Deadtime Stories

Sometimes, it's twice as hard to sell a pilot to greenlight a series as it is to actually make one, because you never know who's actually gonna pick it up or leave it to rot. In the case of the dropped MTV pilot Deadtime Stories, it shows a much more unique side to the horror genre that fits perfectly for the art of animation. To this day, it remains as nothing more than a pilot that never got picked up for a series, but now we can all look back on it as a fascinating specimen of study. So what exactly does this cartoon have to offer that other series of its time didn't quite have? A deep psychoanalysis of a deranged girl.

Told from the perspective of a young girl named Evola, who was diagnosed as insane and even at one point sent into a mental ward, she goes over to her neighbor's house to give a gingerbread cookie, but comes across the neighbor's mysterious little daughter. As the story is put into the perspective of a deranged girl, the short does not hold back in leaving its viewers questioning more about Evola's psychosis. Given her parent's weary relationship with her (her father at no point says a word to his own flesh & blood), one must imagine how badly Evola's view of the world has affected her own well being (she can literally talk to herself). As for the neighbor's daughter, without specifying her strange case, let's just say the short allows the viewers to properly wonder whether or not Evola's telling the truth or not, like the best horror stories do. The only other character in the short would be Evola's neighbor named Smirk, who may or may not have a hate-love friendship with her, since he clearly loves to prank people with scary stuff.

Now in terms of technicalities, the art direction of the short is breathtaking, as it feels like a gothic children's storybook brought to life through animation. While the actual movement is obviously more limited, the restricted motions actually create more of a charm in the cartoon's creepy tone, as if the stiff motion is intentional from the cartoon being a literal horror story. In addition, the voice acting is very strong, as whoever voiced Evola did a successful job of making even a mentally insane patient sympathetic and even relatable. Although the sound quality can be a little distorted at times, it actually fits the short's creepy aesthetic, as if the whole story is meant to be ghostlike in some way. Beyond that, the music really knows how to put one at the edge of their seat, most notably when the tone is at its most suspenseful. If there's one slight complaint I do have about the cartoon, which even then is really minor, it would be how the short would have fit multiple episodes. Obviously we'll never know, but the short ended off on such a grand open door for more stories that my curiosity is still peaked to this day.

And that right there is the sad reality of leaving something so good in the hands of a network with no interest in anything truly deep. I'm not quite sure as to why MTV was even seen as the ideal network for this pilot given their track record, but here's hoping that one day the short could at least inspire future generations of artists and storytellers to tell their own unique tales of supernatural horror and deep-routed psychology. To this day, this cartoon remains a truly unique case study of a strange little girl that we have not yet seen in the art of animated filmmaking, at least not as of late.