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The Amazing Digital Circus

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The Amazing Digital Circus
The words "The Amazing Digital Circus" depicted in red, yellow, and blue colors. The word "Circus" has white dots on each letter.
GenreBlack comedy[1][2]
Created byGooseworx
ShowrunnerGooseworx
Written byGooseworx
Directed byGooseworx
Voices of
Theme music composerGooseworx
Opening theme"The Amazing Digital Circus Main Theme" (vocals by Lizz Robinett, pilot only)
Ending theme"Digital Days"
Composers
  • Evan Alderete
  • Gooseworx
Country of originAustralia
United States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes2
Production
Executive producers
  • Kevin Lerdwichagul
  • Luke Lerdwichagul
ProducerKevin Lerdwichagul
Editors
  • Gooseworx
  • Luke Lerdwichagul
  • Abhignya Cavale
Running time25 minutes
Production companyGlitch Productions
Original release
NetworkYouTube
ReleaseOctober 13, 2023 (2023-10-13) –
present (present)

The Amazing Digital Circus is an adult independent-animated web series created and directed by the pseudonymous artist Gooseworx and produced by Glitch Productions. The series follows a group of humans trapped inside a circus-themed virtual reality game, where they are troubled by a rogue artificial intelligence while coping with personal traumas and psychological tendencies. Gooseworx pitched the series to Glitch, inspired by 1990s computer-generated imagery and the short story "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream".

The series began production in 2022, and its pilot episode premiered on Glitch Productions' YouTube channel on October 13, 2023. The pilot went viral and became one of the most-viewed animation pilots on the platform. The short was praised by critics for its animation and dark themes, and it was nominated for an Annie Award. The full series entered production following the pilot's popularity.

Synopsis

The Amazing Digital Circus follows a cast of humans—Pomni, Jax, Ragatha, Gangle, Kinger, and Zooble—who have become trapped in the titular circus, a virtual reality game, where they engage in nonsensical activities set up by their ringmaster, the artificial intelligence Caine, at the risk of losing their sanity and "abstracting" into digital monsters.[2][3]

Voice cast

Main

  • Lizzie Freeman as Pomni, the most recent human to be trapped in the circus. She takes the form of a jester.[2][3][4]
  • Alex Rochon as Caine, the circus' wacky yet unstable AI ringmaster with a set of teeth for a head.[2][3][4]
  • Michael Kovach as Jax, a mischievous man who enjoys pranking and bullying the other cast members. He takes the form of a tall purple humanoid rabbit.[2][3][4]
  • Amanda Hufford as Ragatha, a kindly woman who attempts to maintain an optimistic attitude towards her situation. She takes the form of a rag doll.[2][3][4]
  • Marissa Lenti as Gangle, a woman with a ribbon body and interchangeable comedy and tragedy masks that represent her current mood.[2][3][4]
  • Sean Chiplock as Kinger, a paranoid and forgetful man who has been trapped longer than the other humans. He takes the form of a king chess piece.[2][3][4]
  • Ashley Nichols as Zooble, an irritable person who lacks interest in the group's adventures. Their body is made of mix-and-match blocks.[2][4]
  • Gooseworx as Bubble, Caine's AI soap bubble assistant.[4]

Guests

  • Elsie Lovelock as the Gloink Queen, ruler of the pest-like Gloinks.[4]
  • Vera Tan as Princess Loolilalu, princess of the Candy Canyon Kingdom.
  • Jack Hawkins as Gummigoo, a gummy alligator-like NPC, and Chad, one of Gummigoo's partners.
  • Hamish Plaggemars as Max, Gummigoo's other partner.
  • Lyle Rath as the Fudge Monster, a candy-made creature who inhabits the kingdom.

