Netflix's 'The Cuphead Show' Gets Debut Trailer, Streaming Begins Next Month

Looks absolutely wonderful. I can't wait for it.

Finally! been waiting for this!

I can't wait to watch this series when it comes out.

Hmmm... actually looks waaay better than I was thinking it would.

I read Grey Griffin, and I immediately thought "wait, there's only one voice actress with the name Grey" turns out this was that Grey, I wonder how it must feel to change names when your best roles are under the previous one, I'm sure most people that watched cartoons during the 00s would easily recognize the name Grey DeLisle.

This game is far too difficult for my tastes, but I love the art!

Looking good! I'm very excited!

I prefer the manga.

Show looks good

I'm excited, this looks great!

Looks good…looking forward to it!

Would have loved a 30s cartoon style though...

Isn't the whole novelty of the game how well it reflects old cartoons (along with the high difficulty of course)? And if you are going to make a full show of it, why not do the same? This is an oddball.

This is awful. The game has an AMAZING art style - why not go for the same style in an animated series? I find it absolutely baffling!

Looks really good! There's a lot of nice touches like the subtle grain and the drop shadow on all the characters to imitate cel over a painted background.

Overall it still looks very Cuphead, though with a little Ren & Stimpy styling thrown in. Honestly the amount hat went into making Cuphead feel just like an old cartoon was phenomenal, I'm not surprised that they haven't replicated it exactly for the show, but this feels like a very natural evolution to me.

@JimiVall that would be an extremely expensive and difficult show to make. It took like 8 years to animate all that stuff by hand for the game itself.

Kind of disappointing that it’s shaping up to be more of a dialogue based show rather than gag driven shorts like the ones that inspired the game. Really into the voices. That said the animation and style are great even tho they are abbreviated from the game. I’ll definitely be checking this out when it drops, I just love Cuphead too much not to

@Crockin Time and effort should never be devalued in favor of hype and convenience. If their efforts were focused on a feature film instead of a series, it could be that much more special.

@Crockin I'm sure you are right, but then what's the point of making an animated show at all? The whole point of Cuphead's visual identity is that it looks like a 30s cartoon. If you lose that, then what is left? It's not Cuphead anymore.

@JimiVall I don’t think that’s necessarily true. I personally think the abbreviated style here is still pretty excellent. Like I mentioned above, my issue is more about it being dialogue driven vs gag driven

@Broosh ok but have you ever animated something by hand the old fashioned way, or know anything about the the studio system? These guys were able to make Cuphead because they could do it independently, and they sacrificed a lot. You will never see that kind of animation for tv, especially streaming.

@Moroboshi876 I know, but I think I remember the cuphead team saying there are not trying to touch the digital stuff, so they didn't take part in the animation.

@Crockin I haven't, and I get that it would be a major expenditure of resources. Obviously they're cutting corners which is fine, and I agree with you that cartoons of this era aren't dialogue heavy so that alone makes this piece feel bizarre.
But I also kindof align with @JimiVall in that if it can't even try to be like the source material, why do it at all (outside the obvious cash and hype appeal). Overall it's a 🤷 from me, but if you dig it, good on ya.

@JimiVall I kinda agree with you here, but I still think there is a lot of fun to be had, but I don't think its going to feel much like cuphead at all actually.

I love classic cartoons, and I've been wanting to play this game since its initial launch but didn't have an Xbox, when announced for Switch I held off for the physical release. Apparently I'll watch it as a cartoon before ever playing it. Still a bit "scared" that the game's difficulty will put me off when I finally get it. I like SOME challenge, but nowadays I'd rather just almost breeze through a fun experience instead of struggle with a challenge...

@JimiVall What are you talking about? Its the exact same art style just without the old time filter on it.

The whole schtick of the game is that it looks like Fleischer animations or early Silly Symphonies, but the show uses the same generic flash animation style as many 2010 and newer shows? Color me disinterested.
The 'Manga/Anime/Netflix Adaptation' meme fits perfectly.

This makes no sense - it's like they completely failed to understand the appeal of Cuphead. The hand-drawn animation and mimicking of the 20s-30s style is Cuphead's main gimmick (not the basic character design and story).

Don't get me wrong, the animation is of a very high quality, but what is the purpose of this adaptation? Why use Cuphead characters but remove the unique selling point?

Is Wayne Brady gonna have to choke a cup?

So this is basically the game but in cartoon form huh? Alright, lol.

The art-style kinda...bugs me a little but I'll get used to it. No idea about Cuphead's and Mugman's voices either, but again I'll probably get used to it.

Just bring back Felix the Cat

It looks too childish to my taste, I hope I'm wrong.

I love how this looks but my problem is the analogue film filter.
If they really wanted to emulate how 1930s animation looked while working digitally, they should not have filtered the series and instead printed the raw digital files out to a high quality 35mm printout then said printout gets scanned back in 4K for the final release.

