Is The Cuphead Show! for kids?ĭespite The Cuphead Show! being an animation, the show itself deals with some adult themes that children may find hard to understand or even frightening at times. But, who is the show’s target audience? Is it actually suitable for kids? Find out the official age rating and our recommendation below. The first season made its debut on the streamer in February 2022 and was a hit among viewers of all ages. The show follows the funny and unique misadventures of brothers Cuphead and Mugman - named for the drinkware that makes up their heads - as they scour the Inkwell Isles in search of fun and adventure.
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The slapstick comedy series in the style of the classic 1930s cartoons is based on the hit 2017 run-and-gun video game “Cuphead.”
The Cuphead Show! returned to Netflix with season 2 on Friday, August 19. The most absurd fun that The Cuphead Show has is when it references the brothers’ bizarre anatomy, like a scene where Cuphead rescues a goldfish by tossing it into the liquid inside his head.By Stefani Munro 2 weeks ago Follow Tweet While the series certainly boasts a unique flavor as a result, it also feels restricted by those trappings, which is antithetical to the elastic, unconstrained reality of so many classic cartoons that gleefully shatter the fourth wall and the “reality” of time and place. Likewise, the locations are meant to be period-appropriate, with details such as two-piece telephones and radio as the main form of entertainment. Many episodes are designed to play on well-trodden cartoon premises, like characters being trapped in a graveyard or being forced to care for a baby, but they’re still disappointing for their lack of narrative curveballs. Changing the color of Cuphead and Mugman’s gloves from white to yellow, for example, hardly makes us forget about the origins of the attire, especially given that the brothers still have black torsos. If such changes are a little more successful at obscuring the minstrel roots of Cuphead’s primary influences, they’re a naïve concession. Though King Dice (Wayne Brady), himself a caricature of Cab Calloway, also appears in the series with a largely unchanged appearance, he’s tweaked to function as the host of a rigged game show. It isn’t coincidental that the series minimizes the game’s gambling angle, depicting Cuphead as losing the rights to his soul during a carnival game rather than inside the black-furred Devil’s casino. Which is to say that they’re also a mismatched duo in a distinctly classic cartoon mold.
Though silent in the game, Cuphead is voiced in the series by Tru Valentino in a squawky, old-timey accent that’s fitting for a character who talks about going to the “picture show” and refers to his brother, Mugman (Frank Todaro), as “Mugsy.” The headstrong Cuphead brags in an early episode that he will “double down” on any action he undertakes, while the timid Mugman goes along for the ride despite being horrified by his brother’s antics. Where the game draws from old cartoons in which dialogue often came second to action heavily synchronized to music, The Cuphead Show has just as much, if not more, in common with the constant chattering of latter-day animation. The series imagines a world of bouncy, stretchy-limbed characters where just about anything can gain sentience-and a pair of eyeballs.īut beyond some vintage title cards and a clear origin point for the art style, the inspiration doesn’t go quite as far as one might expect.
Netflix’s The Cuphead Show, like the 2017 Studio MDHR game from which it’s adapted, replicates the rubber hose animation style of the 1930s popularized by Walt Disney and Fleischer Studios.