Centaurworld - Season 1 - TV Review

Starting with a personal question for all of you this week that you don't have to answer: Have you ever done drugs? The most I've tried was one puff of weed and that just instantly turned me off. I'll stick to alcohol thank you. The idea of the drug trip has been around since... I guess the 60s? Either ways, it's a story element that's used in all media from the literal drug trips from the Far Cry series to metaphorical one that is Cats (2019), both of which can be a ways to escape reality and avoid your problems for a short period of time result. They can also cause their viewers to questioning reality and possibly destroy their sanity. Well what if I told you that a recent show on Netflix is kind of a drug trip, but also might be hinting at an interesting and well-written story underneath: Centaurworld.

Centaurworld is about a horse named Horse (Kimiko Glenn) who, along with her rider, is in a resistance against a horde of evil monsters that are destroying their world. Early in their adventure they have an artifact that might be the key to stopping this threat, but after an attack from a band of these monsters the artifact glows and Horse is thrown into blackness. When she wakes up the destroy, fire and debris-filled hellscape that is her home is gone. Instead she is now in a world brimming with rainbows, sunshine, soft materials of all kinds, and musical numbers. First thinking she is in a fever dream she soon encounters a group of silly "centaurs," lead by their motherly figure, Wammawink (Megan Hilty). Desperate for a way home back to her rider, Horse coerces this group to follow her into the great unknown of this mysterious, way-too-pleasant world.

When I first saw trailers for this show I was like, "Ummmm... no thanks." It just looked too goofy from the trailers and I, along with many others, thought it would just be a bunch of nonsense. But recently I saw strong recommendations and thought, "Hmmmm... Well, okay, but this better not destroy my brain." What I discovered is that those goofy and extremely upbeat moments from the trailer work very well with dark and edgy elements of the show and that the way they clash together was intentional. There is a method to all of this madness. Watching Centaurworld I found a show full of cheerful musical numbers, crippling depression, amazingly smooth and upbeat animation, hints of mass genocide, silly childish humor, dark adult humor, a colorful cast of characters, a terrifying villain that sends shivers down your spine, well-developed friendships and bonding, and a story that hints that everyone in Centaurworld is each one small incident away from a complete mental breakdown.

Our main cast of characters are quite a plethora of diversity. Horse is most often the hardened, serious one who is dedicated to her mission and is the leading protagonist of the show. Wammawink, an alpaca-like centaur that is a fantastic motherly figure and has hints of a dark past. We also have Zulius (Parvesh Cheena a flamboyant and effeminate zebra-like centaur who can shapeshift his hair. There is also Ched (Chris Diamantopoulos), a finch-like centaur who doesn't like horses and has the power to make his face incredibly handsome for 8 second intervals. Then there is Glendale (Megan Nicole Dong, who is also the creator of the show), a gerenuk-like centaur with a pocket universe on her belly and an unhealthy level of kleptomania about her. And lastly Durpleton (Josh Radnor), a giraffe-like centaur who is incredibly naive and friendly towards others and can shoot sparkles from their eyes.

They all have pretty good chemistry with one another, though some of them don't get as much time to shine like Durpleton and Ched. I did like Ched the least though because I'm not a fan of the jerk/ tsundere character that makes up a team unless they're upbeat and have more than just being grumpy and not liking people. Wammawink was definitely my favorite character of the cast with her upbeat and parental attitude towards others, along with the need to be able to love others around her. Glendale was definitely the one who provided the most dark humor with her addition to stealing things and slightly unstable attitude. Horse though adds an interesting flavor to the show with her hardened demeanor. Have such two different cultures clash with one another does a lot to build the main cast. Horse is an experienced soldier who wants excitement and danger in her life while everyone else is basically soft little bunnies. She's faced intense dangers and at first never realizes how afraid her companions are. On the other side of the coin, Horse hasn't really had any friends other than her rider, so they slowly begin to open her up to her feelings and expressing herself. Both groups of characters add

