The Cuphead Show Season 1 Review

February 14, 2022 at 8:11pm
By Jason Stettner

This is a Netflix Original animated series that follows the adventures of Cuphead (Tru Valentino) and Mugman (Frank Todaro). The two go on wacky adventures in this 1930’s animation inspired world. It’s based on a game that was quite spectacular and the essence of that experience has been preserved here.

With that, the actual narrative is expanded upon greatly and while it may do its own thing if you’ve played the game you’ll be pleasantly surprised by many familiar faces that appear throughout the season. It’s once again a battle against the Devil (Luke Millington-Drake) where the titular characters attempts to keep his soul. It may sound somewhat dark, but this is definitely something for all audience types. It’s very open for all ages and that in itself is rather appealing.

It’s a darkened sort of world, but one filled with adventure and some funny moments. Some main antagonists that pop up include the ever so charming King Dice (Wayne Brady) and the original boss battling veggie crew. So as I mentioned, from a game perspective you’ll enjoy the references whereas new viewers won’t notice that connection which works too.

The animation work here definitely captures the aesthetic and style of the game. It’s somewhat different though, perhaps a bit more clear than the game is. The Cuphead universe has such a very distinct style, at least in terms of the game and I can imagine that would be hard to emulate. I would have also liked more of a focus on music within the show, the game as such a grand use of audio to it.

I did love a whole the Devil dealing with fence painting bit as that was great with its use of audio. Still, would have been nice to really dig into the unique sound that came from the game. The animation work was clean though the whole way through painting the worlds in a detailed way that presented not only focused key characters but also things in the backdrop.

The Conclusion

The Cuphead Show Season 1 is a delightfully charming animated experience that captures the spirit of the game while also expanding upon it. It’s fairly easy to sit there and watch, with the episodes being smaller in scale yet at the same time quite precise for each episode’s premise. I appreciated that aspect, nothing was bloated and it just hit the mark with unique locations or characters for each story. There was always something zany going on with two leads that kept the pace going and some fun supporting characters.

It’s got an enjoyable overall plot to it, with voice acting that matches the presentation well. Again, it would have been nice to see the music infused further and a slightly closer to the game visual presentation, but it all looked fine and carried the general spirit along well. I look forward to hopefully seeing additional seasons in the future.

The Cuphead Show Season 1 Review at Home with Streamed Viewing
Screening was Provided by Netflix

Rating Overall: 7.5