Don't get me wrong, I really like the rest of Inanimate Insanity (apart from season 3), and I get that this finale is a homage to the over a decade old series, but to me this just felt unrecognisable from where the show started, and I think that's a bad thing. Think of season 1, a season obviously made by kids with the low quality animation and the childish sense of humour. To me, that's what I want from an object show, for it to feel childish and fun and silly and nothing else. It doesn't have to be made by a large team, it doesn't have to have perfect writing and it definitely doesn't need the seemingly constant reminders that this show is made by adults, not kids and that it is so deep and intelligent; because really, no matter how much older the creators may be, or how many impossibly long ramblings about morals or life lessons that never seem to make their point, object shows are made to be fun. They're made to be silly. The whole concept of a show with talking objects is just crazy and hilarious, so why does inanimate insanity seem to try so hard to be serious and to be realistic when that's the opposite of what it's meant to be? I'm not saying that no one can ever branch out from this or that no shows can ever be serious at all, I'm just saying that it doesn't feel right. It feels like inanimate insanity is trying to be something that it's not. When it shoves it down your throat so hard that this show is so emotionally mature and clever, you get sick of it really quickly. On the contrary, early season 2 was great, the funny faces, silly jokes and overall goofy tone was really entertaining, along with some messages sprinkled throughout that actually felt important because they weren't constantly shoved in your face and weren't the defining factor of the episodes. I do appreciate the amount of effort that goes into this show and the quality is amazing but that isn't important when you are lacking a lot of other things that make a show special. I wouldn't usually criticise an object show this much but if inanimate insanity begs to be taken seriously then that's what I'm gonna do.
The basis of pretty much all object shows are characters. In ii season 1, the characters were fun and basic, obviously taking heavy inspiration from bfdi's cast. In early season 2 they tried to build off these characteristics whilst also staying true to each character. It worked very well and most characters were simple enough but also had some depth to them to keep things interesting. As season 2 went on, the writers seemed to attempt to make these characters as human as possible. I understand the appeal of this since some people like to relate to the characters I guess but i'm not too fussed either way. To me the idea that Mephone made the contestants and the show as a way to 'rebel against cobs' seems completely ridiculous to me. Sure it might make for a more interesting plot and character development, but as for Mephone's motives in this, his character feels so watered down that it's actually difficult to tell whether he's the good guy or bad guy in all of this, though Mephone is probably the worst case because I do believe some other characters' development is way more clear and handled better; Taco, Knife and Suitcase to name a few. I also think that Cobs works much better as a comedic character rather than a main villian. His personality in his first appearances just felt better suited to him (it's not a big deal though as I enjoy him as a villian despite his lack of motive). One thing I do enjoy are the songs. They've been prominent for a while now and I think they're really fun and entertaining; especially when they are used to express a characters feelings (I'd much rather it happen through song than the dreaded rambling). Although I still love Inanimate Insanity I can't help but spot the many flaws in it's final show-ruining finale like of the lack of charm and cringe worthy forced seriousness and complexity.
