had to fight through to get just 4 seasons.

I would also like to add:

• Lindsay Katai, writer for Infinity Train, noted that all four seasons (along with the unproduced fifth) were technically a production order of one season.

... Doesn't that then mean they're wasting money in not airing Season 5? Or is someone breaching contract? How does this work?

As Katai herself explained, the contract surrounding Book 5 was just to write the episodes. Actually producing them is a whole other matter.

AFAIK, the general idea is that you do this to keep the creative team around so, in case the show is a success, they already have a head-start in creating new episodes and there can be as short a hiatus between seasons as possible. The network doesn't have to produce the episodes that are written during this period if they deem the show a failure. (Which means, yes, there are a lot of One Season Wonders out there that probably have a few scripts written in anticipation of more episodes, but were left to gather dust.)

Edited by RacattackForce on Mar 7th 2022 at 6:40:08 AM

God Sym-Bionic Titan being a tax write off (I think?!) is so painful

Unless you're actually following her twitter you can't see her responses, or even the original tweet... Which makes that link kinda hilarious

Okay, this is just pouring salt in the wound.

Apparently Infinity Train got yanked from HBO Max in Europe. And Season 2 was supposed to premiere today in Cartoon Network France. Now it isn't.

Jesus, does the universe not want to have the show be recognized?

Edited by TargetmasterJoe on Aug 4th 2022 at 8:16:40 AM

I already knew what this thread bump would be about, and... yeah, this bums me out. The show was already dead. This is just pissing on its grave.