Something that really stood out in the show was the animation. Not only did it look more professional than most western shows I've recently, but the way the darker, more realistic style of Horse's world clashes with the silly, cartoony style of Centaurworld is actually brilliant. Doing a bit of research I found that the more realistic world and characters were hand-drawn by Red Dog Culture House in South Korea while the more cartoony world and characters were puppet rigs done by Mercury Studios in Ottawa, Canada. I have a strong feeling the animators of both studios had a blast animating this show because they seemed to have been given just a ton of freedom in how they animate it. Horse's world (as little as we're shown of it) is very war-torn, completely wrecked by the war that is going on and just a generally horrific place. But in Centaurworld it's so cartoony, colorful, and magical that it disturbed me a little more than the apocalyptic world. There were multiple points where I said out loud, "What the f#$%?!" and "What the hell is going on?!" We see characters flying without moving their bodies, necks elongating for no reason, insanely expressive faces that are almost creepy, and every centaur has the power the shoot mini versions of themselves from their hooves/ feet that immediately start having existential crises that are kind of disturbing.

This leads me to the comedy of the show, which I mentioned near the start is a mix of silly, childish humor and dark adult humor. The latter of these is sprinkled in for those with keen ears to hear, which fits so well with everything appearing to be happy and joyful in Centaurworld, but hiding a distressing past. All of it is pretty funny, though some jokes don't hit well. Because of this funhouse like environment and odd blend of comedy I worry that this show might be hard to convince some people to watch. Most times we get moments where a character gets a trades for a hug cake while in jail, but in different moment we a joke with the punchline of somebody getting stabbed and possibly murdered. You see, this stuff doesn't mix, but that's because like denying reality or doing drugs, it all appears to be pleasant and fun until it all crumbles away and you come to realize that life nothing but horrifying pain...

Wait, did I not mention this show was a musical? I didn't?! Because it is and it's got great music to it. It's nothing that would stick in your head and you'd sing with a bunch of people, but it's definitely the type that you could hum to yourself and not really care about the words. Most of the actors in the show have Broadway experience, with a few additional actors like Lea Salonga having experience as the singing voice of Princess Jasmine from Aladdin and Mulan from Mulan (animated movies, not the live action crap). These people know how to sing. Most of the songs are really short, like less than a minute long, so that might be why most of the songs of Centaurworld aren't very memorable despite how well done they are. However the songs aren't just for fun and most of the time do help to progress the story in interesting ways. They're not just for show, even using "talk singing" well to advance the song and story.

Lastly, let's talk about said story. With how crazy I've mentioned this show is the story is pretty simple: Collect the rest of the artifact by traveling around Centaurworld and with all the pieces Horse can return home to her hellscape of a world. Through it all there is often some very crazy moments that to some might be too much and/or too frequent to some people. There were times my focus would wander from the show because most of our characters are very silly and their antics could disrupt the show sometimes. That or I'd be too stunned and still trying to consume what has happened to full grasp what I saw. Even so there is a ton of fun adventure in Centaurworld with character growth and hints of deeper lore scattered about (more than I was expecting). For instance there is a Cats themed episode in this show that instantly gave me Vietnam flashbacks when it began, but the episode had a good story, lesson, and an ending that very unsettling as it hinted at the upcoming villain of the show in a very appropriate manner. As mentioned before, there is a formula to the madness, but it's still madness none-the-less.

Centaurworld was a surprising pleasure to watch. While it's very weird and at times disturbing and confusing I found the comedy to be fun, the characters loveable, and a very interesting story that I'm eager to see more of. Despite being rated ages seven and up there are some weirdly dark moments in the show that make me question if this is a show for kids or not. It's like if Adventure Time immediately said that it wasn't in a magical land, but a post-apocalyptic world instead of taking almost full two seasons to do so. So is this for kids or not? Maybe it is and I'm unknowingly becoming a boomer. Either ways, it's still very well animated and has some great vocal talent and comedy!

Tentative Score: 8/10

Why is it all one word though? Why not "Centaur World"? Can somebody answer this for me?