By John Hiett
“Knights of Guinevere” is a 2D animated show that dabbles both into the psychological thriller and sci-fi genre. The show is produced by Glitch productions who is known for the animated indie shows on YouTube such as “The Amazing Digital Circus” and “Murder Drones.”
The show’s creator and main writer is Dana Terrace, an ex-Disney writer who is best known for her previous work on “The Owl House.” Terrace came to Glitch after originally pitching her idea to Disney, but they rejected her idea, and that is truly a loss on Disney’s part.
“Knights of Guinevere” takes place in a futuristic society where the residents of city M7, thanks to the creation of Orville Park, live below a floating amusement park, called Park Planet. As the park’s visionary and founder, Orville wanted people who attended to be truly immersed in the medieval world. Using innovative technology, he created and programmed an android to live and act as the mascot princess, Guinevere (Eden Riegel).
Confined to a tower within the amusement park, Olivia Park, the daughter of Orville Park, is given a personal Guinevere android to keep her company. However, after Olivia starts experimenting on Guinevere, it begins to act nervous and behave erratically until the android goes rogue and jumps off the tower into the ocean below.
Simultaneously taking place in an arcade somewhere else in the park, two teenagers, Andi (Zelda Black) and Francesca (Michaela Laws), encounter another Guinevere android after failing to steal a Guinevere plushie from a claw machine.
While they are not meeting the same android technically; this serves as an important connection years later between the teens and the rogue Guinevere, as all the androids are interconnected in a hivemind, flawlessly remembering every encounter through every android.
Going into the main characters, Andi is an intelligent android engineer for Park Planet, often too overworked or overwhelmed to realize her true potential. Francesca, or Frankie, is her imaginative, confident friend who is a Park Planet factory worker and part time scrap scavenger.
Their dynamic is a lot of fun to watch on screen thanks to the characters’ various witty remarks, expressions, and caring actions towards each other that sells the idea of them being best friends for years.
An example of this is when Andi is being disrespected and treated unfairly by a scamming vendor. Frankie pulls her aside and makes sure Andi is not taking the prejudice personally. The way the whole scene flows and how naturally the dialogue is exchanged contributes to the believability of the characters and their understanding of each other’s quirks and thoughts.
A major aspect of the show is the 2D animation, with it being reminiscent of the early days of Disney where everything was meticulously hand-drawn. It’s really refreshing to see that type of style come back. Love and care is put into each individual frame whether it’s little details on the characters and androids or the scenic city backgrounds. This show is oozing with stylization and originality, having the freedom to express animation creatively.
Finally in terms of the style, “Knights of Guinevere” does a tremendous job of balancing the futuristic sci-fi city with the fairy-tale medieval undertones. While technologically advanced, Park Planet itself is meant to be a medieval themed amusement park. This is achieved by programming the Guinevere androids to believe they are from the medieval times and act like it.
So all of these futuristic life-like robots are surrounded by medieval imagery being spread throughout the park. What I especially loved was in the beginning whenever they introduced the characters, the show frames the characters faces in exquisite portraits that looked straight out of those fairy tale books.
Overall, I would recommend giving the “Knights of Guinevere” a watch. Dana Terrace and Glitch are waiting to see how well the pilot episode performs, before greenlighting more production. While we wait, I think it’s time to return to the golden era of 2D animation and hope that it’s here to stay.
“Knights of Guinevere” is currently available to watch on Youtube
John Hiett is a senior biology major. He is passionate about any and all indie video games and loves getting coffee since starting college.
Images courtesy of Glitch Productions
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