The Amazing Digital Circus

"TADC" redirects here. For the name, see Tadhg.

The Amazing Digital Circus
Official series logo
Genre	Black comedy Psychological drama
Created by	Gooseworx
Inspired by	I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream By: Harlan Ellison
Written by	Gooseworx
Directed by	Gooseworx
Starring	Lizzie Freeman Alex Rochon Michael Kovach Amanda Hufford Marissa Lenti Sean Chiplock Ashley Nichols Gooseworx
Theme music composer	Gooseworx
Opening theme	"The Amazing Digital Circus Main Theme" (vocals by Lizz Robinett)
Ending theme	"Digital Days"
Composers	Evan Alderete Gooseworx
Country of origin	Australia United States
Original language	English
No. of episodes	1 (Pilot)
Production
Executive producers	Kevin Lerdwichagul Luke Lerdwichagul
Producer	Kevin Lerdwichagul
Editor	Gooseworx
Running time	26 minutes
Production company	Glitch Productions
Original release
Network	YouTube
Release	October 13, 2023 (2023-10-13)

The Amazing Digital Circus is an American-Australian computer-animated web series created by Gooseworx and produced by Glitch Productions. The series premiered on the GLITCH YouTube channel on October 13, 2023. It received a positive reception, amassing over 70 million views in three weeks.

Synopsis

After presumably putting on a virtual reality headset, a woman becomes trapped in a circus-themed virtual world resembling early 3D video games of the 1990s. She appears as a jester avatar and meets five others who seem to share her situation who have already been trapped for years. She realizes that none of them can remember their names and she is assigned the new name 'Pomni' by the AI ringleader, Caine, who controls the digital world and gives them adventures to keep them from going insane. They will now all have to try to keep their sanity in the unnatural and claustrophobic digital world all while looking for an elusive exit.

Production

The Amazing Digital Circus first originated from one of three pitches presented to Glitch Productions by YouTube animator Gooseworx, who the company reached out to create a pilot.

The show's original pitch proposed an animation style similar to computer games of the 1990s. Gooseworx has a background in 2D hand-drawn animation, and animators at Glitch Productions adapted her artwork into 3D. The general manager of Glitch Productions, Jasmine Yang, has stated there are no plans for the show to be put on streaming platforms besides YouTube.

The show takes inspiration from the short story I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream.

Voice cast

• Lizzie Freeman as Pomni, the main character in jester body and confused newcomer to the circus who looks for an exit.
• Alex Rochon as Caine, the AI ringleader of the circus who gives the inhabitants of the circus quests to keep them from going insane.
• Michael Kovach as Jax, a purple rabbit with a nonchalant trickster-like personality who seems outwardly to have accepted his situation.
• Amanda Hufford as Ragatha, a rag doll who takes on a sisterly role with Pomni and explains the mechanics of the digital world.
• Marissa Lenti as Gangle, a shy and fragile human-like ribbon wearing theater masks.
• Sean Chiplock as Kinger, a king chess piece who supposedly has been in the circus longest of the cast and seems to be unstable and close to insanity.
• Ashley Nichols as Zooble, an irritable mix-and-match toy in a vaguely humanoid form.
• Gooseworx as Bubble, Caine's AI assistant.
• Elsie Lovelock as the Gloink Queen, ruler of the pest-like Gloinks.

Episodes

No.	Title	Storyboarded by	Original release date
1	"Pilot"	Neda Lay	October 13, 2023 (2023-10-13)
A young woman becomes trapped in a circus-themed computer game after donning a VR headset. She meets a group of other trapped humans – Jax, Ragatha, Gangle, Kinger, and Zooble – and, having forgotten her original name, is renamed "Pomni" by the AI ringmaster, Caine. While the others participate in a quest to gather geometrical critters called "Gloinks", Pomni accompanies Ragatha and Jax to visit their fellow human circus mate, Kaufmo, whom they find has "abstracted" and turned into a mindless beast after succumbing to madness. Attempting to help Ragatha after Kaufmo causes them both to glitch out, Pomni stumbles upon an exit door and goes through it instead, finding a labyrinth of office spaces that lead her to an out-of-bounds area called "the Void". Caine returns Pomni to the circus, where he imprisons Kaufmo in a cellar with other abstracted humans, and repairs Pomni and Ragatha's glitching, before revealing the "exit" to be an unfinished extension he made for the circus. He then treats everyone to a feast of unsustaining digital food, which the others enjoy while Pomni is left traumatized by her situation.

Reception

The pilot for The Amazing Digital Circus became a viral video on YouTube, amassing over 33 million views in two weeks and passing 50 million views on October 31, 2023. The Amazing Digital Circus's jokes were praised as "timed with frame-to-frame perfection", with a sense of humor that is "mature" but "not overly vulgar". The animation was also praised as "wonderful and expressive".

External links

• Official website
• The Amazing Digital Circus at IMDb