TV Season Review - The Cuphead Show (Season 1)

 

So I'd like to take a moment to wish everyone a happy International Women's Day today. Many people assume that the gaming world is nothing but men, which is not true at all. You'd be amazed at the many female gamers and women working in the gaming industry today. All about diversity, people! So what does that have to do with this show, you may ask. Well a little while ago, a video game called Cuphead was created which at first seemed to be a trip down the animation style of those old Disney and Looney Tunes cartoons from long before my time. What we didn't expect from it is for it to be very difficult (though not as unforgiving as the Dark Souls games), but still fun and nostalgic in a way. So Netflix's latest original cartoon is an adaptation of that very video game. Let's take a look:

Like most cartoons like it, The Cuphead Show is very much a series full of self-contained 20-minute episodes that follow the misadventures of the titular Cuphead (voiced by Tru Valentino) and his brother Mugman (voiced by Frank Todaro). Throughout the cartoon are pretty much most of the characters you would have seen in the game, all being exactly as they are depicted. Throughout the show, the Devil (voiced by Luke Millington-Drake) tries to claim Cuphead's soul, but seems to get foiled at every turn (well at first anyway).

For what it is, it's pretty good. It's in every way like the video game, but without the millions of game overs. It's got that eye-popping animation that made the game look good, with every episode opening like a Looney Tunes cartoon. The attention to detail to make it feel like that style is definitely there. No stand out episodes to speak of, but I find this surprising that it's been given a U rating (the UK's rating for being suitable for all) despite how obvious that it looks more PG if anything else. 7/10