Netflix's reputation for releasing animated content for children and adults alike has varied from show to show. Sometimes they’ll hit it out of the park with shows like Hilda or they may produce throw-away junk like The Boss Baby Spin-Off series. Then there come the shows that you’d think would be doomed to fail but surprisingly work in their own strange way. Centaurworld is one of those shows. Created by Megan Nicole Dong, who got her start being in the art department for Dreamworks Animation, Centaurworld is a cartoon that is so strange and bizarre that it shouldn’t work with its clashing of different tones. Against all odds, it managed to defy my expectations and deliver something that while not perfect was surely entertaining.
A lot of fans of the show describe the show to be a clash of Adventure Time and My Little Pony Friendship is Magic. From what I’ve seen in season 1, I’d say they're mostly right. The show is a clash of Zany and serious tones that shouldn’t mesh well together and yet it surprisingly works. One episode, in particular, is about Derpelton wishing his farts can talk which is very childish and immature, but then the episode can also be about learning the tragic backstory of Wammawink. This shouldn’t work as well as it does but the writing does a good job at balancing out the two tones and doesn’t make one overstay the other. It should also be pointed out that one of the head writers for the show is none other than Megan McCarthy who worked on writing episodes and songs for My Little Pony Friendship is magic itself. It really explains a lot as to why the show feels familiar as MLP and Cenatuarworld do have a lot of things in common including out of nowhere songs and silly characters that are just fun to watch even if they can be childish. All that silliness is balanced out with a bit of a dark and serious tone which is also handled well and one is not afraid to go a little freakishly scary from time to time.
The characters could have so easily been too immature and annoying but much like the writing, the show knows when to bring on the zaniness of the characters and when to make them slow down and have other emotions. Horse, comes from a gritty real world and her warlike point of view often has trouble fitting into the colorful world of Centaurworld. Wammawink is silly and jolly but is not ignorant of showing other emotions including sadness and fear. Glendale (Who is Played by Megan Nicole Dong herself) has a constant running gag where she hordes anything and everything into her portal tummy which does get a few laughs, Zulius is a centaur able to shapeshift his main as well as be quite a showoff in other retrospects. Derpelton is your basic dumb-founded Cetaurworld who kinda reminds me of Patrick from Spongebob and Ched is a smart-mouthed bitter centaur who has a grudge against horse which you’d think would get old after a while but its never to a point where I wanted his nasty remarks to horse to be put to an end. The heard will come across other weird and zany characters that are unpredictable and even fun from time to time meaning you will probably most likely never be bored in Centaurworld.
The Animation has a big job to clash the magical and weird against the gritty and serious tones from both of the worlds. Centaurworld is colorful with many interesting creatures that all have round and bubbly shapes to make them look friendly and silly. The war world horse comes from however has a lot of dark lighting and faded colors to get the feeling of being in a war zone. The character designs are over the top and expressive especially on the Centaur characters and their animation can go as over-the-top cartoony as you could possibly imagine.
The music always consists of characters bursting out into song just like in My Little Pony and while these songs are not very memorable, they are very well done and convey either the silliness or seriousness of the situation greatly.
This show could have so easily been super annoying or obnoxiously immature, but the creators of this show did a fantastic job of combining two polarizing tones of writing and balanced them well to create something nonsensical and unique. True there are a couple of jokes that don’t really hit the mark and some of the songs aren’t as memorable as they make themselves out to be, still, it is a show that kids will have a lot of fun with and even adults will be finding themselves to bringing out their immature side in all the right ways. Season 1 of Ceuntarworld was a shocking surprise, It's not a game-changer but it was definitely wildly entertaining.
(Final Grade: B)