Bee and Puppycat

I would like to take a moment to recommend that you back the Bee and Puppycat Kickstarter. There are only 9 days to go, and I believe it is representative of exactly what Kickstarter is here for.

To begin, I have no affiliation with the project in any way, shape or form. I don't know anyone that's working on it, and it doesn't really have anything to do with RPGs.

Natasha Allegri

Bee and Puppycat is a cartoon by Natasha Allegri. She's a character designer and storyboard artist on Adventure Time and, I believe, is responsible for the way Finn's gender alt Fionna looks among other things. She seems like an awesome, funny and super sincere person in a quiet and flighty kind of way (check out this interview), but this post is about the quality of the art and not the personality of its creator.*

The goal of the Kickstarter is to raise $600,000 to make six more episodes of Bee and Puppycat with stretch goal potential for more. The project is being run by Frederator Studios for Cartoon Hangover which consistently delivers wonderful things and seems to truly give a shit about protecting and defending their artist's visions. My personal bias in all this is that I think animation is humanity's highest art form and if I could ever be a part of a cartoon project I'd want to work with Frederator above all others.






So what makes Bee and Puppycat so special?

#1 It's beautiful

Cat scratch fever dream?

#2 It's funny
Accidental dick punches are always funny. As are farts, and thumbing ones nose at an authority figure by eating all their candy after they ignore you. Great stuff.


#3 It feels so fucking sincere it almost makes me sick
Bee feels real. The show begins with her having just been fired and her depression is executed so well. Then it goes on to effortlessly execute bashful love, embarassment, and self doubt.

#4 It Pushes
To me it feels like Bee and Puppycat is trying new things. The voice of Puppycat uses the "Oliver" vocaloid (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-D23aBPOc6g).

#5 Excellent use of tropes
Tangentially related to number #4 it does an excellent job of using tropes, allowing them to expertly draw the audience in, but then slaps, stretches and flips them. (costume, oh but I hate it)

#6 It's fucking weird, in the right way
Go to fishbowl space to babysit giant fish that's on, not in a fishbowl. Talking, yet apparently unrelated ladybugs.

#7 The Zoom
In my opinion this is so fucking important for any story and even in just one episode Bee and Puppycat shows the future potential so elegantly. It does this by telling a story of love and betrayal using song and then gives a single flash, right at the end of the show to indicate that there is truth to that story.

#8 Darkness and Light
I believe the... cleansing(?) of stories for children is a disservice to civilization. Darkness, badness, evilness, wickedness, corruption (and so much more) is real, and to cut it out of stories told to children is awful. Cartoons, like the fairy tales of old need, to be able to explore serious topics and Bee and Puppycat have already explore a lawfully sociopathic authority figure as well a monster in disguise.

But don't take my word for it. Watch the first episode and use that brain of yours to decide for yourself!








Check out the Kickstarter and let's help make this happen!

*Note: It's possible to have a long drawn out discussion about the fact that powerful art cannot be created by an interesting, powerful or compelling personality, but that's a discussion for another time. And I wrote this most all of this blog post before I'd even seen her tumblr. She's brilliant. Her work is amazing. I just... I don't even know. I think the world is richer because of people like Natasha. I cannot even begin to imagine how much amazing stuff is going to come from this show if it can become a show.

http://natazilla.tumblr.com/