Episodes

No.TitleOriginal release date
1"Pilot"October 13, 2023 (2023-10-13)
After donning a virtual reality headset, a woman becomes trapped in a circus-themed computer game inhabited by the artificial intelligence Caine, his assistant Bubble, and six other trapped humans: Jax, Ragatha, Gangle, Kinger, Zooble, and Kaufmo. The woman—renamed "Pomni" after forgetting her original name—repeatedly notices an exit door that Caine dismisses as a hallucination. While Caine sends the group on an adventure to gather creatures called Gloinks, Kaufmo is found by Pomni, Ragatha and Jax to have "abstracted" into a mindless beast out of despair. Pomni seeks Caine's help after Kaufmo causes Ragatha to glitch, but finds the exit and deserts Ragatha to escape. However, the door instead leads her through a labyrinth of office spaces to the digital void beyond the circus. Caine rescues Pomni as the others return from the adventure following an encounter with Kaufmo, whom Caine imprisons in a cellar with other abstracted humans before repairing Ragatha. He then admits he created the "exit" to fulfill the group's desire for one but could never decide what to put behind the door, leaving it unfinished. Deeming the adventure complete, Caine rewards the group with a feast of non-sustaining digital food, which Pomni attends in silence.
2"Candy Carrier Chaos!"May 3, 2024 (2024-05-03)
Caine sends the group to a new map, the Candy Canyon Kingdom, on an adventure to recover a tanker of stolen maple syrup from bandit non-player characters (NPCs). During a chase, Pomni and the bandits' leader, Gummigoo, are ejected from the map by a glitch caused when their vehicles collide. Out of bounds, Gummigoo discovers his own spare model among the map's assets and suffers an existential crisis, realizing his reality is fabricated. Pomni empathizes with Gummigoo and invites him to live at the circus to find new meaning in his life with her. The two return to the map by performing another collision glitch with a replica syrup tanker, which they give to the other bandits before leaving. Upon Gummigoo's arrival at the circus, Caine deletes him to keep himself from confusing the humans and NPCs. Pomni is distraught, but finds comfort and acceptance within the group when they bring her to a funeral for the abstracted Kaufmo.

Background and production

Concept art for the series

The Amazing Digital Circus is directed, written, showrun, and composed by Gooseworx. Kevin Temmer is the series' lead animator, while Glitch Productions's founders, Luke and Kevin Lerdwichagul, are executive producers.[5] Pre-production on the pilot episode began in mid-2022, and production started in full later that year.[6] Gooseworx conceived the characters and designs;[6] she reported designing the characters in under a week.[7] Inspirations for the show include the short story I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream.[1][3]

Conception

Glitch initially noticed Gooseworx's animated short Little Runmo, which Jasmine Yang, development producer and general manager of Glitch, felt was exactly what they wanted to do: "It was funny, a little dark, and definitely very weird, like nothing we had seen before".[8] Glitch contacted Gooseworx and asked her to create a pilot, which she then accepted.[8] Gooseworx presented three pitches to Glitch, and the one that would become The Amazing Digital Circus was chosen.[6][8] Knowing that the pilot would be in 3D, she tried to create an idea that would best fit that style, mentioning, in particular, her inspiration from 1990s and early 2000s 3D works, "where it looked kinda bad and creepy but was also completely unrestricted creatively".[8] Yang said that the pitch's 1990s-inspired computer-generated imagery (CGI) style and nostalgic references to toys and computer games caught their attention, feeling that their audience would enjoy these characteristics.[8] The Glitch team felt that this particular pitch had the greatest potential, especially due to the nostalgic appeal of the 1990s-inspired CGI renders, and recognized it as something uniquely distinctive that no one else could replicate.[6]

Gooseworx stated that, while her original pitch was "more chaotic and silly", the story unexpectedly got "a lot deeper and more nuanced", with a "stronger emotional backbone", during the show's development.[7]

Animation

The 3D animation process of The Amazing Digital Circus's pilot was structured similarly to most other studios, with dedicated departments for various tasks.[6] They primarily used Autodesk Maya for the 3D work and then rendered everything in Unreal Engine.[6][9] The series was animated at 30 frames per second.[9] Kevin Temmer, the series' lead animator, initially received a message from one of Glitch's founders, Kevin Lerdwichugal, asking him to animate a teaser trailer for The Amazing Digital Circus. During the process, Temmer was asked to join Glitch's team full-time.[9] According to him, he "couldn't say no to an opportunity to work on something so wacky and cartoony".[7] The animators, including Temmer, were given a few scenes to complete every two weeks. They would regularly submit their progress for review by Gooseworx and Temmer, and this process would continue until both approved the scenes.[9] Some of the movements, shaking, and glitching of characters and props in the pilot were inspired by Source Filmmaker and Garry's Mod machinimas, something that Glitch had already done with their SMG4 videos.[9]

