Cuphead swept the gaming world a couple years ago as being one of the most beautifully designed and downright difficult games of the period. No matter how frustrating it was to play, people would die and then jump right back into the game to die again! So when it was announced that they were bringing an animated series to Netflix, we were incredibly intrigued to review it.
As always before we jump into a Conner’s Critique of the series, I will warn you that there might be some minor spoilers in this review, and some of them might even spoil the game. As always we’re going to breakdown the show by its story, acting, and overall.
Story 7/10
If you were a big fan of of the original Mickey Mouse cartoons, then this show is definitely going to be for you. Original Mickey Mouse cartoons, the ones in which Mickey was still kind of a little bit of a jerk, doing a little bit jerky type stuff to us to the other people in the cartoons. While the color and design of this cartoon has some more modern styles, mixing mediums like physical and art, the style does still heavily relys the old world animation feel.
The episodes aren’t incredibly long, and focus primarily on Cuphead and the Mugman (or Mugsy as Cuphead calls him). These two love to adventure around their world. A world which is filled with animal and object based people with limbs, eyes, and mouths just like Cuphead and Mugsy.
Through their adventures they As they may enter through their world, they meet interesting foes along the way that strive to test their bond and challenge their upbeat spirit. However, they hardly notice.
Acting 8/10
The voices of Cuphead and Mugman are played by Tru Valentino and Frank Todaro. Their guardian and father figure is Elder Kettle who is voiced by Joe Hanna. These three work well together voicing the characters, and making it believable that they are a family unit. Which helps them come to life.
In all fairness it’s hard to like represent characters like Cuphead and Mugman, but the work performed by these voice actors are paramount to this series. They are jerks, and punks, and the voice actor is who finds a way to somehow make these menaces still likable. Thanks to their work, who wouldn’t want to double down with Cuphead.
I also want to give credit to Luke Millington-Drake who voices the Devil in this series. I was really impressed with his performance and how well the animation team took his vocal work and attached to the physical mannerisms of the character who he is playing. There’s something just inherently enjoyable about a whiny Lord of Darkness, king of all evil.
Overall 7/10
These cartoon episodes are very bite sized. It’s easy to jump in and enjoy at a long run of the episodes and not even realize you’ve blown through all 12 episodes.
It’s core connects with the older days of Disney in style and comedy. Thanks to that it feels very familiar to a lot of odd timer fans of animation. The art style of the game was designed specifically for this factor, and it makes it a lot easier to absorb the content.
I definitely don’t recommend this for a much younger audiences, because like the old Jackass warning title cards, they might get ideas and you could end up raising Dennis the Menace.
Conner’s Final thoughts
If you haven’t seen or played the video game, don’t worry you can still really enjoy this show. The series isn’t a 1 for 1 representation of the game, there are nods and connections back and forth between each other. It’s definitely not necessary to know the game’s back story with the characters to be able to enjoy the show.
Make sure to check out Cuphead on Netflix Here on February 18, 2022.
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