chinbagdeluxe

WOW. Just, wow. I've always appreciated how Smiling Friends has subverted the tropes and general cliches of modern animation, but I think this decision, and episode as a whole, takes the cake for the most daring and hopefully influential thing that the show has ever done, though there's a reason I have subtracted one star from my rating. Right from the get-go the scene in the ancient temple underneath Smiling Friends H. Q. is a great little piece of worldbuilding. Obviously it's just a joke but I hope they keep the little sandy footprints around the office in season 3 as a nod to this ep. Pim thinking the artifact was macaroni is funny on its own, but imo Mr. Boss' freak-out after Pim wastes the golden glowing jpeg of an idol makes the scene so much better, even if it's not the first time. The episode kind of slows towards the middle when Pim tries to hide his green nature in that ridiculous trench coat, but thankfully due to the show's fast pace we very soon get to my favourite scene in the episode. Charlie shouting "Alien alien, go away!" and kicking Pim in his freaking eye made me spit out my coffee all over my T. V.! I also really like how they used Gelp in this episode. As a 'green guy' himself, his speech to the crew about acceptance being in normal English was again, a really funny subversion. All in all, this episode was daring in that it showed how the series could change a major character's design and still keep its heart. My one problem is that once Pim's trench coat falls off he blends in with the grassy background too much (maybe a meta-joke, you never know with this show lmao).

9/10: Funny, important but still has heart!

The Alan Becker team has time and time again shown their ability to make the amount of effort needed to beautifully animate their videos worth it through fully fleshed out concepts, impressive sound design, genuinely good writing and the restraint so many YouTube animated projects seem to lack. Animation vs. Minecraft Shorts is the prime example of that, with more contained episodes showing off great visual comedy and the exploration of ideas found in the series' unique setting and more serialised, story-driven strings of episodes that take their time to create an interesting story without wasting a single second. So much love and refinement was clearly put into each and every chapter of this show, it's mind-blowing to think an independent team made it. An easy 9/10, beating the many other YouTube animated series that lack the aforementioned qualities.