The Last Kids on Earth

The fast paced jump cuts and manic montages reminded me of Edgar Wright's movies so this was a delight to watch. There are plenty of movies and games references around, and small details to notice. The animation is incredible. Plot and characters are well done cliches, but cliches nonetheless, the whole "crush on a girl that turns to be strong and doesn't need help" thing is kinda passé at this point, but I'll dismiss it as it's the first episode, hopefully they will tone it down eventually, the main character is too endearing to be stuck on this one note joke.

Right of the bat I was very intrigued by this show. The premise could have been more original but I liked it and I liked the tone. We had a fun narrator-protagonist making the best of a bad apocalypse. They way that video game mechanics are liberally integrated into the visual style are fresh, vibrant and also add a poignant edge as we realise that this is his coping mechanism to not deal with the vicious reality.

"Book 1" is our feature length pilot that "Book 2" sadly never quite equals because there's simply too much filler. There's something very charming in this band of kids that would mostly never socialize in real life becoming a surrogate family including a school bully with some nerds and *that* kind of girl.

I think June is a pretty well developed character but a part of me can't shake that she is a very deliberate and somewhat pandering example of the "strong female". It's not that she's a caustic and strong that I dislike, I think it's awesome, but she has Hermione Granger syndrome where she is blatantly the most competent and emotionally mature character and must remain a sort of mother to the male characters that surround her. I know that's a rather pedantic issue but I've been reading Firestone...

Jim's very well acknowledged crush on her from the beginning prevents them ever being a satisfying romantic interest. As for Jim himself, he gradually becomes a less and less relatable character from his incorrigible habit of going rogue.

As I mentioned, a lot of this is filler, but at it's best we have a mature story of people dealing with formidable situations and learning to trust each other. At times very predictable, it was easy to want to see what they were dealing with this week. The set pieces, epic monster battles and superb creature design never disappoint.

Could it be better? Sure. But you could do so much worse.

I liked the movie as an adult to which the interactive stories format is a novelty, but the kind of horror story sanitized for children vibe really threw me off. There are four kids that are walking cliches who perkily describe themselves as the last kids on Earth after a magical void turned everybody to monsters and zombies. They have fun, they drive a car around monsters or fight them, they die sometimes, but they are always commercial-like happy. It's creepy as hell!

I liked the badge system that kind of lets you know when you finished a particular branch, but there is no way to see how many badges you got or there are still to get, which makes it kind of pointless. I liked the fast-forward system that stops at a decision, but I also disliked that they show an entire scene before letting you choose, so for three choices you have to see the pre-choice scene three times. I liked how they combined the animation scenes in the different flows, although some were a bit off, like failing to get an item, but following with a scene where a kid puts something in the trunk.

Bottom line: a good effort, much more fun than Bandersnatch and more entertaining than Carmen Sandiego. It's still not working as it should, though, as it is hard to feel you are in a story from the moment one reaches the end and has to select from the latest choices backwards, otherwise they lose the choice tree.

Now that was a monster slaying, zombie killing apocalypse of fun and loved the animation, the sense of humour and the plot.

I'm never going to grow old for animation because it just gets better every time and makes me feel young again when watching.

As an 18 year old almost turning 19 very soon I enjoyed this show. The first episode caught my attention. I love the animation and art its so smooth and nice to look at and admire. Like the voice actors except for Jude. The scientist boy sound kinda off but whatever. The show has great dialogue and action that I don't get bored at all. And the characters interactions were great and not cringe for me haha. This show makes me laugh because its just funny. How the guy makes it into a video game. This is honestly a great show. And how its happening to middle schoolers kinda make me laugh. Can't wait for next episode; seems great. Haven't read the books but after watching this i'll buy the books and read them.