Okay, so I feel like I've talked about this before that I don't usually review stuff from other YouTubers. Not that we shouldn't put ourselves on the chopping block. We certainly should. I'm not saying that you shouldn't either. We are in entertainment. We should be criticized as much as anyone should.
As a YouTuber, knowing the community, there is a lot of people that are either very uppidity or backstabby and stuff like that. I like showing more support. I'm not saying if you make a review of a YouTuber and you don't like them, that's bad. You're hurting the community. I'm not saying that at all. I'm saying as a YouTuber, it's not something I'm super comfortable with because there's already so many doing it.
With that said, whenever somebody says, "What gives you the right to make fun of a bad production?" I can always say because I have made bad productions and I don't take it personal when people make fun of my stuff. I like talking about movies. That's what I got into this job for.
But once in a while, I like talking about shows or something interesting that breaks the mold. With YouTuber stuff, particularly with animation, a lot of interesting stuff is happening with web animation, particularly in the YouTube realm. We've seen stuff like Digital Circus or Lack of Daisy or Hell of a Boss and Hasbin Hotel and everything. I like talking about those things, certainly, and I do look at them in a very positive light.
This is the latest from Glitch, with whom I should give a little bit of my background. I have seen an episode of Murder Drones and Digital Circus. They're both good but just don't interest me. I acknowledge they're very creative and well done. The best comparison I can have, which will probably lose a lot of readers, is to me it's kind of like Harry Potter where this is good, well-made. I just don't have that much interest in it.
But because I am a film reviewer, I have to review all the movies. They're not bad by any means. I don't know if I would keep going to see them if I didn't have to review them. I'm more of like a Lord of the Rings guy.
Anyway, this is something where when I heard it was announced, especially when I saw the trailer, I went, "Ooh, I'm interested in this." And Knights of Guinevere is a show where you do not need to know the history going into it, but it is a little bit more fun. I don't even know if I know the diehard history of it, but I know that one of the creators of it created Owl House, which I was a big fan of and apparently got really jerked around by Disney. Now they have made this show directly going after Disney.
It is not a show that if you don't know Disney, you can't follow it. You can, but it is more entertaining if you are aware of it. Somebody brought up a good point on a stream one time, one of the Q&A streams. They asked, "If this is going to be such a direct attack on Disney, is that hate going to get in the way of the storytelling?"
With any kind of satire, commentary could be done good or bad. In terms of the subject matter, Disney isn't something that's just a phase now and is going to go away. It has literally been around for a hundred years. It has earned the right to be mocked as big and huge and as detailed or as vague as you want because it has its hand in everything.
At the start, the idea was tapping into something eternal and hopeful, optimistic and upbeat like fairy tales. Beautiful things, in a lot of ways, succeeded, and in a lot of ways, it is still a business. It's one of the biggest businesses in the world and has been around for a hundred years. So there's going to be things to lampoon and just that contradiction of keeping things very simple with fairy tales but then trying to keep them very businesslike.
The contradiction is always interesting. We've definitely seen Disney, like most businesses, do stuff we disagree with or is not ethically right. You don't get that big without making mistakes or doing shady things over a hundred years.
So, it's fine to mock. Yes, it's been overly mocked, but that part is humorous that they don't pick up on certain things. They're too far removed or too deep into it, looking at demographics and charts.
With ups and downs over the years, of stuff influential and not, what I'm saying is it would be easy for it to just be, hey, I hate Disney, so I like this. That's not what this is. You could go in not knowing Walt Disney and still understand what's going on.
One clever part is with these animatronics, all the characters in this park are the same character, Gwen, all animatronics that once one sees you, remembers you, and downloads into the system. Thus, all the versions of this character remember you. Different versions include a mermaid Gwen, a princess Gwen, a skateboarder Gwen, somewhat satirical of Barbie archetypes.
The main characters, two techs, meet one animatronic, younger, in the park with a claw machine and later run into another animatronic Gwens. A scene reminiscent of Battle Angel Alita. It's not ripping off but feels like homage.
They're trying to revive this animatronic that can help them. My favorite line is when they figure out the issue and say, "It's not programmed to scream." That's the show's mystery engine.
In conclusion, I wish the pilot was at least two parts, as we get introduced to a lot, but Gwen, integral to the plot, comes in late. More time with this character would strengthen viewer engagement. Fans are excited. The opening had more characters, predicted more to be, and asked whether we'd love this world more given time.