The Cuphead Show (Netflix)

Well, here are the reviews of the first season, and they may not be pretty:

Meh, I liked the show, and while I wouldn't tell anyone to get Netflix if they aren't sure, it's short enough that anyone who already has Netflix would be better served forming their own opinion.

It’s pretty okay. It looks absolutely stunning, and it actually captured the game’s art pretty well (though not flawlessly), but for the most part, it’s just kind of an enjoyable, if standard kid’s show. The plots were mostly average, but they’re carried hard by Cuphead and Mugman’s dynamic, plus the animation. Also, Season 1 ends on a cliffhanger, which I really, really don’t like. For a more serialized show like Gravity Falls or The Owl House (both of which I have been completely obsessed with as of late), it fits, but this is trying to be something more episodic and spiritually akin to Spongebob or Phineas and Ferb, so it feels jarringly out of place. But I had fun with it overall, and it’s certainly harmless, which seems to be a minority opinion if the comments on the Escapist review are any indication.

Edited by TalesofUnder on Feb 26th 2022 at 8:29:47 PM

Pretty much every netflix animated show does half-seasons, mostly because animation on a typical Netflix budget takes a long time. It's kind of clear that looks like a season-ending cliffhanger is more of a midseason finale, so it gets a pass from me.

Signed back to Netflix just to see this Cuphead show,yeah I echo what others have said,it looks stunning but it's fairly average overall

Allow me to throw Saberspark's hat into the ring

I can say I enjoyed it. Watched it with my niece and nephew and they enjoyed it.

the purest in me wishes they didn't have to bowdlerise the show (which so far means cutting the casino setting)

Maybe they're saving that for the next season?

I feel like thats unlikely

Yeah

Here's what I'm wondering, while I do know why the Police Bee Officers are chasing after Chalice, I don't know why they considered her as a criminal in the first place.

Blame Cuphead and Mugman

Which is true, since they did arrested them at the end, after Chalice not only got them in trouble for turning the silent alarm on, but sadly abandoned them.

I enjoyed it for what it is, not spectacular but still good and amusing. As one reviewer said however, I feel that characters from the game were wasted in either uninteresting storylines (Ribby and Croaks, the vegetables), random cameos (Grim Matchstick) or being turned into something basically different (King Dice). What's even the point of reusing the setting and characters of the game and then doing nothing with them? Would've been better doing something unrelated like the ghosts episode which was one of the better ones. Yes there are ghosts in the game, but the setting is totally different.

Also I didn't like that they turned the Devil from something goofy but still menacing into yet another bumbling cartoon villain in the span of just a few episodes.

It's a good show, and the most important Characters (Cuphead, Mugman, Elder Kettle, the Devil, and even Miss Chalice) feel spot on. My problem is, the Sitcom formula that most modern kids cartoons subscribe to is nothing at all like the '30's Cartoons Cuphead was inspired by. The characters, by their nature, are begging to be a slapstick show, but slapstick is not popular and actively frowned upon for Children's entertainment these days (I think that HBOMax Looney Tunes show is the only modern cartoon that is actively slapstick, and even then I don't know if that's actively aimed at Children).

Edited by DingoWalley1 on Feb 28th 2022 at 7:28:51 AM

There's nothing wrong with slapstick these days...what?

Nah, way back when slapstick was more two-sided and less entirely karmic. Nobody in this show is hurt in a way that isn't self-inflicted: the Devil chooses to go after Cuphead and shock himself, Kettle chooses to set up all those traps, and most blatantly Porkrind actively talks about eating Grim Matchstick's egg before the dragon comes to burn his shop down.

Nobody's just messing with someone for the sake of messing with someone, except for maybe the baby who mostly just damages property

But I generally wish that this followed old cartoons by having less continuity: if Cup and Mug were hardened thieves pulling a heist on Ribby and Croaks one episode, then had a stint as Kettle's gun-toting Devil-dodging grandsons, then were innocent kids taken advantage of by the Root Pack I think the variety would be more fun.

Edited by IniuriaTalis on Feb 28th 2022 at 9:43:14 AM

Yeah he was planning to eat the baby that hatched as well. So unsurprisingly he was gonna get burned no matter what.

The egg thing stood out to me because it obviously existed just so we could cheer on Porkrind getting hurt. He did nothing wrong before then: he was frustrated at the brothers but only showed it in an Imagine Spot, and then sent them on a deadly quest by accident because they were too dumb to realize that he just wanted them to grab his laundry. Nothing before then painted him as a baby-eater, and there was no need for him to declare his baby-eating tendencies other than to let the audience laugh in the next second when he gets burned.

What they did in the show is basically what the Cuphead comics have been doing as well, which gives off the impression it's just what MDHR wants to do with the concept going forward.

Instead of adapting the games' story, the tie-in series have been largely interpreting it in more the style of classic shorts, where the characters have largely self-contained wacky misadventures and all the game bosses/antagonists are singular antagonists, crooks or bullies who come in conflict with the main characters for one reason or another.

Imagine if it was the other way around - if the game was based on a show, it would absolutely make sense to recycle random antagonists from the show as boss fights. Like, if someone made a Bugs Bunny video game, it would make sense that you'd get to fight Yosemite Sam, Taz, Gossamer and Marvin at various points in the game. So they are doing the inverse here - using the bosses from the boss fights as antagonists for different storylines.

PSA: Netflix "announced" that season 2 is happening, but that's a goddamn lie, because it's really just the second half of season 1 and Netflix is allergic to cartoons and don't want to pay high salaries for animators and writers.

Shame on Netflix for pulling this dirty cheating trick when animators are actively pushing for better work benefits.

(And keep plugging #NewDeal4Animation!)

Edited by TargetmasterJoe on Mar 3rd 2022 at 10:17:59 AM

Man, this was a pretty fun show. I wonder how the Internet fe-*reads reviews*

.....There really needs to be a conversation about the expectations adults are having on children's media to be a serialized epic....

Yeah... As amazing as shows like Gravity Falls and The Owl House are, expecting every single show to be like them is just absolutely ridiculous, especially in the realm of shows intended for children. Episodic shows exist for a reason, guys. Sometimes, you don’t want a rich roast turkey for every meal of the day. Sometimes, you just want popcorn or a bag of chips, and that’s fine. It’s the same thing with TV. Too many episodic cartoons means no ongoing storylines to get invested in, true, but too many serialized cartoons means that, if you don’t keep up with every single episode of about ten shows, or unless you want a huge amount of your time to go down the plughole, you’re shit out of luck.