The world of indie animation is small. When pitted against multimillion-dollar studios like Disney or Dreamworks that churn out blockbuster after blockbuster, independent companies frequently get lost in the shadows, along with the art they produce. Animation is expensive, time consuming and labor intensive, and creating a high-quality animated production becomes nearly impossible when you’re a small company with no institutional funding.
Because of this, YouTube has become something of a haven for small animators and startup animation companies to post their work for the public. Although it doesn’t usually compensate artists for their hard work, YouTube provides a free platform for creators to share their talents.
Sometimes, animators get really lucky. The controversial “Hazbin Hotel” started as a YouTube venture until it was picked up by A24 and Amazon Prime. Its spin-off, “Helluva Boss,” still exists solely on YouTube. At its peak, the pilot of “Hazbin Hotel” got more than 115 million views and “Helluva Boss” consistently gets about 50-60 million views. Unfortunately, the success of the creator of “Hazbin Hotel,” Vivienne Medrano (also known as Vivziepop), is not a typical story for online animators by any means — most only see moderate success, if any.
Glitch Productons, known as GLITCH on YouTube, is one animation channel that found occasional success with a small fan community. Founded in 2017, the company had only one goal in mind: “change the way the west creates teen and young adult animation.” The small company began posting videos nearly four years ago with a trailer of its first-ever independently funded show, “Meta Runner.” The video only reached about 500,000 views, which is modest by today’s standards of virality. Nevertheless, they continued to post episodes of their show, some even reaching one million views.
Many indie animators have been living off of decent views and strong support from a dedicated but niche fanbase since the dawn of YouTube, and GLITCH was no exception. When they posted the pilot episode of their second venture, “Murder Drones,” they found the success they’d been looking for. At an impressive 63 million views, it was the most-watched video on their platform for a long time. Even after continuously releasing episodes for “Meta Runner” and “Murder Drones,” the YouTube account had less than four million subscribers.
For years, it seemed as though GLITCH, just like the hundreds of other animators looking to make their mark on the industry, would never break out into the mainstream.
This is why it is so astonishing, and almost jaw dropping, that GLITCH’s newest addition to their repertoire was able to amass more 100 million views within its first month of release, eventually amassing more 370 million views. Posted in October 2023, “THE AMAZING DIGITAL CIRCUS: PILOT” immediately found a fan base that was massive, passionate and ready for more.
Created by small content creator Gooseworx, “THE AMAZING DIGITAL CIRCUS” is about — for lack of a better explanation — a digital circus. The main character, Pomni (Lizzie Freeman, “Rilakkuma’s Theme Park Adventure”), finds herself in a strange digital space with no memories of her previous life, a new body and no means of escaping. In this digital circus, she must go on “adventures’’ with her fellow prisoners by the orders of a strange artificial intelligence ringmaster, Caine (Alex Rochon, “Fazbear & Friends”). Now in the body of a sad clown, Pomni must find a way to accept her new life and find solace in her new company of wacky characters who have also been imprisoned in the digital circus.
Only four episodes have been released as of now. Each one focuses on a different adventure the cast of characters are sent on, from a horror-themed haunted house mystery to a day in the life of a fast food worker. After each adventure, Pomni learns more about her new life and the people she’s surrounded by.
Although the setting of the show is fantastical, its themes are subversively grounded. In the midst of its surrealist plot, the show focuses on building the relationships between characters as they navigate through this digital hell together. For example, in episode two, Pomni befriends a self-aware NPC, and they discuss the nature of their existence until he is destroyed by Caine. In episode three, Pomni goes on an adventure with Kinger (Sean Chiplock, “Mission: Yozakura Family”), a crazy old man in the body of a chess piece, and the two talk about death and finding meaning in such an imprisoned life. The show’s attention to themes of humanity, relationships and resilience are, no doubt, what made the show so popular.
While the speed and scale of the show’s breakthrough into mainstream culture was impressive, “THE AMAZING DIGITAL CIRCUS” managed to achieve something even more groundbreaking. After its resounding success of a pilot episode, Netflix quickly took note of the show’s surmounting popularity, and soon GLITCH and Netflix struck a deal: After its third episode, “THE AMAZING DIGITAL CIRCUS” can be watched on both platforms. Not exclusively on Netflix — both Netflix and YouTube.
To call this feat remarkable is a severe understatement.
Although one of the largest distribution channels in existence is now involved in the distribution of the show, GLITCH is not allowing its presence to affect the quality, schedule or format of the show in any way. When GLITCH announced that they would be partnering with Netflix, they, not Netflix, made sure to reiterate that they were still in creative and executive control of the project and episodes would still be made free to the public.
In an update post on X, GLITCH made this clear: “We’re still independently funding everything, we still get full control of the show, and episodes will continue to ALWAYS come out on YouTube first.”
Because animation is a long and arduous process, episodes have been released months apart, and that has not changed since the introduction of the content juggernaut. In spite of the added pressures from executives and intense fans, the show remains committed to ensuring its animators are not rushed toward an impossible deadline. Instead, the show has always insisted the new episodes will “come out when they’re ready.”
For a small company to have this much power and control over their artwork is extremely impressive. To have an independently-funded show with limited pressure from executives to churn out content as soon as possible is an astounding breakthrough for indie animation that will have an impact on the community for years to come.
The newfound popularity of “THE AMAZING DIGITAL CIRCUS” has allowed GLITCH to take a chance on other small creators and fund their passion projects. Since releasing the first episode of “THE AMAZING DIGITAL CIRCUS,” they have released two trailers: “THE GASLIGHT DISTRICT” and “Knights of Guinevere.” Both trailers look visually stunning, with “Knights of Guinevere” being the channel’s first foray into 2D animation.
The trailers also demonstrate the amount of creative risk they’re willing to take, no doubt due to the financial and commercial spotlight “THE AMAZING DIGITAL CIRCUS” has afforded them. “THE GASLIGHT DISTRICT” has an interesting, stop-motion feel to it, something not often seen in mainstream animation entertainment. The creator, PartTimeSeagull, only has ~9,000 subscribers, but GLITCH is confident enough to let him realize his creative vision.
Additionally, the success of “THE AMAZING DIGITAL CIRCUS” and its status as a Netflix series has provided new pathways and opportunities never before seen for small companies. For example, “Knights of Guinevere” is co-created by beloved animator and showrunner Dana Terrace — creator of “The Owl House” — who has a large fanbase of her own.
GLITCH’s newfound and well-deserved success reminds us that the world is hungry for good stories, regardless of who makes them and how they’re made. The field of animation is often looked down upon for being childish, but “THE AMAZING DIGITAL CIRCUS” demonstrates that animation is a medium, not a genre, and animated stories can and should be taken seriously. People want interesting content, regardless of whether it’s made by a huge blockbuster or hard-working upstarts in their basement.
The world is paying attention to indie animation right now. With the help of newfound fans, respect and funds, indie animation is blossoming into something beautiful — and it couldn’t have been done without the internet’s favorite clown, Pomni.
Daily Arts Writer Ana Torresarpi can be reached at atorresa@umich.edu.
