I'm so sick of these motherf*cking references on this motherf*cking streaming service! Twitter: / braxtonjs Letterboxd: letterboxd.com/JustStopYT/ Scrapped Velma Script: docs.google.com/document/d/14...
Kid Cosmic had one of the best lines in any cartoon in recent years "Being a hero isn't about forming a fist, it's about extending a hand. Heroes help, not hurt"
reminds me a bit of the Xbox RPG Jade Empire. It has a morality system formed between the philosophical concept of the Open Palm and the Closed Fist. Although the execution of it is fumbled a bit in the game, it's not meant to be a Good and Evil take on morality. Rather, the Open Palm is about offering and extending help to others, peacefulness, and giving of yourself to them. While the Closed Fist is about self-sufficiency and strength. For example, there's a segment in the game where you can encounter a woman who is trying to escape from a group of kidnapping pirates. There's three ways you can go about it: -Defeat the pirates so the woman can pass safely. -Only help the woman partway by offering her a weapon, but she has to fight for herself (i think). -Refuse to do anything for the woman at all, from the logic that she should be strong enough to get out of there on her own. I thought it was an interesting concept to view morality beyond simply Good and Evil. Either way, Kid Cosmic is a great and lovely show.
I worked on KID COSMIC, and just wanna say thank you for this video and thanks for enjoying it! All of us on the show love and believe in it so much, and aren't sure why more people don't talk about KC. So thanks for digging it!
@@syahmisamba9694 Thanks! It was such a blast to work on... Season 1 was all together in-studio, but sadly halfway through Season 2 COVID happened and we had to do the rest of Season 2 and all of S3 from home, apart from each other which was a bummer :(
Honestly another thing to note about kid cosmic and Velma is that the characters of Kid and Velma start off in the same place. Both lost parents at a young age, both are absorbed into pop cultures and both think their the main character of their story. Difference being is that Kid actually becomes humbled and learns that the story isn’t just about him. He struggles and understands what he does right and wrong whereas Velma just doubles down on her own choices and just bulldozes over everything to prove that she’s right.
not to mention that Velma is basically what Kid could have become if he kept trying to do things on his own WITHOUT admitting that he is wrong. Seriously! This Velma seems to try to solve the mystery by only basing herself on pop culture that she saw WITHOUT bringing something new to her. You understand what i mean?
I think one take away from this is that the show you discussed was brave enough to make their own Ip and not try hiding behind an already established franchise
I kind of love how Kid Cosmic looks and sounds like an older IP that would have existed in the 2000s, and surprise surprise it's a new IP. Reminds me exactly of the first time I listened to Vein's 2018 album Errorzone. It was the most 2007 sounding shit, even the cover looked like it came from that time. Then I searched the album online and was shocked at its release year.
IIRC, Craig McCracken had previously pitched 20 different shows to Netflix and all were rejected. Can’t remember if it was before or after Kid Cosmic was picked up.
I love Kid Cosmic so much, man. It is fantastic plain and simple, so fresh and endlessly entertaining. The fact Kid Cosmic and Velma are in the same sentence makes me physically ill.
@@cookiemons9097 Velma is worthless hatebait. You're right about the hate being over-exaggerated, but Velma's marketing counted at this, they tricked people into overhating Velma. The show is worthless 'cause it isn't even worth hating, the show is boring, it barely does anything interesting, its meta humor comes as generic as meta comedy can be, and if you takes the Scooby Doo aspect out the show, it's literally the very same, nothing changes. The worst crime any media can commit is being boring. A bad show at least tried to be something, Velma isn't even that, the only department that tried at all was the animation team, sadly the ones getting all the hate 'cause the production, direction and writing aspects of Velma suck in the most bland way possible. Velma doesn't deserve all the hate. it deserves nothing. It deserved less than nothing, it should just disappears over the time, just as another try (in a sea of generic tries) to capitalize Rick & Morty's adult meta comedy.