Gooseworx had little experience with 3D works,[6] hand-drawn 2D animation being her area of expertise.[8] As such, according to Yang, Glitch had to work "very closely" with Gooseworx to translate her 2D style to 3D; Gooseworx became The Amazing Digital Circus's showrunner and they "worked hard to maintain her vision as much as possible".[8] In developing the show's visuals, they wanted it to resemble early CGI animated films and series without seeming outdated. Gooseworx and Glitch worked to create a balance between retro 3D and toys; Gooseworx initially wanted the show to be "pure and faithful to the retro rendering style of early 3D animation".[8] Ultimately, they went with a "rose-tinted version" of that style.[8] As Gooseworx likes "juxtapositions like happy music playing to something horrifying or cute little characters being miserable", she wanted the visuals to not necessarily reflect its darker story.[8] She wanted the show to "feel kind of lonely".[8]

Release

During The Amazing Digital Circus' pre-production phase in the middle of 2022, Glitch released character trailers that were actually proofs of concept testing the series' animation style and visuals.[6] A teaser was released on January 27, 2023.[‡ 1] The pilot's official trailer was released on September 22,[‡ 2] and the episode was released on October 13.[‡ 3] Following the pilot's popularity, Glitch confirmed in November that there would be "more Digital Circus".[10] In February 2024, a full season was announced to be in production, with the pilot being "upgraded" to episode 1.[‡ 4][5] A trailer for the second episode was released on April 19, 2024.[‡ 5][11] The episode, "Candy Carrier Chaos!", was released on May 3, 2024.[‡ 6][12]

Glitch stated that there are no plans for The Amazing Digital Circus to be put on streaming platforms besides YouTube, as they want full creative control of their productions.[7][8] The show has been promoted with merchandise.[3][8][12] On the long wait between the release of each episode, Yang said: "If we had to wait until the entire season was ready before dropping any episodes, [the Digital Circus pilot] would not have premiered for years ... dropping all the episodes at the same time is not only impractical but also counterintuitive ... For us, not only is [the wait] practical but it works a little bit in our favor because every time we make a new episode of anything, we can make a big event about it."[12]

Reception

The pilot for The Amazing Digital Circus became a viral video on YouTube.[1][8] By late November 2023, it had surpassed 150 million views,[10] and by February 2024, it had over 270 million views, making it among the most-watched animation pilots in the history of YouTube.[5] This popularity was not foreseen by Glitch.[5][7][8] The series received a notable amount of fan creations and memes,[1][3][7] getting highly popular on TikTok.[1]

Critics praised The Amazing Digital Circus's pilot animation.[2][8][13] Justin Guerrero of Comics Beat called it "wonderful and expressive",[2] while Jamie Lang of Cartoon Brew and Jade King of TheGamer felt it was bright, colorful and fun.[3][8] Lang further complimented that its aesthetic elements feel familiar without being cliche, giving a modern vibe to early CGI.[8] Common Sense Media reviewer Stephanie Morgan praised the innovative animation and distinctive setting.[13] Some critics noted the episode's dark humor and story;[3][13][14] King praised the contrast it gave with the visuals,[3] while Morgan described the show as "quirky ... with a touch of darkness".[13] Zachary Moser of ScreenRant said that the series "deals with existential questions about reality and nihilism".[14] Critics highlighted the episode's jokes,[8][13] with Lang describing them as "timed with frame-to-frame perfection", with a "mature" sense of humor,[8] and Morgan praising the clever fourth-wall-breaking jokes.[13] Morgan criticized the "repetitive nature of the character traits".[13]

The Amazing Digital Circus's second episode surpassed 30 million views the day after its release.[‡ 7] Gail Sherman of Boing Boing described the second episode as "a candy-coated existential crisis" and called both the first and second episodes "brutal".[15]

Awards and nominations

In 2024, Kevin Temmer was nominated at the 51st Annie Awards in the "Best Character Animation – TV/Media" category for his work in The Amazing Digital Circus' pilot.

Year Award Category Nominee(s) Result Ref.
2024 Annie Awards Best Character Animation – TV/Media The Amazing Digital Circus: "Pilot" – Kevin Temmer Nominated [16]

