So let me tell you about this show's premise.
A war horse from a war torn world of humans is teleported into a bizarre world of colorful, obnoxious, and varyingly insane centaur-esque creatures that have magical powers (one of which is the ability to create miniature, existentially dreading versions of themselves). That horse named "Horse" begrudgingly joins a herd of centaurs and embarks a journey of self-discovery, memeable faces, body horror, PTSD, depression, and existential dread. And it's also a musical.
This sounds like a desperate and stupid premise that would offer no depth or a specific tone. Something that would be designed specifically for kids and nothing more than a cash grab.
But here's the most insane part: CentaurWorld is not only surprising, but also one of the best shows I've seen this year. The animation is fluid and top notch, and not just in the action scenes, but just consistently excellent with the characters' movements being fluidly expressive and the landscapes they cross are nice and varied.
Speaking of, the characters are fun and bubbly; Horse is a superb, down to earth straight man who slowly warms up to the crazy realm of the Centaurs; the Herd is weird, almost infantile and borderline insane at points. My personal favorite character from the show is Wammawink, who is adorable, motherly, a wonderful foil to Horse, and easily the most layered and tragic character in the Herd.
And what I love most about this show is the willingness to drop the mostly light-hearted tone and delve into deeper and darker themes like identity, existential dread, despair, war, and post traumatic stress. Even the dread and despair bleed into the music numbers.
Lastly, the one thing I dreaded going into this series was the musical numbers. But I gotta say, most of the songs here are actual banger, with a couple having a lot of emotional power. There are a lot of songs in each of the episodes, but they are short and varied enough to not overstay their welcome (even if some of the transitions into the songs feel abrupt and clumsy). While a handful of the songs are reminders that this still directed mostly to kids, the songs here are actually great and meld well with the scenes.
The show isn't without its faults though. Again, some of the song transitions can feel sudden and clumsy; the herd, while can be funny, can get on viewers' nerves. But this show depends heavily on taste, since not everyone will likely enjoy this movie mainly because of the premise, the humor, or the character design.
Beneath the blindingly colorful exterior, CentaurWorld is deceptively brilliant. The animation is stunning, the characters are likable, the show takes the right balance of keeping the journey slow enough to not feel rushed, but fast enough to keep the characters going. If anything, this show reminds me a lot of Arlo the Alligator Boy, a movie I had a lot of expectations with. But where that movie was a clumsy sales pitch for an upcoming series, The situation here is the opposite. I had no expectations with CentaurWorld, but ended up loving this show. This weird, but brilliant show.
So I got a chance to see the show in its entirety and Season 2 continues that's streak, albeit with more shaky execution. The first half is not as good as the latter, with the humor more hit-or-miss (though when the jokes hit, they *really* hit) and the overall soundtrack, still good, but not as memorable and a bit over-reliant on reprises. The season does pick itself up after Episode 3 and the movie-length finale is ingenious and a massive improvement over last season's finale. But even then, the muddy execution of the first half really knocks this season down a peg.
This show is still a 10/10, but if I were to individually graded the seasons, season 1 would be a 9.5 out of 10, and season 2 is a 9 out of 10.
A war horse from a war torn world of humans is teleported into a bizarre world of colorful, obnoxious, and varyingly insane centaur-esque creatures that have magical powers (one of which is the ability to create miniature, existentially dreading versions of themselves). That horse named "Horse" begrudgingly joins a herd of centaurs and embarks a journey of self-discovery, memeable faces, body horror, PTSD, depression, and existential dread. And it's also a musical.
This sounds like a desperate and stupid premise that would offer no depth or a specific tone. Something that would be designed specifically for kids and nothing more than a cash grab.
But here's the most insane part: CentaurWorld is not only surprising, but also one of the best shows I've seen this year. The animation is fluid and top notch, and not just in the action scenes, but just consistently excellent with the characters' movements being fluidly expressive and the landscapes they cross are nice and varied.
Speaking of, the characters are fun and bubbly; Horse is a superb, down to earth straight man who slowly warms up to the crazy realm of the Centaurs; the Herd is weird, almost infantile and borderline insane at points. My personal favorite character from the show is Wammawink, who is adorable, motherly, a wonderful foil to Horse, and easily the most layered and tragic character in the Herd.
And what I love most about this show is the willingness to drop the mostly light-hearted tone and delve into deeper and darker themes like identity, existential dread, despair, war, and post traumatic stress. Even the dread and despair bleed into the music numbers.
Lastly, the one thing I dreaded going into this series was the musical numbers. But I gotta say, most of the songs here are actual banger, with a couple having a lot of emotional power. There are a lot of songs in each of the episodes, but they are short and varied enough to not overstay their welcome (even if some of the transitions into the songs feel abrupt and clumsy). While a handful of the songs are reminders that this still directed mostly to kids, the songs here are actually great and meld well with the scenes.
The show isn't without its faults though. Again, some of the song transitions can feel sudden and clumsy; the herd, while can be funny, can get on viewers' nerves. But this show depends heavily on taste, since not everyone will likely enjoy this movie mainly because of the premise, the humor, or the character design.
Beneath the blindingly colorful exterior, CentaurWorld is deceptively brilliant. The animation is stunning, the characters are likable, the show takes the right balance of keeping the journey slow enough to not feel rushed, but fast enough to keep the characters going. If anything, this show reminds me a lot of Arlo the Alligator Boy, a movie I had a lot of expectations with. But where that movie was a clumsy sales pitch for an upcoming series, The situation here is the opposite. I had no expectations with CentaurWorld, but ended up loving this show. This weird, but brilliant show.
So I got a chance to see the show in its entirety and Season 2 continues that's streak, albeit with more shaky execution. The first half is not as good as the latter, with the humor more hit-or-miss (though when the jokes hit, they *really* hit) and the overall soundtrack, still good, but not as memorable and a bit over-reliant on reprises. The season does pick itself up after Episode 3 and the movie-length finale is ingenious and a massive improvement over last season's finale. But even then, the muddy execution of the first half really knocks this season down a peg.
This show is still a 10/10, but if I were to individually graded the seasons, season 1 would be a 9.5 out of 10, and season 2 is a 9 out of 10.