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ninjewtsu posted:I thought the comedy in centaur world was by and large pretty bad so maybe I will watch season 2 then I feel like it's a show that is based on the idea of a lot of the characters being diegetically unfunny and annoying, where some jokes are meant to be jokes for the audience and some jokes are meant to be for horse to be flustered and annoyed at and 'we made this bad on purpose" decisions in media are always brave but often pretty drat hit or miss.
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Dec 9, 2021 13:36
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Owlofcreamcheese posted:I feel like it's a show that is based on the idea of a lot of the characters being diegetically unfunny and annoying, where some jokes are meant to be jokes for the audience and some jokes are meant to be for horse to be flustered and annoyed at and 'we made this bad on purpose" decisions in media are always brave but often pretty drat hit or miss. MLYP
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Dec 9, 2021 13:56
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Owlofcreamcheese posted:I feel like it's a show that is based on the idea of a lot of the characters being diegetically unfunny and annoying Ahh yes. The fabled 'Tim and Eric' style of comedy.
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Dec 9, 2021 15:36
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Everyone needs to watch Centaurworld. The most original, inventive animated show in years. Some of the jokes don't land (although mostly it's funny and working one step ahead of the cliche). The pacing maybe could use some tweaks. I don't think that matters a tonne though, because it's remarkable for the amount of wild moves it makes, the ridiculous animation quality throughout but especially in some of the action sequences (I don't know that I've ever seen anything as impressive on a TV budget), and just how unashamedly weird it is. This is a show that flips between soft-edged slapstick, serious drama, action and horror sometimes like four times in the same scene. You might hate it, but you should at least check it out. The show is wild and S2 was wilder by far.
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Dec 9, 2021 18:18
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Android Blues posted:Everyone needs to watch Centaurworld. The most original, inventive animated show in years. This is quite the stretch, there's been plenty of high quality, inventive animated shows in the last few years. Even accounting for my own personal distaste centaur world seems to fit in pretty well with the rest.
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Dec 9, 2021 19:51
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Is centaur world more original and inventive than the midnight gospel or infinity train? I dunno maybe, I probably wouldn't say so. That's without getting into the can of worms that is rick and morty, or uh, anime.
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Dec 9, 2021 19:54
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Of the first three Centaurworld self-contained episodes, the first was below-average, just an exaggerated version of the winbly-wobbliness for animating the wine mom -- and the whole baroque thing I've seen elsewhere like Scarlemagne's court in Kipo. The second wasn't that good -- I've never liked YouTubers or when shows get this meta -- but I liked when Zulius saw how failing at assembling the army was hurting Horse, like his ostensible narcicissism is only surface-level and he's really an empathetic being. The third episode was great because of the "Breathe in a Bag" payoff, including a Theranos reference, at the end. The rest of the season would've been near S1 quality, except the overuse of reprises and callbacks (e.g. Comfortable Doug) made it feel like a partial rerun in places, though some of them like "Welcome to Centaurworld" resolving the hootenanny problem, felt earned. I liked how Stabby's problem with Derpleton not listening paralleled Derpleton's backstory and the running gag of people taking out the knife for a weapon then throwing it back in as a holster. The last part with the Nowhere King's backstory was perfect. I thought it was good overall. My favorite line was "You know what? I'm just gonna say it. Sounds like someone's acting like a real Jeffica." galenanorth fucked around with this message at 13:08 on Dec 10, 2021 |
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Dec 9, 2021 20:29
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Enough of that horseshit, who’s up for a The Critic spiritual revival? https://twitter.com/augenblicknyc/status/1469003939416838149
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Dec 9, 2021 23:17
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I feel like infinity train is really the best comparison to centar world. It did the same "monkey cheese world but also the characters call out that it's stupid" + "the actual show is actually super serious and gets down right horrifying at times in contrast to the dumb stuff". Infinity train did it better (but canceled and ruined things to some degree)
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Dec 9, 2021 23:19
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I felt it was a lot more similar to Adventure Time. Infinity Train has a wacky setting but it doesn't get as over the top ridiculous. And yes I realize I'm talking about a show where a talking corgi and a flying magical ring bell are major characters.
