by Chris Lovato
As we continue to review web series, here are some fun animated ones!
Bravest Warriors
“Any job they can do, we can do. We’re the Bravest Warriors!”
With the rising popularity of Adventure Time, cartoons have become mainstream among the people they were popular with 20-something years ago. Since those people are “all grown up,” it’s become necessary to cater them toward adults and that is exactly what Pendleton Ward, the creator of Adventure Time seeks to do with his newest and quite popular, series: The Bravest Warriors.
In the year 3085, a group of heroes, the Courageous Battlers, goes missing in an alternate dimension (or “zone”), leaving their kids behind. Together, Beth, Chris, Danny, and Wallow, form the Bravest Warriors, a junior version of their parents’ band. While the Warriors jump between dimensions to find their parents in the See-Through Zone, they’re accompanied by a few…creatures, like Impossibear and Catbug, and of course, what cartoon would be complete without a horse paralyzed because he discovered the meaning of forever? This one definitely wouldn’t.
Although Ward got some well-known names for the pilot, like Tara Strong, a relatively unknown cast carries the show and carries it well. Alex Walsh voices Chris, the leader with a perpetual crush on his friend Beth, played by Liliana Mumy (Mertle from Lilo & Stitch). John Omohundro is Danny, and Ian Jones-Quartey (animator for The Venture Bros.) plays Wallow. In an interesting casting decision, they cast four-year-old Sam Lavagnino as Catbug, a creature that’s half-cat, half-ladybug, who’s actually a big draw for the series simply for the random comments he makes and the sound of his voice.
The animation, while very similar to Adventure Time’s, offers some neat effects and gives the familiar feeling of Saturday Morning Cartoons while offering something new every episode, and since each one is around 5 minutes long, it won’t take long to get through the first season.
Overall, if you like Adventure Time, or are just looking for something you can cram a few episodes in of on a break at work, the Bravest Warriors is definitely worth a look, if not for the simple mindless humor of it all.
The Bravest Warriors can be found in their own channel on YouTube!
Homestar Runner
“Everybody! Everybody!”
Back in 2000, two guys and some other people created a website, and it wasn’t long before the Internet was abuzz. Now, 14 years later, the ‘toons stand the test of time and where can all of this be found? Homestarrunner.com. This site introduces a motley crew of characters, adventures, and webtoons galore, but there are two that stand out in particular.
Strong Bad E-mails, or sbemails, are the overreaching chronicle of Strong Bad, a Mexican wrestler-type character who spends his free time responding to actual e-mails from the site. Of course, Strong Bad doesn’t have nice things to say to the people who send him questions, which only make things more hilarious. The questions range from everything like: “What would you be like as an anime character?” to “How do you type with boxing gloves on?” (Strong Bad lacks fingers) and even spawn some jokes that spill over into the other toons. There are more sbemails than you can count, and each offers something different to the last.
The other highlight of the site came from a sbemail, and it’s been a fan favorite since it appeared: Teen Girl Squad. Based on a request from a high school girl to draw a comic about her and her friends and drawn on notebook paper, it tells the story of Cheerleader, So-and-so, What’s Her Face and The Ugly One, a popular clique of teenage high school stick-figure girls. Strong Bad, being the creator, voices all of the girls in falsetto, and their antics among the 15+ episodes are enough to keep you laughing for quite a while.
Although the site’s popularity has declined over the last four years, people who visited the site in its heyday will appreciate revisiting the toons, and people who aren’t familiar with it will enjoy getting to know the characters. Oh, and if sbemails and TGS aren’t enough for you when you’re done, check out the rest of the site! The toons featuring the other characters are worth a look as well.
Get on over to Homestarrunner.com and check it out!
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