Glitch Studios is getting in on the trend of video game-inspired cartoons, but this series is its own unique franchise with its own world rather than an adaptation of an existing video game franchise. Unlike Netflix’s collection of love it or hate it video game cartoons, this title seems to have much more positive reception with its own sense of quirkiness. Let’s recap what went down in this pilot and what this show seems to be.
The show opens in a big action sequence without much clues or context as to what is going on. An anthropomorphic cat lady appears to be our protagonist and we see her fight robots. The robot antagonists eat other robots and just like Glitch’s last pilot Knights of Guinevere, robot gore ensues. With the help of her robot buddy, the cat lady goes through an armored transformation sequence before going into battle. The cat lady successfully defeats the robot, but then the world suddenly explodes and we see the anthropomorphic animal villagers panic as they face their doom.
The cat lady, who we learn is our protagonist Kit, wakes up from her traumatic flashback and she exposits the premise of the show. Video game worlds blow up for some reason when the hero defeats the final boss. In order to save the world, she needs to help video game villains defeat the heroes to prevent this mysterious tragedy from happening. She has a sardonic robot buddy named Kaboodle. Her other party appears to be a Barney lookalike (except he wears a necktie) named Gobbles. He is a learnasaur and appears to be the protagonist for a preschool edutainment game. Gobbles plays his own video game and learns how to say the word “cat.” The trio rides in a spaceship and travels to these video game worlds to fight video game heroes. It appears that this series is taking inspiration from the 1990s era of video games, with the focus on non-human mascot characters.
The pilot’s major video game world is about a dolphin named Flappers who is able to give himself big muscles and punch things. This dolphin might be a nod to 1990s video game Ecco the Dolphin, but the similarities are superficial enough that this dolphin is not an obvious copycat (I don’t remember Ecco getting that ripped). We get to see him in action and he is assisted by a guy made out of paper named Fold and a lady in a skimpy outfit named Miss Information. This duo seems to be the Team Rocket of the series, an evil, comedic duo that helps video game heroes so their world can be doomed. They are part of the organization Syntax, whose goal it is to help video game heroes win so their worlds can be destroyed. Our protagonists talk to Flappers and try to distract him from his mission to fight the game’s main villain, but this doesn’t work as he is determined to fight. The heroes try to assist the villain, Snappers, who says “Who dares enter my lair” every time someone enters. He is disappointed that Flappers isn’t there. Flappers finally comes and fights Snappers.
Snappers shoots fireballs, but Flappers punches the fireballs away and is able to defeat the final boss. Our protagonists get into a fight with Fold and Miss Information while this happens. Flappers accidentally causes his world to be destroyed and he is taken aboard our protagonist’s ship. It turns out that Kit and her crew are made up of heroes who defeated the final boss of their game and caused their worlds to be destroyed. Yes, even Gobbles the Barney knockoff apparently had an arch-nemesis he defeated and somehow doomed his world. Surely, a later episode will fill in on the details of this.
Miss Information and Fold talk to their boss Warrick, who is a horned creature who looks like the cartoon evil overlord stereotype. He saved Snappers from his world’s destruction and invites Snappers to join his side. Snappers refuses and Warrick kills him as punishment. This ends the episode.
The whole stop the hero from beating the game premise seems like this series is taking heavy inspiration from the 1994 cartoon Reboot. This time with more swearing. I had some fun with this pilot and this show has some potential to play with its 1990s video game and general pop culture inspirations. This wasn’t a groundbreaking pilot, but it’s fun for what it is and its nostalgic 1990s throwbacks make it stand out from the other Glitch series.