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Dec 10, 2021 00:50
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Reality is subjective and so is which animated cartoon any one person thinks is "best". Case in point: from where I'm standing Infinity Train, Midnight Gospel, and Centaurworld don't hit me nearly as hard as World of Tomorrow, which is the one I would say is the most original and innovative cartoon to come out within the same time span as the others, because my brain is wired in such a way that whatever Don Hertzfeldt is doing vibes POWERFULLY with it.
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Dec 10, 2021 01:44
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Infinity Train was really good and it kind of sucks that they didn't get to actually finish it.
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Dec 10, 2021 01:50
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while that's true i can't help but feel like planning on getting 8 seasons was a little unrealistic what sucks is season 4 is the only season that didn't feel like it'd be a good place to end the show, and was actually somewhat dependent on future seasons we never got
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Dec 10, 2021 04:21
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ninjewtsu posted:Is centaur world more original and inventive than the midnight gospel or infinity train? I dunno maybe, I probably wouldn't say so. That's without getting into the can of worms that is rick and morty, or uh, anime. Rick and Morty is eight years old. It was weird and inventive in 2013, nearly a decade ago!
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Dec 10, 2021 09:55
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I haven’t cared about “Originality” for like a decade since I realized I’d much rather watch a boring story told well than an original story told poorly. If a show has lots of cool, interesting jumping off points, that’s only good until you realize they don’t have the tools to achieve a satisfying conclusion or catharsis (Stranger Things is like a really popular example, I think it would be fair to say). Like, for example, Netflix Castlevania really doesn’t have any new ideas at all. It’s a monster show about evil vampires and a big Van Helsing vampire hunter and his wizard girlfriend and their best friend, Blade, but the whole thing is told in this incredible way with gorgeously realized characters and cinematically engaging action that people really connect to it despite having heard versions of that story like 50 times.
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Dec 10, 2021 13:57
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New season of Centaurworld is just weird, everything before the finale as pointed out is a weaker retread of Season 1 (though given how wild Season 1 was it's still somewhat good!) and even within the last episode there's a lot of Centaurworld-isms that come off as jarring and/or grating but HOLY poo poo THE NOWHERE KING'S BACKSTORY TOP 5 CARTOON BACKSTORY MATERIAL when the Mysterious Woman had to kill him ;__; where does Bojack lie on this hold 'originality' discussion btw
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Dec 10, 2021 17:34
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Extremely creative and great, one of the best shows ever made, a high water mark for animated drama to come. IMHO
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Dec 10, 2021 17:45
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centaur world: rebecca apples was clearly supposed to be middle aged princess woman's (did she have a name?) other half, right? It makes everything more tragic and makes it less random the key was a thing she built to be her weird magic staff. they were riding together at the end even. second theory: It's really weird that Glendale has an unexplained portal in her stomach and is an orphan, then in the flashback they show everyone hanging out with another character that is the same species, then everyone leaves to go see the malfunctioning portal machine. Then thats it. No connection.
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Dec 10, 2021 21:14
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Becky Apples is just stone cold killer who doesn't need a fancy backstory or magic powers to save the day. Becky Apples gets poo poo done.
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Dec 11, 2021 04:05
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From r/centaurworld:Knowfelt posted:When some horse farts in your personal space TrashBoat337 posted:
Friendly_Respecter posted:when you split your very consciousness in half cause you think your love with your crush who you are actively in the first stages of romance with is forbidden and your self-esteem is non-existent and you have to be the part that gets abandoned and imprisoned for years while you watch your other half live his life happily ignoring your suffering until you form a swirling metaphysical eldritch being that exists purely out of hatred
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Dec 11, 2021 04:24
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Owlofcreamcheese posted:centaur world: I mean they could've done that. Same with fusing horse and rider to save rider's life. Overall though I'm happier with the way they resolved it: fusing/unfusing beings is a bad idea and you shouldn't do it.