This is exactly what Dune 2021 did and it looked amazing. It had the crispness of digital film and the nostalgic feeling of analogue 35mm film. The printout process in the 2D releases of the film (the 3D conversions did not go through the 35mm printout process) helped a lot in building Dune 2021's aesthetic, and it should be a process that more films and shows do.

And if you people say that 35mm film is too expensive for a TV show, I'll have you know that HBO's Euphoria is filmed in true 35mm film for Season 2. HBO's Westworld was also filmed in 35mm film.

Studio Ghibli, while I love their films, also falls into this trap for their digital films (starting with My Neighbours the Yamadas), which are similarly filtered to look like analogue 35mm films even for Earwig and the Witch, their first 3D CGI film.
They clearly have the money to issue high quality printouts for a 4K scan but they only reserve said 35mm printouts for Ghibli Museum short films and promotional material for the Ghibli Museum, which still use 35mm film to this day.
It would be much better if Studio Ghibli did not filter their digital films to look like analogue film but rather printed out to true high quality analogue 35mm film similar to what Dune 2021 did. Their analogue films (Princess Mononoke and everything before that) did not fall under this trap and are pure 4K scans of the original negatives (they did not even apply the dreaded DNR which plagues most anime HD/4K remasters) in all their analogue glory.

Everyone's talking about the style and I actually think it looks OK though it falls short of recapturing the look of Pre-Code New York cartoons mixed with the beautiful color cartoons that Disney was doing at the same time the game did perfectly (not that I expected it from a Netflix series).

The bigger problem if this is meant to be a tribute to 30's cartoons is the humor is very dialogue based instead of visual as you would expect from the time period.

@Shambo I don't know what level of challenge you're comfortable with, but I think Cuphead's difficulty is overstated. It is a challenging game, but the reputation is that it's among the most difficult, and that's just not the case. I don't have the patience for games with extreme difficulty either, and I'm not good enough to beat the likes of R-Type, which I still like. Really, Cuphead's difficulty feels similar to some of the easier Metal Slug games. On top of that, the difficulty ramps up so the earlier fights are pretty easy. The game also has some elements to mitigate issues, including power ups, and indicator for how close you got to beating a boss to keep you coming back. It's the kind of game where I think most people can enjoy their time with it even if they don't beat it. But if you say you don't mind some challenge, then I think you'd be able to get far enough to have a good time. I've played a lot of games more difficult and more rigid than Cuphead. I really expected it to be harder based on its reputation.

Oh look a reason to renew my Netflix subscription- it looks so good even if the episodes are short

It wouldn’t be that hard to fake the retro style of the game. They could easily have made the lines blurrier and added some dust and scratches to emulate that.
It’s not a lack of effort or money. I smell Netflix producers or ‘content managers’ assuming people wouldn’t watch something if they just thought it was an actual 30’s cartoon. Just another IP that got overpolished for the masses.
But it does seem to have its own qualities.

Honestly the art style here is let down why cuphead is interesting game is because it has art style from old cartoons from 20s and by looks of it they changed plot of them losing their souls in casino maybe it change my mind when it comes on but so far its ehhh

@earthinheritor I'm sorry but you need to check your eyes.. :/

@sdelfin loved Metal Slug in almost all of its outings (and really curious about that tactics game). While I used to play games on the most ridiculously hard setting in the past, like MGS and REmake, and absolutely loved Zombi U, those were all games where you rarely have to act FAST. I'm quick at learning patterns, figuring out AI or puzzle mechanics for the toughest logic based puzzles,... BUT, and this is a but even a butt would spell with triple T... My reaction time is often a little bit slower than average. Online vs shooters for example are a nightmare. By the time I start considering some moving pixels could be virtually hostile, they have already assured me that they in fact were. When I play Sniper Elite 4 vs, it's just mostly me dying out of nowhere, but when I play it co-op survival, I do rather good, often getting the most kills, whether I stay back and do long range, or go berserk and go close quarters. Single player is mostly slow and methodical, so like any stealth game, easily beatable on the hardest settings for me, as I hardly get confronted with the difference between difficulty settings (in fact I often play on easy just to enjoy it as a brainless action game as well). But I'll definitely give it a try when it gets a complete physical release. Thanks for explaining it some more, I'm looking forward to experiencing it in action.

Looks fantastic, I am definitely gonna watch.

Lovely, we miss old-style cartoons in these days.. (only looks a bit too clean)

@Hydra_Spectre Thanks, i was thinking about this, but couldn't think of a way to do it properly...

Looks too clean and modern, why didn't it kept the 80s style animated look like game? This is suppose to look like Looney Tunes, Mickey Mouse, and Popeye.

Show will be better then people think it’ll be for sure. some of these comments are straight up hilarious for people who never picked up a pencil / pen to draw anything from their brain to paper.