@@miserirken lol you sound just like the youtuber lmao I mean, true, it's kinda hate-baity, but I mean, you say that, and yet you still talk about "it deserves less than nothing", so I guess it pissed you off too, a little I'm not mad at it, it's just average adult comedy. Rick and Morty is lame too. Never laughed once at it. At least Velma's trolling makes me chuckle a little anticipating the audience's reaction. It's like, at this point, the shows jokes aren't even referencing media, it's referencing the seething audience lol. I feel like this'll be a really funny thing to look back to in a few years and remember, "People used to hate this, lol" and maybe it'll grow a little audience who finds interest in it's ironic uniqueness. Most people are just mad because Velma said Fred had a lil' dong, and that's a perfect mirror of how i've come to see the show entirely. At first I thought the show was a little rude, then I saw how mad people got at it and thought, "really, you're that mad over this?" And the more people get angry, the more I see the hilarity in how middle school roasting made the internet fold. The audience is basically arguing with a show. It made hate-watching a midas touch gold mine of viewership boosting. How is that not mad-genius? The fake outrage over High Guardian Spice and seeing people gush over Anime despite how weird, cringey, and usually horrible (but some is still good), claiming it's SUPERIOR to western "woke" media, made me realise how much of a joke internet "analysis" is, so now I see Velma as a kick in the nuts to an annoying audience, using simply pretty benign, teasing insults. It's a show that fights back in a way, and I think that's the invigoration I needed with TV. My opinion, tho.
That's Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022) in a nutshell; that movie makes fun of some tropes, but then they use them anyway. If you're gonna make fun of older cartoon characters rapping, then why make Chip and Dale (older cartoon characters) rap?
@@xxkankala1671 Velma was marketed in a very hateful way, they constantly rejected the IP they're using as life jacket, pretty much called Scoob out for being Scoob, they constantly insulted animation fans (even in the show itself), and overall they tricked people into hating their product to get hateviews. Nobody who loves what they do would make people intentionally hate their media.
@@Sephus912 the love part or the hate part? Cause Shrek was at least funny and had more heart thrown into it than Velma (if you're referring to the latter)
@@Animestar21 Shrek exist to go against Disney tropes. DreamWorks was founded by an ex-Disney employee, Jeffrey Katzenberg, who wanted to make a studio that acts as a rival to Disney. He made Prince of Egypt which is a movie based off a biblical story because he knows Disney will never touch the bible. Disney is too safe as a company even during the 90s which was during it's Renaissance period. Jeffery then made a few other movies but Shrek made the largest impact. Shrek goes against common Disney trope whether old and new. Fiona doesn't act as feminine as a princess should. She hates musicals to the point of attacking Robinhood knock offs. Shrek isn't anyone's Prince Charming on the outside and the inside. It subvert a lot of fairy tales stories that Disney use to rely on during its early days. While the movie try to be as anti-Disney as possible, it doesn't exist to purely hate. Shrek was still a person that we should have empathy for as he was discriminated by being an ogre. Shrek had been through major character growth unlike Velma. Shrek isn't always cynical as there are plenty light hearted and sad moments throughout the movie. Like what Just Stop said at the end of the video, there's more than one way to work with being "meta." There's a lot of bad ways to do it and a lot of good ways to do it. Shrek does meta in a good way as it poke fun at Disney while not being too cynical.
FINALLY Kid Cosmic gets talked about more, this show is so damn underrated. The artstyle is so fun and appealing too look at, and the characters are really likeable. It’s neat to see it brought up more.
Why is it that in shows like Velma and Santa Inc. the characters we're supposed to dislike (Fred and Santa) are the most likable and the only characters that get some kind of development?
Because the shows go out of their way to highlight every possible flaw they have and mocks them for it. The world seemingly beats down on them so much and they're made so vulnerable that the characters end up giving off an underdog vibe, even if they suck. Well, that, and because the main characters are usually just as shitty as them. It's just that the shows not doing anything to reign said main characters in makes them all the more insufferable.
@@tomkatt8274 yeah. Turns out people don't tend to like or agree with constant negativity. Rather, most people watch shows to get *away* from that attitude.
Kid Cosmic is one of the most underrated Netflix shows, I absolutely love its story and characters, and the references that take from Comicbooks is something anyone can get and love.
I really enjoyed Kid Cosmic when it first premiered on Netflix back in 2021, and I can't believe that the show isn't getting as much praise as it should have gotten. And it's a shame that Craig McCracken had left Netflix, now he came back to Cartoon Network to work on two reboots of his two shows. I'm hoping that people will be talking about Kid Cosmic again in the future. I also have a question for all of you. If Craig McCracken works with Marvel Studios, which superhero or superhero group should he make into a movie/Disney+ series?
Let's see... -The Champions/Young Avengers -Spider-Gwen/Ghost Spider -Fantastic Four -Nova -Ms.Marvel (that is if we are talking cartoons here) -Impy the Impossible Man -The Pet Avengers -A young, family friendly school themed X-Men probably
@@scifiguy9000 In my opinion, I think Craig McCracken might be perfect for a Spider-Gwen project because he's now capable of creating serialized stories, just like Kid Cosmic.
