Humans-B-Gone! #10 - Mantis Swarm (This is an overdue review for the whole series)
Humans-B-Gone is the best example I know for why indie animation is important. In theory, the show has everything going against it : a (frankly) wacky premise, painstakingly detailed educational content, a truly alien setting where even the laws of physics have weird lore, barely anthropomorphic protagonists, humanity portrayed as faceless vermin, impressionistic neon-coloured backgrounds, 3D models with 2D smear frames, complex symbolic synesthesia (mostly implicit, to boot !), a haunting electronic soundtrack, footnotes (!?!), a narrator who breaks the fourth wall but is apparently also an in-universe character...
Think about it : even just one of these features would be enough to get a pitch summarily shot down in any commercial environment. Surely, they're incomprehensible gimmicks. The test audiences would hate it, the producers would be out of their depth, the marketing potential would be negative. Surely, such a show could never see the light of day.
But not only does Humans-B-gone do work, it's one of those works of art that keeps pushing the limits of the medium in new directions. Not even for the sake of some fancy abstract artistic statement, but simply in search of what best suits the story. And what an engaging story it is ! Great art, great entertainment, and great pop science. There are too many finer points I'd like to congratulate, but this is already getting rambly. I at least wanted to get the above out.
I'm grateful you're working so hard to bring this passion project of yours into existence, because the world is a richer place for it.
Expresso The Cat - Test Animation 2 