3 Swirlies

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikf4PBxuu4Y

Interesting.

It looks like the animation studio that does Happy Tree Friends is trying to branch out into something new. This 10 minute video features three shorter videos; “Weaponized Animal Regiment”, “Buddhist Monkey” and “Mole in the City.” They are all very different, but still have that blood and guts and violence Happy Tree Friends style of comedy. It feels more like a programming block than a series.

I wonder if they felt they were running out of ideas for Happy Tree Friends, and they wanted to move on to other concepts? This one’s called “Alpha” and the next one is called “Beta” which makes me wonder if these are only test episodes to see how the internet audience would react. Maybe the three different series will change based on feedback, or maybe “Beta” will feature different characters. We’ll have to watch the next one to find out.

I kinda feel the same way about these cartoons as I do about Happy Tree Friends, they’re really well done and super polished but the gags are all just blood and violence. I have nothing against blood and violence, but for me the jokes feel repetitive.

The first one, Weaponized Animal Regiment, reminded me most of Happy Tree Friends. I feel like they were trying to give it a formula, with Flippy ruining the mission and getting everyone killed and then his split personality taking over and giving everyone around him a beat down. I didn’t really understand Buddhist Monkey, and I’m not sure I was supposed to. It is essentially a parody of martial arts films. There’s a shadowy bad guy, and an assassin sent to kill Buddhist Monkey and they fight. All that I get. But then the Pig Assassin’s wicker bowl/hat turns into a crab monster? I’m confused. And finally, Mole in the City made me think of spy vs. spy, maybe just because the bad guy’s a rat. I felt like it was the least like Happy Tree Friends, in that there was less violence and more caper type fun.

All in all, I guess my sense of humour just isn’t the same as the guys behind Happy Tree Friends. I’m more of a Moolt guy, I suppose. But I am interested in this experiment in new shows, so we’ll check into Ka-Pow Beta when we get a chance here on The Watch List.

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