Smiling Friends (2020)

Watchseries; Not gonna lie, when it comes to adult animation, I just kinda lost all hope in these types of shows, Don't get me wrong we still get that one great adult animation series ever now and then, but overall, It all just kinda blend in with each other, with the same boring character design and art style, the same boring overdone sitcom feel, the same old Family Guy-esque type of humor, It all felt very samey to me, you know..

So when The Smiling Friends pilot dropped a couple of years ago (in early 2020 If I remember correctly), I really enjoyed it a lot, It was something new, It was something fresh, and most importantly it was absolutely hilarious, and that comes from someone who wasn't familiar with Zach and Michael's works.

So after waiting and waiting and waiting for the show to finally release and after binge watching the whole thing in one sitting, Let's just say that I didn't expect Smiling Friends to be one of the funniest pieces of Adult animation I've ever seen in a long time!

Like seriously, this show is so great, I don't know where to start, First of all, The premise, the premise is so dang good, The Smiling Friends is company who's main objective is to make people smile wherever they are, whoever they are, and that alone is such a great idea, It's kind of bizarre it hasn't been done before, the reason I believe this idea is so good is because the creator's imagination is the only limit to what could happen in this show, if you catch my drift, There's not one client in this show that is like the other, One episode they try to help a princess smile for her portrait in a fantasy setting, In another episode, they try to help a gaming obsessed shrimp dude get his girlfriend back, Again the creators' imagination is the only limit of what could happen in this show, and let me tell you, everything that comes from Zach and Michael's delightfully twisted minds is just absolutely hilarious.

Even the episodes that doesn't have to do anything with the company are still hilarious, just because how great the characters are and while we are talking about the characters..

At the Smiling Friends we meet our colorful cast of characters, The very short and small but with a heart of gold, The brutally honest, kind of cynical straight man of the group, and finally we have Alan and Glip.. Alan and Glip doesn't do much to be honest but I still like them, What can I say about these characters, they are great, When I write reviews I always try to not be biased when talking about things I really like but there's no other way I could talk about this show, It's SO GOOD!

The first season generally focused on the duo of Pim and Charlie, and kinda pushs everyone else to the side, which is kind of a shame because Glip and Alan barely gets any screen time, Especially Alan, the red tall guy, The only got a b story in the pilot in that was kind of it, but still, Pim and Charlie are an absolute blast to watch, Pim being the overly optimistic, very cheery and likable and Charlie being kind of the opposite, He's not a very good person but he means well, and this formula works so well for the show, Even though I would really appreciate them doing more stuff with the other characters in the hopefully upcoming seasons.

Even the small details are fantastic like the blink-and-you-will-miss-it background jokes, the surprisingly beautiful background art like Mr. Frog's pool rooftop, the enchanted forest, and Pim's room in episod

Not gonna lie, when it comes to adult animation, I just kinda lost all hope in these types of shows, Don't get me wrong we still get that one great adult animation series ever now and then, but overall, It all just kinda blend in with each other, with the same boring character design and art style, the same boring overdone sitcom feel, the same old Family Guy-esque type of humor, It all felt very samey to me, you know..

So when The Smiling Friends pilot dropped a couple of years ago (in early 2020 If I remember correctly), I really enjoyed it a lot, It was something new, It was something fresh, and most importantly it was absolutely hilarious, and that comes from someone who wasn't familiar with Zach and Michael's works.

So after waiting and waiting and waiting for the show to finally release and after binge watching the whole thing in one sitting, Let's just say that I didn't expect Smiling Friends to be one of the funniest pieces of Adult animation I've ever seen in a long time!

Like seriously, this show is so great, I don't know where to start, First of all, The premise, the premise is so dang good, The Smiling Friends is company who's main objective is to make people smile wherever they are, whoever they are, and that alone is such a great idea, It's kind of bizarre it hasn't been done before, the reason I believe this idea is so good is because the creator's imagination is the only limit to what could happen in this show, if you catch my drift, There's not one client in this show that is like the other, One episode they try to help a princess smile for her portrait in a fantasy setting, In another episode, they try to help a gaming obsessed shrimp dude get his girlfriend back, Again the creators' imagination is the only limit of what could happen in this show, and let me tell you, everything that comes from Zach and Michael's delightfully twisted minds is just absolutely hilarious.

Even the episodes that doesn't have to do anything with the company are still hilarious, just because how great the characters are and while we are talking about the characters..

At the Smiling Friends we meet our colorful cast of characters, The very short and small but with a heart of gold, The brutally honest, kind of cynical straight man of the group, and finally we have Alan and Glip.. Alan and Glip doesn't do much to be honest but I still like them, What can I say about these characters, they are great, When I write reviews I always try to not be biased when talking about things I really like but there's no other way I could talk about this show, It's SO GOOD!

The first season generally focused on the duo of Pim and Charlie, and kinda pushs everyone else to the side, which is kind of a shame because Glip and Alan barely gets any screen time, Especially Alan, the red tall guy, The only got a b story in the pilot in that was kind of it, but still, Pim and Charlie are an absolute blast to watch, Pim being the overly optimistic, very cheery and likable and Charlie being kind of the opposite, He's not a very good person but he means well, and this formula works so well for the show, Even though I would really appreciate them doing more stuff with the other characters in the hopefully upcoming seasons.

Even the small details are fantastic like the blink-and-you-will-miss-it background jokes, the surprisingly beautiful background art like Mr. Frog's pool rooftop, the enchanted forest, and Pim's room in episod

Smiling Friends watchseries. Stumbled onto this little show by accident, ended up laughing my ass off throughout the pilot episode. And then when I recognized Mike Stoklasa's voice, that really sold it for me. (He's really great in this, please make Desmond a recurring character!)

The whole pilot oozes creativity and raw comedic talent, it reminded me of the first episodes of South Park. If they keep this up then I think they've really got something here, I'm really looking forward to seeing more of this!

Smiling Friends (2022) is an incredibly disappointing animated show. A more apt title would be "Smiling Ends" as the abundant tropes and hamfisted references serve only to make me frown. This terribly unfunny experience is only magnified by the real quality animation we got last year in the forms of Chicago Party Aunt and Big Mouth (season 5). If you ever feel the need to check out this embarrassment of a show don't. 1.2/10.

Following the production of the "Hellbenders" pilot and the brief history of Sleepy Cabin, its great to finally see some of the best internet funny bois get their vision on TV. It fully retains the spontaneity of Zach and Michael's unique internet animation styles and wastes no time at all with the jokes. The structure of the 12-min short is split into 2 plots which are equally fascinating and bizarre but not in the way a lot of "edgy" or subversive adult animated shows tend to be. The looseness of the drawing style helps the craziness never seem like its on rails, it truly feels like you're in the mind of 2 nutbag internet artists and I love it.

Mike Stoklasa's performance will be one for the history books.

An amazing piece of animation that highlights the philosophical absurdities of life in the style of the great French philosopher Albert Camus.

The crude amateur animation is actually a veiled commentary on society's crude obsession with transient pleasures which we oftentimes define to be the goals of our life and not simply a passing fad.

Finally, the voice performance of legendary actor Mike Stoklasa blew me over. He has channeled the persona of his iconic creation, the fictional film critic Mr. Plinkett, into the character of Desmond and the result just screams perfection. That deep sagacious voice truly resonates with the absurdist notions of life as projected by this cartoon.

I am interested in more future episodes and I really hope they bring Mr. Stoklasa back for more side cameos.

This was actually funny, unlike a large portion of the shows from that block during the last few years.

More bizarre cartoons like this and less Tim and Eric garbage, please.