References

Secondary sources

  1. ^ a b c d e Stanford, Kaitlin (November 2, 2023). "What is the web series The Amazing Digital Circus? Why are people obsessed with it?". In The Know. Archived from the original on November 8, 2023. Retrieved November 3, 2023 – via Yahoo! Finance.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Guerrero, Justin (October 25, 2023). "Review: The Amazing Digital Circus is a jaw-dropping dark comedy". Comics Beat. Archived from the original on November 3, 2023. Retrieved October 27, 2023.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m King, Jade (November 16, 2023). "The Amazing Digital Circus Is The Biggest Indie Animation In Years". TheGamer. Archived from the original on November 16, 2023. Retrieved November 18, 2023.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Valens, Ana (October 31, 2023). "Here's the Full Cast for The Amazing Digital Circus". The Mary Sue. Retrieved May 17, 2024.
  5. ^ a b c d Lang, Jamie (February 23, 2024). "First Look: Breakout Indie Hit The Amazing Digital Circus Is Getting Nine More Episodes". Cartoon Brew. Archived from the original on February 26, 2024. Retrieved February 23, 2024.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h McKenzie, Theodore (November 7, 2023). "Glitch on Character Animations in The Amazing Digital Circus". 80 Level. Archived from the original on November 16, 2023. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
  7. ^ a b c d e f Placido, Dani Di (December 22, 2023). "The Amazing Digital Circus Team Talk The Making Of A Viral Hit". Forbes. Archived from the original on May 12, 2024. Retrieved May 12, 2024.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Lang, Jamie (October 26, 2023). "The Amazing Digital Circus Creator Gooseworx On Developing The Internet's Hottest Animated Pilot". Cartoon Brew. Archived from the original on November 1, 2023. Retrieved October 27, 2023.
  9. ^ a b c d e Guerrero, Justin (December 4, 2023). "Interview: Kevin Temmer of The Amazing Digital Circus on the animation and Behind The Scenes". Comics Beat. Archived from the original on December 12, 2023. Retrieved December 9, 2023.
  10. ^ a b Reyna, Leo (November 30, 2023). "Indie Cartoon The Amazing Digital Circus Surpasses 150M Views". CBR. Archived from the original on May 16, 2024. Retrieved December 2, 2023.
  11. ^ Burlingame, Russ (April 19, 2024). "The Amazing Digital Circus: Episode 2 Trailer Released". ComicBook.com. Archived from the original on May 11, 2024. Retrieved May 12, 2024.
  12. ^ a b c Burlingame, Russ (May 3, 2023). "Amazing Digital Circus Producer Jasmine Yang: 'All of Us Are Super Nervous'". ComicBook.com. Archived from the original on May 12, 2024. Retrieved May 12, 2024.
  13. ^ a b c d e f g Morgan, Stephanie (May 2, 2024). "Parents' Guide to The Amazing Digital Circus". Common Sense Media. Archived from the original on May 12, 2024. Retrieved May 12, 2024.
  14. ^ a b Moser, Zachary (May 16, 2024). "The Amazing Digital Circus Age Rating & Parents' Guide: Is It Appropriate For Kids?". ScreenRant. Retrieved May 17, 2024.
  15. ^ Sherman, Gail (May 6, 2024). "The Amazing Digital Circus Episode 2 is a candy-coated existential crisis". Boing Boing. Archived from the original on May 12, 2024. Retrieved May 12, 2024.
  16. ^ Flores, Terry (January 11, 2024). "Netflix's Nimona Leads Annie Awards 2024 Nominations". Variety. Archived from the original on January 11, 2024. Retrieved April 26, 2024.

Primary sources

In the text, these references are preceded by a double dagger (‡):

  1. ^ The Amazing Digital Circus (teaser). Gooseworx. January 23, 2023. Archived from the original on May 11, 2024. Retrieved May 12, 2024 – via YouTube.
  2. ^ The Amazing Digital Circus [Official Trailer]. Glitch Productions. September 22, 2023. Archived from the original on May 9, 2024. Retrieved May 12, 2024 – via YouTube.
  3. ^ The Amazing Digital Circus: Pilot. Glitch Productions. October 13, 2024. Archived from the original on May 13, 2024. Retrieved May 13, 2024 – via YouTube.
  4. ^ Pomni Wake Up Time to Go on an Adventure. Glitch Productions. February 23, 2024. Archived from the original on February 23, 2024. Retrieved February 23, 2024 – via YouTube.
  5. ^ Up Next on The Amazing Digital Circus... Glitch Productions. April 19, 2024. Archived from the original on May 9, 2024. Retrieved May 13, 2024 – via YouTube.
  6. ^ The Amazing Digital Circus – Ep 2: Candy Carrier Chaos!. Glitch Productions. May 3, 2024. Archived from the original on May 12, 2024. Retrieved May 12, 2024 – via YouTube.
  7. ^ "30 mill in a day thank you all so much" (community post). Glitch Productions. May 6, 2024. Archived from the original on May 5, 2024. Retrieved May 6, 2024 – via YouTube.
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