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Dec 11, 2021 15:35
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Pachylad posted:where does Bojack lie on this hold 'originality' discussion btw A little hard to judge as the most novel thing about it is it's an intimate and dark character drama with a comedic sitcom outer shell, which I don't think is particularly original. even if how well it's done is certainly new and fresh. I think most of the arcs and storylines you could probably find pretty easily in live action dramas, and there have certainly been other animated shows that mix comedy with very serious subject matter. Having all of that in one show, and done as masterfully as bojack did, certainly feels unique and fresh. Bojack definitely leaned in much harder on the serious side of things than other examples of mixing those two tones. I think the bigger question is where is undone in this discussion? Rotoscoping isn't new but it being used that extensively is pretty unheard of outside of a single movie from 2006. A plot that makes what is real and what is hallucination extremely ambiguous has definitely been done before, but it's also very unusual. I think if we accept that truly original ideas and concepts don't exist and we're mostly talking about how much of a departure from its peers a show is, I'd say both bojack and undone are extremely original I think there's a lot of good things to say about centaur world but in this context I wouldn't really say its originality is something that sets it apart from the pack. If anything it feels a lot more like it's heavily inspired by stuff like adventure time and wanted to do its own spin on a similarly wacky world and tone. ninjewtsu fucked around with this message at 18:37 on Dec 11, 2021 |
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Dec 11, 2021 18:34
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Android Blues posted:Rick and Morty is eight years old. It was weird and inventive in 2013, nearly a decade ago! It also fairly recently had a season that told some reasonably unique stories so I don't think you could really say it isn't a good point of comparison to centaur world or not a peer.
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Dec 11, 2021 18:36
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last centaurworld shitpost I promise:
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Dec 12, 2021 03:44
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Bojack Horseman feels like it's more in the vein of Adult Swim type stuff, it's got a lot of similar vibes with a quietly surreal setting, wild shifts of tone from absurdist comedy to heartbreakingly real tragedy, and mixing genre conventions, while having a deliberately cheap and lazy-looking animation style. On another note, starting Centaurworld S2, of all things I get Kate Beaton vibes from her Ladyest Ladyship, leader of the centaurs (tm). Ghost Leviathan fucked around with this message at 06:21 on Dec 12, 2021 |
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Dec 12, 2021 05:40
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Just finished Centaurworld. Season 2 is definitely a bit more uneven than season 1 but drat did it go out on a high note. Also I still can't believe how much I love Stabby as a new addition to the cast or that the show managed to get me to give a poo poo about his incredibly weird father/(fully grown adult)son relationship with Durpleton. Fantastic show. Definitely something I'll watch through again at some point.
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Dec 12, 2021 08:18
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I don’t know what planet you’re posting from where Bojack looks cheap and lazy, but that is a diapers-on-your-head crazy town opinion!!! Like, I cannot conceive of how you could possibly call it lazy, every episode has like 30 character designs and 50 sight gags… wha??
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Dec 12, 2021 14:13
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I think they mean the line quality is closer to draft than nice fine crisp lines. I like fuzzy lines. Does this have name? Cheap / lazy are words that do come to mind when I think about this style even though they don't apply. Or maybe I'm on the wrong track. I'm not even sure that fully applies to BoJack but I think I understand the feeling they are trying to express. pixaal fucked around with this message at 14:35 on Dec 12, 2021 |
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Dec 12, 2021 14:32
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The animation is kind of paper-doll-ish; it's actually one of my few gripes about Bojack. The character designs only have a few predefined angles for their heads when they're talking, and the arms and legs are made up of pipe-straight sections rather than having any kind of fluidity or organic sense of anatomy. It gives off "Flash puppetry" vibes to me, and feels like a throwback to ten years earlier. Plus no tails, wtf
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Dec 12, 2021 15:44
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Data Graham posted:The animation is kind of paper-doll-ish; it's actually one of my few gripes about Bojack. The character designs only have a few predefined angles for their heads when they're talking, and the arms and legs are made up of pipe-straight sections rather than having any kind of fluidity or organic sense of anatomy. It gives off "Flash puppetry" vibes to me, and feels like a throwback to ten years earlier. Yeah, that's what I meant; similar to the Filmation-derived style of Adult Swim, with detailed and realistic character designs at the expense of limited animation fluidity, and a lot of times making that part of the joke- there's a lot to be said for understatement. Though there is kind of a trend with adult cartoons having that kind of animation just because other shows (mainly South Park) did it. And of course, that effort-saving is the kind of thing that lets them have 30 character designs and 50 sight gags per episode, I'd imagine. Pretty much everything in animation is tradeoffs. Not to mention saving the budget for big name voice actors.
