In the wake of all the chaos surrounding The Amazing Digital Circus’ impending theatre release and what that means for indie animation, I wanted to get this off my chest before shit hits the fan.
Indie animation is never going to truly progress in my book if we keep recycling the same mediocre concepts and methods for telling a story. Period.
I’ve seen people express their frustration for the show, especially after the latest episode dropped. I’ve seen people discuss its issues with pacing, character dynamic, and even the basics of story telling and composition and where this show fails to meet the standards of something that was previously marketed for “mature audiences”. All of this I agree with.
But what always ticked me off from the beginning, and what became increasingly apparent as a red flag that this show was headed for the gutters, was the fact that Gooseworx took the aforementioned story, I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream, and completely butchered it of all its original intention and meaning for the sake of…what I can only describe as white mediocrity. Because, at its core, the story was about hatred and war, and how these intense topics are only a fraction of the vast human experience.
But it was also about racism. 4 men and 1 woman in a desolate world, ravaged by nuclear warfare. 4 white men and 1 black woman as the last of humanity. 4 men who, in spite of their various upbringings and the coinciding torture AM inflicted on them, still found it in them to violate and torture the 1 woman in their midst, because these systemic issues do not disappear in the wake of generalized horror.
It’s a sentiment I see mirrored in the real world, establishing the book as a crucial component of the zeitgeist. And yet…we have The Amazing Digital Circus. It disgusts me.
When I see people talk about the “large strides” being taken in indie animation, it upsets me. Hazbin Hotel starting as a full fledged animation on YouTube and transforming into a show that can only be streamed on Amazon Prime? One of the largest and most exploitative companies in the world? And now TADC, a show that proudly branded itself as “free first” now putting its financial gain before its fans. It’s not innovative. It’s not trailblazing. It’s capitalistic and we have lost the plot.
But moreover, I refuse to acknowledge these decisions as steps in the forward direction for indie and small creators. Not when the range of talent is so narrow, and the stories they choose to tell are so limited and small.
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