Netflix announced a new cartoon series today: The Cuphead Show! Based off Studio MDHR's 2017 side scroller Cuphead, the show is expected to "expand on the characters and world of Cuphead, with animation style inspired by the classic Fleischer cartoons from the 1930s," according to the press release.
Not sure how to feel about this one
Iām nervous. 1930s animation stuff can get real . . . . Not great for black people visually. Lots of stuff they can pay homages to can be suspect as heck.
Yeah, this is maybe not the best idea unless theyāre finally going to actually address some of the issues with this animation style (which I doubt)
Iām glad the article refers back to Coleās article on Cuphead and the racism that is inherint in Fleischer-era animation.
Where there was novelty on a technical level for a game using this style, another cartoon that uses this animation style uncritically is completely innapropriate, and the quote cited from MDHR back with the games release was really discouraging
āWeāre Canadian so all this āracismā stuff doesnāt apply to usā
ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
EDIT: on second pass through, i think i hate their quote even more. This whole āwell gee golly we are just ignorant Canadians, we donāt know anything about the 1930 USA media despite deliberately picking it to be our artstyleā is so goddamn insincere.
Ah yes, love it when my countrymen apparently donāt know what racism is just a short while after our government officially acknowledged the continued genocide of indigenous peoples thatās integral to Canadaās sovereignty.
I fucking hate this country and our faux ignorance and/or innocence.
I would be much happier if they put out more Cuphead music and left the animation out of it.
Considering the producers signed onto the project, Iām predicting this is going to be stylistically more alike to the 90s animation style of Nickelodeon than sticking to the Fleischer inspiration of the game itself.
Thatās probably the right decision to further distance themselves from the controversial imagery of those original cartoons, but itās still so disappointing that they arenāt willing to fully own up to how much of the gameās imagery is still tinged with those prejudiced ideas, as Cole outlined in his piece.
While I understand all the problems associated with it, a Cuphead animated TV show that isnāt done in the Cuphead animation style would be one of the most boneheaded decisions Iāve ever heard of. The animation style is Cupheadās whole thing! Without it, itās just another indie action-platformer that almost certainly would not be getting a TV show.