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Dec 12, 2021 15:58
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If people had tails in Bojack you’d have to redesign cars, restaurants, and basically every office interior. That one stylistic choice would have repercussions throughout the entire Bojack universe.
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Dec 12, 2021 16:46
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The human world scenes in Centaurworld are giving me weird vibes. The show does make a point of animation style difference clashes, of course, but still. For some reason Water Baby is giving me Bismuth vibes? Maybe because Steven Universe was about that mix of whimsical and serious all on its own.
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Dec 12, 2021 17:22
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Ghost Leviathan posted:Yeah, that's what I meant; similar to the Filmation-derived style of Adult Swim, with detailed and realistic character designs at the expense of limited animation fluidity, and a lot of times making that part of the joke- there's a lot to be said for understatement. Though there is kind of a trend with adult cartoons having that kind of animation just because other shows (mainly South Park) did it. "Limited animation" has had one billion different forms and incarnations since Hanna-Barbera came up with it in like 1959 for their Tom & Jerry-esque spinoffs for TV. The sheer number of ways different studios have invented for saving effort while still preserving enough movement to be engaging is mind-boggling and one of the most fascinating things about animation, to me. I was thinking about the Dr. Katz "squigglevision" stuff and realizing that the whole reason it existed was because they were working with standup-comic type material that was mostly verbal in nature and had no actual movement inherent to it, so they had to come up with a way to make "this person is talking" come across visually while holding background objects static. Otherwise it would have just been a slide show with an audio track
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Dec 12, 2021 17:27
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I mostly know Squigglevision from Science Court. There really is an odd charm to it, I think it also works in Home Movies so well because it feels like a kid's drawing come to life. We need more Science Court memes. Also I just realised that Doug Savage is another John H Benjamin. He does a great arrogant but well-meaning idiot.
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Dec 12, 2021 18:10
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Btw I made a Home Movies thread  https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3986915&perpage=40&pagenumber=1&noseen=1
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Dec 12, 2021 18:21
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I feel compelled to talk about Bluey for a little bit. I started watching it because I was looking for something relaxing to watch and a friend of mine with a kid recommended it to me. It's not a show that was made for adults, it is very much a show for children and an incredibly well made one at that, but at the same time it teaches lessons about "gentle parenting" better than any other show I've seen thus far in my life. It does an incredibly good job of showing how kids are people and it's important to communicate with them and teach them how to communicate with you so you can solve problems together whenever they come up. I also appreciate that they don't shy away from showing how exhausting and stressful it can be to interact with kids as an adult, while at the same time also showing how that interaction is important and enriching to both parent and child and that play is both a valuable bonding activity and a way to teach your kids lessons about life that'll help them grow into better people. My friend who told me to check it out mentioned how watching the show with his kid often serves as a good reminder of how to stay patient and act compassionate towards children even in times of great stress (and since his kid's a toddler he experiences great stress frequently. Like, she's a great kid and he's an incredibly loving parent, but like most kids her age she's filled with extremely high levels of chaotic energy that can be difficult to handle) and now having seen the show myself I completely understand what he was talking about. So, yeah, Bluey is not animation that's made specifically for adults, but it does contain lessons that I genuinely feel are important for adults to learn. If you're ever in the mood for a chill show that's funny, wholesome, and might help you become a little better at interacting with kids should you ever need to do than I HIGHLY recommend Bluey. Oh, and the way music is used in the show is pretty fantastic as well, the sound editor is clearly giving it their all and I both respect and appreciate that. On another note: I watched the second season of Crossing Swords. It was fine. Not too good, not too bad, just fine. I really like the stylized stop motion animation where everyone and everything is intentionally designed to look like wooden toys, and the voice actors they got are sold performers who give it their all, but there's just nothing about the story that really makes it "pop" or stand out from the hundreds of other edgy adult animated shows that are out there. Maybe this is a weird criticism, but I think something that could help the show be more interesting and engaging is if it was less "mean". Don't get me wrong, I have a long list of comedies that predominantly feature mean-spirited humor that I love (I'm huge It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia fan) and by no means do I think characters