Indie animation studio GLITCH released a pilot for potential TV series “Knights of Guinevere.” If the show gets greenlit, it will be the studio’s sixth television series, adding to a portfolio including popular YouTube series such as “The Amazing Digital Circus” and “Gaslight District.” Compared to its CGI-rendered predecessors, “Knights of Guinevere” is unique in that it would be GLITCH’s first-ever 2D animated series. This new animation style is not the only big step forward in GLITCH’s newest production — some big industry names are also working on this project. Alongside experienced TV writers Zach Marcus (“The Owl House”) and John Bailey Owens (“The Owl House”), Dana Terrace (“The Owl House”), former Disney Studios showrunner, is writing and directing the show.
“Knights of Guinevere: Pilot” follows two sisters: Andi (Zelda Khan Black, “Annie’s Movie”) and Frankie (Michaela Laws, debut), both engineers working for the powerful conglomerate Park Planet, a wealthy company that controls a planet-wide theme park floating above the rest of the impoverished world. Andi is a disillusioned software engineer who programs androids for the park, including the park’s star attraction, Guinevere (Eden Riegel, “The Owl House”). Meanwhile, Frankie, who dreams of building Guinevere droids alongside her sister, pulls waste from the polluted ocean for it to be recycled back into the Park Planet ecosystem.
The pilot does not reveal much about the complex world the two sisters live in, but the theme park’s intense hold on the economic and power structures of the community is abundantly clear. While the rest of the residents live in shambles, the floating theme park above them is erected in gold. As garbage from the park falls into the ocean below, Park Planet advertisements with Guinevere’s face are plastered all around the decaying city, making the company’s influence unavoidable. The entire world, not just the park, revolves around Guinevere.
The two sisters’ lives change when they find an old, deactivated Guinevere android in a dump and attempt to restore her for financial gain and company approval. But unbeknownst to them, Park Planet is looking for this particular android, and she’s not as deactivated as they initially thought. Not only does the show’s pilot lay a compelling foundation for a season of mystery and intrigue, it builds potential for the show to break into the mainstream.
“Knights of Guinevere” effectively straddles the line between beautiful and horrific during its more gory and eerie scenes. The show’s 2D animation and vibrant color palette create a welcoming atmosphere, but this comfort quickly turns into unease when the audience is treated to graphic moments like an android being pulled around with their insides serving as a leash.
In most respects, it’s visually difficult to tell that the show comes from a budget-pressed independent animation company. The heart, passion and effort from the artists and studio are proudly displayed on screen through smooth and appealing animation. Still, there are moments when the non-mainstream budget becomes slightly more noticeable. To the studio’s credit, these moments are not in what the audience notices, but in what is missing. There are perfectly-animated scenes that serve the story well enough, but feel as though the artists are forced to omit certain visual elements in order to stay in budget. During a flashback of young Andi and Frankie breaking into Park Planet to play a claw machine game, for example, their surroundings are pitch black instead of the bustling and exuberant amusement park. Even though the scene could have been used to exemplify the overindulgence and spectacle of the park, the animators held back and only showed what was necessary.
It’s a testament to the talent of the artists that these scenes don’t feel too out of place and don’t hurt the pilot’s vision in any meaningful way. Indie animation is a series of smart decisions and tough compromises, but with the influx of love and support coming from viewers and fans, there’s a chance that the studio will no longer have to make those sacrifices in the future.
Despite all the financial limitations of working in an independent studio, the medium allows for near limitless creative freedom — and no one knows this better than Terrace. Having her extremely successful show, “The Owl House,” canceled and censored by Disney after its second season, Terrace has said that her willingness to work with such a small company is due to her ability to explore more nuanced topics without restriction.
Terrace’s time at Disney has a clear impact on the show’s subject matter; the internet has already begun to notice Park Planet’s eerie similarities to The Walt Disney Company. Park Planet’s parallels to a real-world billion-dollar entertainment juggernaut only exacerbate the story’s themes of corporate greed, corruption and conformity.
With the pilot’s excellent pacing, strong characters, detailed world-building and deeply intriguing themes, “Knights of Guinevere” has everything in its toolbox to become a success. It will be a simultaneous pleasure and genuine struggle to wait in anticipation for the next episode; I’m already hooked.
Daily Arts Writer Ana Torresarpi can be reached at atorresa@umich.edu.