If as many people watched Kid Cosmic for the great and lovable characters and upbeat atmosphere as watched Velma because of how bad it is, many people would respect family animation a bit more. Absolutely adore Kid Cosmic, keep up the good work.
Sadly it hasn't failed at being noticed, which by some execs standards is more than enough to push any product. Every one and everything can get ignored but if you(it) can get noticed then is marketable
@@Animestar21 It's not... unwatchable i guess and it's not the worst cartoon ever, certainly isn't as bad as Mr Pickes or Kingstar king, but still is a pathetically bad show
Kid Cosmic deserves so much recognition. The writing, voice acting, and animation are just stellar. I don't think we'll see another show like it for quite some time
I've never seen this show, but I can already tell it handles references better. At 11:29 is a perfect example. Of course, I'm a huge Spider-Man fan, so I know that comic is supposed to be a reference to an iconic scene. But for someone who doesn't know anything about comics, they still understand it because it has an in-universe meaning. You don't NEED to know the reference to get it, but if you DO know the reference you get a little extra entertainment from it. It's lazy to just tell the audience "it's like that thing from that comic," and rely on the audience to do the work of remembering or looking it up. It's another thing entirely to build in-universe mythology, and then hide a little reference to the outside world in there.
References are best when you can get it just fine without knowing it, but even better if you do know it. If only more writers grasped how to actually use this kind of stuff...
Kid Cosmic is a great cartoon. You did a good description of the Government as they want to same cool power and fantasies that Kid wanted. When the Government’s power Rangers was losing the Government leader said “No! It not how it supposed to go”. Those are the exact same words that Kid said beginning of season 1. Kid Cosmic is a timeless Classic.
Kinda sucks that Kid Cosmic is one of the many cases of Netflix animated shows that got cancelled earlier than they should have. This hurts even more since the creator, Craig McCracken, already had to go through the same events with Wander Over Yander.
It's almost like true talent and artistic vision is being ignored due to the creator not having the clout of some hack actor who rides the coattails of a popular show.
KID COSMIC wasn't cancelled.. the final episodes were intended to be the end of the series. Craig only wanted 3 seasons to tell this story and, to Netflix's credit, they gave him what he asked for.
I believe another way referencing to other media is when it is used as a skeleton to explore something else, like Mystery Skulls. To put it simply, it’s a mystery team that has the cowardly Arthur, the nerdy Vivi, and Mystery her dog. The first video that features the trio was about them going into a haunted mansion and gets chased by a ghost. By this point, you might have already made the connection with the Mystery Gang, but there is more to that. First of all, the ghost is revealed to be Lewis - _Vivi’s dead boyfriend_ -and was killed by Arthur and Vivi has amnesia about the event. Meanwhile, there is a being called Shiromori who is after Mystery. While it is clear they are based on Scooby-Doo, that is never needed to understand the series. You can watch it without prior knowledge, and the parts you know makes you feel clever for it.
To see someone talk about one of my favorite shows of all time and destroying an abomination brings a smile to my face Kid cosmic is so awesome and extremely underrated for those who haven't watched it please watch it especially if you're a comic lover
You described Craig McCracken's philosophy on references perfectly. Also, it's worth mentioning that Kid Cosmic was supposed to answer the question Craig left unanswered on PPG: what is a real hero?
It’s nice that Craig managed to complete Kid Cosmic’s story. Also I’d be interested in him and Lauren doing an adult cartoon. Honestly I would legit take a full on reboot of High Guardian Spice over Velma. At least they could go back and fix it. Heck I’d trade in the DCEU, Velma, and Santa Inc. to prevent the HBO Max purge Also I think we’re overdue for a Shrek style parody of adult cartoons like Velma, Brickleberry, etc.
I agree with most of this sentence outside of the mere mention of that Poisonroll awfulness. I do not want to think about that show ever again for as long as I live.
Kid cosmic is one of my all time favorite shows! i worked at a pool office while it was coming out and i would watch the new seasons when it was slow at work. best time ever tbh.
