Review: The Amazing Digital Circus

Well “Godzilla: Minus One” doesn’t come out until December so I've been working like a rabid dog to find something spooky to review for the Halloween season. And while this would be a nice pun if I was reviewing “Cujo” (Stephen King’s novel-turned-film about a rabid dog) unfortunately I have to pay to watch that movie so I’m rolling with what I can find on YouTube. And there it is! A 25-minute pilot for an animated web series with light horror elements just released. That’s right: the subject of today’s review is Glitch Productions’ own “The Amazing Digital Circus”.

Plot

The “The Amazing Digital Circus” is a magical children’s game where anything can happen (except swearing). Localised entirely on a dingy old computer in an old office building, anyone who plays finds themselves transported into the game and forced to inhabit a gaudy digital avatar for the rest of eternity with no memories of who they once were. The circus is controlled by the flamboyant ringmaster Caine, who just wants everyone to enjoy their stay and keep a level head… Primarily because something very bad happens to people who lose their minds in the circus. 

The pilot centres around a new victim of the circus named Pomni and her first day in the circus. Not long after her appearance in the circus grounds Caine gives her a quick tour, showing off the tent, the grounds, and the void. He urges her to not venture out to the latter, for not even he knows what it is and where it leads to. During the tour Pomni spots a red exit door out of the corner of her cartoonishly large eye, although upon relaying her findings to the other denizens of the circus she is met with extreme scepticism; Caine frantically insists that she is simply having a panic induced hallucination and that there is no exit. 

Can Pomni escape? Or will she be trapped in the Amazing Digital Circus forever?

…Oh I forgot to mention that people who spend too long in the circus have a bad tendency to “abstract”.  When someone loses their grasp on what little sanity they once had they degrade into an aimlessly violent mass of malfunctioning code and eyeballs.  And judging by how empty the rooms of many suspiciously missing circus residents are, and how full the “cellar” (a dark pit where Caine keeps all the abstractions) is, abstracting isn’t a particularly rare occurrence.  So if Pomni wants to leave she better do it quickly.

The Good

First things first is the animation.  It’s incredibly fluid and expressive. You could even watch through the pilot on mute and get a pretty good idea of who everyone is. There’s so much care put into the little details. Things like the intro being in a different aspect ratio and quality to simulate what 3D games looked like in the 90s, Pomni’s pupils constantly changing to suit her emotion, and the “glitchy” effects for when someone gets beat up, all make this a visual treat.

Oh, and when I said you could watch this on mute and still get a good grip on who everyone is, that was in no way meant to do a disservice to the amazing voice cast.  Everyone fits their role like a glove, and really elevates the characters.  The voice work in tandem with the animation makes sure that in spite of everyone’s limited screen time they all leave a strong impression on you.

And, last, is the music. While most web serieses tend to rely on Kevin Macleod’s seemingly endless library of royalty-free music, "The Amazing Digital Circus" has an all-original soundtrack by the writer/director of the show “Gooseworx” and Even Alderete.  Their music really elevates every scene, despite the fact that it’s usually not the focus. But when it's the star of the show it is outstanding. The intro is cheesy and upbeat enough to pass as an intro to a real kid’s show, even in spite of the little weird things sprinkled in it to throw you off, and “Your New Home” genuinely makes the ending one of my favourite parts of the entire pilot.

The Bad

While this show is advertised as psychological horror it simply isn’t scary. While it’s pretty good at sprinkling in little details to make you feel a little off, that’s just what it is: little details that make you feel off.  All of the “scary” moments feel sorely flat, and as such feel extremely weak. And even after all of the horror moments the writers feel the need to add in a joke, further killing any chance at feeling any sense of fear.  And while the tacky colourful mess that is the circus may be thematically appropriate it really does no favours for the show in building up a creepy atmosphere.

If I had to use one scene to represent my problems with this show it would be the exit scene. It’s so melodramatic and forced that I feel more sorry for the writers than I do frightened.  Plus it has a bad case of what I like to call “please for the love of MatPat, please make a theory for us-itis". Symptoms may include hamfisted lore attempts, cryptic details only added for the sake of being cryptic, and trying too hard to give me tonal whiplash from how cute and innocent everything appears on the surface.

Other than the horror bits I have one more problem with the writing: the humour. Even in spite of the superb animation and great delivery, a fair amount of jokes fall flat on their proverbial faces and don’t even elicit an audible nasal exhale.  A lot of them feel entirely pointless as well, serving only to fill in dialogue-less blank space.

And last - mostly a minor nitpick - despite looking completely at home the backgrounds are extremely busy and colourful, making it hard to focus on the characters or what’s going on.  This is the reason why I used pictures of the 2D versions of the characters from the outro in the character segment.

Final Verdict

“The Amazing Digital Circus” is an extremely well-made pilot with a lot of very talented people behind it, and all on an indie budget as well. For that it deserves praise.  While it’s got style to spare it is a bit lacking in the substance department, but remember this is only the pilot, so there’s plenty of opportunity to rectify that in the future. I give this pilot a 7.5/10! 

I’ve even considered watching some of Glitch Productions’ other shows because of this.  I urge you to go and give it a watch yourself for free on YouTube!