always have to nice or even half-way decent people (Again, huge it's always sunny fan), but the thing about crossing swords is that most of the time it doesn't actually bother crafting jokes and funny situations that are mean in nature so much as it treats the mere fact that something mean happened as a punchline and that doesn't really work when it's something that happens constantly. Like, the shock value of "Ha! You thought something good might happen but instead it's something bad!" wears off pretty quickly and once it does seeing "bad thing happen" over and over again just become bland and repetitive. Humor comes from the unexpected, and you can't really subvert those expectations by doing the same thing again and again with limited variation. Another problem with Crossing Swords overall "Meanness" is that it's trying to tell a serialized story with a long running plot, but none of the characters are likeable or interesting enough to give you a reason to care about what happens to them (outside of maybe the protagonist every now and again, and a yeti with a hoarding problem who was hilarious and only showed up for one episode which sucks because she was by far the best character the show has ever had). They're all a bunch of stupid shallow assholes, which wouldn't be so much of a problem if they were funny because "I want these stupid shallow assholes to live so I can keep watching them do hilarious poo poo" is a great way to get you to care about characters who otherwise have no redeeming characteristics, but like I said most of the time they aren't funny just vaguely unpleasant and thus it's hard to find a reason to care about the plotlines they're involved in. And I think on some level the writers know this, I mean season two ends with the formerly optimistic protagonist just completely disillusioned with the world around him and disgusted by all the horrible people he's met. Like, it's played as a joke, but when you've written the main character yelling "This show sucks and I no longer have any motivation or desire to be a part of it" at least one person on the writing staff has to know that some changes to the shows formula could really improve things, right? Or maybe things will just stay exactly the same and season three will be a retread of all the same things that made seasons one and two unremarkable and bland. I don't know, and I don't care that much either. But, like I said, it's not bad. It's just not good. If you want a show to put on in the background while you do chores then you might as well put on Crossing Swords. Their are better options, there are worse options, and somewhere in the middle is Crossing Swords just sort of existing.
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Dec 12, 2021 18:23
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Wow, that Centaurworld finale, the show did kind of flounder a little bit in the midpoint of S2 but I thought it was a strong finish, though they could have done without the bait and switch. Centaurworld is indeed wild, and in a very strange way. I would almost put the way it goes out of its way to be deliberately unappealing in the same category as Superjail, though obviously not to the same extent. Also finally getting around to watching the latest season of Animaniacs. I drat near died laughing at the Pinky and the Brain parody of Run Lola Run.
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Dec 12, 2021 21:11
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Space Cadet Omoly posted:So, yeah, Bluey is not animation that's made specifically for adults, but it does contain lessons that I genuinely feel are important for adults to learn. If you're ever in the mood for a chill show that's funny, wholesome, and might help you become a little better at interacting with kids should you ever need to do than I HIGHLY recommend Bluey. Oh, and the way music is used in the show is pretty fantastic as well, the sound editor is clearly giving it their all and I both respect and appreciate that. Today's episode features the music from Carmen and what Muffin's parents go through is my daily experience. We've gone through 1 iPad and 1 iPhone so far. I know that feeling of Muffin's parents at the end.
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Dec 13, 2021 22:46
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Ok I’ve completed Arcane. It was easily the best media I’ve watched all year, on the whole, although Midnight Mass was about as good, just not as visually stimulating or imaginative. Like, Arcane goes on my short list of “best animated series of all time”. I would put the show at 8/9 completely perfect episodes and then felt like the finale kind of left too much up in the air to feel completely satisfying and the final scene between Jinx and Silcho didn’t really make a lot of sense to me and felt a little contrived compared to the rest of the show. I cannot recommend it highly enough. This show blew my freakin’ mind. Clarification: I haven’t played LoL in over a decade and I didn’t recognize any characters besides Heimerdinger. The show doesn’t really care about the games. Centaurworld will be next, excited to try it!
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Dec 14, 2021 15:10
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Almost done with Arcane myself. Don't have the slightest idea what League of Legends is, but the show is pretty dang good, and it's nuts thinking that this level of visual design and animation is where The Bar is for TV series now. I keep thinking things like "what if I got in my delorean and fetched an animator or cartoon fan from the 80s and showed him this, would his brain dissolve or what"
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Dec 14, 2021 15:21
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