JacobsonCinemas

The Amazing Digital Circus, it’s amazing and it’s digital

The Amazing Digital Circus is an amazing indie animated series. It has well developed characters, hilarious comedy, great animation, deep emotional moments, and a wonderfully eerie premise. Now that the finale has officially released on YouTube, it is time for me rank every episode from worst to best. Keep in mind, none of these episodes are bad it just that some are stronger than others. This list is also based on my opinion. SPOILER WARNING for the whole show so if you haven’t seen the show yet, do it now before you read this list.

9. Episode 2-Candy Carrier Chaos!: There are no bad episodes of this show, but episode 2 is probably the weakest episode in my opinion and just felt like a typical adventure. The episode tries to do something interesting with having an NVP becoming self-aware with Gummygoo who is a very likable character but Caine gets rid of him and the show doesn’t do anything with this idea afterwards. I do think the ending where Pomni comes to term with her new life in the circus and realizes that she’s not alone is very sweet.

8. Episode 1-Pilot: The most important thing a pilot must do is establishing the show’s premise, the characters, world, and tone well enough to make you excited for what’s to come and like most great show pilots, the first episode of the Amazing Digital Circus managed to accomplished that job perfectly. Sure, the animation isn’t the best compared to future episodes but it has that old school CGI charm to it.

7. Episode 4-Fast Food Masquerade: This was the very first episode where I watched the premiere live. Episode 4 is one of those examples of taking well developed characters and putting them in a situation and the writing writes itself. Gooseworx apparently worked at a McDonalds before and you can tell she used her experience as inspiration for this episode. I really liked that this episode focused on Gangle and the running scene near the end was great. Also, Ragatha on stupid sauce is hilarious and I loved the Raggedy Anne reference.

6. Episode 3-The Mystery of Mildenhall Manor: I started to get into this show around the time episode 3 premiered. Caine is my favorite character of the show but if I had to pick a favorite player it would definitely be Kinger who this episode puts in the limelight. Seeing Pomni and Kinger bond is very enjoyable and finding out that he had a wife who abstracted was very emotional. The episode itself has a very creepy feel to it that felt like a combination of Luigi’s Mansion and Silent Hill.

5. Episode 7-Beach Episode: The irony of calling this a beach episode (which are usually considered breather episodes in most shows) that transitions to a completely different plot. This episode is definitely a “take that” towards fans making theories that ends up throwing all those theories out the window with probably the worst thing Caine has ever done on the show. The Jax “almost” abstraction scene was absolutely stunning and Zack Handal’s cameo as the Orange Crappy Looking Fish was hilarious. This episode is definitely the calm before the storm (actually more like a hurricane).

4. Episode 5-Untitled: I’m not sure if this was intentional or not but the fact that the intermission scene happens in the midpoint of not just the episode but the show (episode 5 of 9) is absolutely brilliant. Episode 5 in my opinion is the most enjoyable episode of the series. The idea of a lighting round with multiple adventures is clever and all the adventures we see are really fun. Much like the previous episode, this one also pulls off the “put the characters in scenarios” bit extremely well. We also get little glimpses at the character’s lives before entering the digital circus.

3. Episode 6-They All Get Guns: Another very fun episode with a neat premise. Seeing the characters team up in pairs to shoot each other and work off each other is absolutely hilarious and leads to a lot of fun writing between the characters. The conversations between Ragatha/Kinger and Gangle/Zooble are very touching and show how much they do truly care for each other. The main focus is definitely Pomni’s “friendship” with Jax which leads to a very heavy but wonderfully acted scene near the end that is pretty much the beginning of Jax’s downhill spial in abstracting.

Before we get to the top 2 I just want to point out that these next episodes are almost a tie for my favorite episode. Ironically both episodes were paired together as the feature length film The Last Act (PEAK cinema btw).

2. Episode 8-hjsakldfhl: The penultimate episode of the Amazing Digital Circus is as perfect an episode of this show that you could get. The MVP here of course is my favorite character of the whole show Caine played by the absolutely amazing Alex Rochon. There are so many memorable Caine moments in this episode such as his backstory, Bubble calling him defective, his amazing musical number “Who’s Running the Show” and especially when the characters finally call him out which leads to his ultimate crashout and demise in the end. The cliffhanger ending where he’s deleted really made you wonder how this show was going to end and made you really excited for the finale. This is apparently Gooseworx’s favorite episode and for good reason.

1. Episode 9-Remember: The series finale of the Amazing Digital Circus wasn’t an emotional roller coaster; it was an emotional amusement park! Everything about this finale such as the directing, animation and music is pretty much the best of the whole show. The twist of the players being brain scans is shocking but feels right. This finale puts a lot of focus on Jax who unsurprisingly abstracts. I did find it odd that we never see Jax abstract on screen but I guess it was Gooseworx’s choice to leave it up to our imagination. We also finally get to see his origin, his tragic friendship with Ribbit, and what his life was in real life all shown through his point of view. A detail I absolutely love from this episode that I thought was absolutely brilliant storytelling is from the scene where Jax opens up to Ribbit and the camera transitions from first person to third person. It’s that moment where we really see who Jax truly is and what really helps is Michael Kovach’s amazing performance as Jax. What I also like that his tragic life isn’t made to excuse his action but to make you understand and empathize with him. I was also glad to see that Caine was still alive. Caine’s redemption here was amazing and all done with minimal or no dialogue. The scene where Caine makes up for what he’s done by showing the players what happened to their real selves is very sweet. Having the players know that their real selves are living their best lives wonderfully gives the characters closure and makes for a very bittersweet ending. Also, the post credit scene seeing all the real-life players at a bus stop was brilliant. Episode 9 is honestly much up there with Avatar’s Sozin’s Comet, Gravity Falls Take Back the Falls and Hilda’s the Fairy Isle as one of the best finales I have ever seen and an absolute emotional conclusion to this amazing show.

Thank You Gooseworx and everyone at Glitch who helped make this amazing and digital show. How would you rank the episodes? Feel free to share your ranking.