"Animation Abomination" is the second segment of the fifty-eighth episode of Big City Greens.
Synopsis
Cricket and Tilly visit the animation studio that produces their favorite cartoon, but Tilly is livid when the crew approves of Cricket's nonsense ending idea.
Plot
Cricket and Tilly are watching their favorite animated show Kingdom of Lore. While Tilly has seen all five seasons of the show, Cricket has only seen the one episode, but still likes it. Tilly predicts that the show will end with Princess Tarina discovering that the ghost enemy is her father, thus bringing all the story elements together, while Cricket simply wants the show to end with Princess Tarina (or, as he said, “Princess Tortilla”) turning evil and blowing everything up, much to Tilly's annoyance. Gloria enters and reveals that she has gotten a job as an intern at Big Animation, the studio that makes Kingdom of Lore, and that she is heading over there now. Cricket and Tilly beg to come along and Gloria reluctantly concedes.
At Big Animation, which is depicted as a loony place, they meet the showrunners, brothers Topher and Blaine who give a tour. They enter the writers' room where the writers are suffering a creative block on how the show should end. Tilly offers her idea which is well accepted by the group. However when Cricket offers his idea, the writers prefer his as it is easier and quicker. This angers Tilly and she resolves to stop the production of the episode with the "flawed" ending all the while Cricket tries to get his ending produced. They travel to the story boarders' room then to the voice over sessions. Afterwards, Tilly collects the art from the designers, the painters and the editor and timer. Finally, they put it on a catapult and send it to South Korea to get the animation done.
The animation comes back and an executive, named Ed Zecutive, arrives to look at the final footage. Ed watches the episode with Cricket's admittedly terrible ending. Just as he is about to approve it, Tilly stops them and demands the better ending that she suggested. Ed agrees as she likes her passion for the series and demands that the ending be redone. Cricket is disappointed that his ending was not used, but after seeing Topher and Blaine working well with each other, realizes that they can still incorporate some of Cricket's ideas as siblings work well together. The episode airs with Tilly's cut showing Princess Tarina discovering that the ghost is her father, but with a small bit of Cricket's cut where she blows him up. Cricket and Tilly are happy with the ending, but upon getting on the internet to see the reaction, they are horrified by the response.
Cast
- Chris Houghton as Cricket Green, Topher
- Marieve Herington as Tilly Green
- Anna Akana as Gloria Sato
- Shane Houghton as Blaine
- Chris Diamantopoulos as Ed Zecutive
- Bob Joles as Rob
- Artemis Pebdani as Athena
- Charlet Chung as Korean Animator
- Grey DeLisle as Princess Tarina (uncredited)
Trivia
- Bill and Gramma Alice are absent, but their voice actors make cameo appearances. This episode combined with "Ding Dongers" makes this the first full episode where Bill does not appear.
- The title is most likely a play on Fox Television's animation line up "Animation Domination". Additionally, it might also reference former kids' programming blocks/channels such as Kids' WB!, Fox Kids, 4Kids TV, Toon Disney and Disney's One Saturday Morning.
- Kingdom of Lore is a parody of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. The ending, which implies that fans were less than thrilled by how it turned out, could reference the endings of Star vs. the Forces of Evil (whom that alleged reception that doesn't stop DTVA and WatchMojo from featuring the show in different types of medias and memes) and the Steven Universe and Voltron: Legendary Defender fanbases, which three notably received a mixed reception from their fandoms, whom the latter (i.e. Steven Universe's) have a positive reception of the last episode.
- This is the first episode where the title is read aloud.
- Gloria has a new job, which she is not getting paid at, and is now attending community college simply to qualify.
- Gloria reluctantly accepts that Cricket and Tilly are her best friends.
- Topher and Blaine are, of course, self inserts of Chris and Shane Houghton. Topher most likely comes from Christopher (Chris-Topher) and Blaine rhymes with Shane.
- Topher and Blaine have a poster on their wall for a series called Bear Cowboy. This is a reference to the Houghton Brothers' real life comic Reed Gunther which featured a protagonist who was a cowboy who rode a bear.
- Some of the people working at the studio are caricatures of the actual crew.
- Cricket's version of the ending (where the princess turns to be evil and things explode) is effectively "jumping the shark", which foregoes all established character elements for an enormous surprise ending which would take fans of the series off-guard.
- The ghost in Kingdom of Lore somewhat resembles the DuckTales version of the Phantom Blot.
- Moral: Ideas are much more awesome when you collaborate as a team.
International Premieres
- March 28, 2021 (Canada)
- July 12, 2021 (Latin America, Southeast Asia)
- October 13, 2021 (Portugal)
- January 22, 2022 (Japan)
Gallery