Kid Cosmic deserves a lot more recognition, I think it was before it's time. If it was released a year or two later (Or perhaps had been released episodically instead of seasons), I truly believe it would've been a massive hit with a much larger fandom. Shame that it doesn't get talked about much, it really is one of my favorite cartoons from Netflix
When Kid Cosmic was first announced I KNEW it was gonna be a new comfort show of mine, if it's gonna be made by Craig McCracken out of all people, you KNOW he does writing RIGHT. Great show, I love this show so much, I was even him one time in Halloween. I would recommend Kid Cosmic to everyone if I have to.
Kid cosmetic is such an underrated gem of a cartoon I really enjoyed watching it heck I’ve noticed this one thing with recent cartoons but The animators seem to use a brush that makes the outlines look more drawn like there not so smooth there more jagged and stylized and I love that I wish I knew what brush’s they were using because I wanna use them for my own drawings
No more heroes also uses references well as it doesn't beat you over the head with them, Travis is literally an otaku, it's only Travis making these references and not the entire cast, and the references all helped influence the game in some way
Kid Cosmic is different in such a special way. I caught all those references to PPG and Fosters Home too, can tell Craig is proud of himself and who wouldn’t be dropping 4 bangers with no bangers
I think that it’d be a funny concept for a joke where Morty, someone who you’d expect to be more tech-sabby, tries to tell Rick about Reddit and he just says something like, “What the fuck? I read what? What did I read?” Or something in that style.
One of this horrible version of Velma show's mistake is that the main character is very toxic that only the level of a villain could attain. It's like Malty of Shield Hero made herself the protagonist and still gives false accusations, manipulating others, gaslighting how great she is, and treating others like shit with the nerve of demanding special treatment, all while indulging her psychopathic tendencies. Something, luckily, Kid Cosmic was smart enough to avoid any of that.
The irony is that, Malty being the villain could theoretically work, if it was marketed as a dissection of a complete monster Imagine that, Malty: body of a model, mind of a Monster.
Kid Cosmic > Velma because there's no contest to Craig McCracken's wholesome yet action-packed cute cartoons. Kid Cosmic, Jo, Rosa, and Papa G. work great as The Local Heroes. I love Season 1 the most.
Would have loved if the fake world at the start of Season 3 (if I remember correctly) was for real, since we have seen how well Super Heroes work in realistic worlds if not exaggeratedly tragic like Marvel Ruins in Persona (like the whole series) because the protagonist teams always have strong powers, but are also human, so The Local Heroes could have perfectly worked. But I guess that Craig didn't want that, and what we got was amazing too.
Gonna say, Kid Cosmic is somehow gets Invincible comics point better than Invincible show while being way more faster watch than that adaptation will be.
To be honest I'm starting to hate hearing about Velma more than I actually hate Velma. It's a lower mid tier show that despite its reputation is hardly even offensive (offensive as in offensive to the very being of animation and the senses). It's not the worst looking show and it's writing is just unfunny reference humor. It's unfortunate that it got this much attention. If it didn't have the title "Velma" and wasn't wearing the skin of another series it wouldn't even be talked about apart from people who're terminally online in the "political" sense. You have shows like fucking Farzar (IDC if I'm spelling that right) that I think still run to this day yet all I see is 12 videos on Velma pushed on me by the algorithm all because I'm subscribed to cartoon review channels. They aren't even mostly from review channels either, it's all these "go woke go broke" shitters like The Quartering. I swear that it's more profitable to talk about this show than it is to wear the skin of another franchise to sell your shitty original idea of a self insert fan fiction like Mindy (her name is Mindy right?) did. Jeezus Chris let this show die off already. If we keep giving it attention than we're certain to see a season 2-3-4-5 and so on. They don't care about ratings, they care about engagement. If someone is a 1/10 but draws the attention of hundreds of thousands to even millions than it wont matter. The Room is profitable even though it's considered the worst movie ever. When will people learn this shit?
My dad once thought kid cosmic was bad, now he is sad it is over. No fr kid cosmic is one of the best shows Netflix shoved out, funny, good characters, just the sheer twists and turns.
15:38 I love how Fantos being an Erodius fanboi is a reference to Thanos simping for Lady Death. It's a subtle reference yet obvious in hindsight to anyone who figures it out.
Honestly sometimes it's better to self-depreciate _properly._ Instead of going "oh sure glad we're not doing this exact thing we're doing" it should be "really, we're doing _this?"_
Not that, but It's always funny when a character keeps shouting something, or loudly talking about when i't's supposed to be secret and then gets shocked when someone finds out. For example, in Persona 5, Ryuji Sakamoto, one of the characters that make up the main cats and a member of the Vigilante team known as the ''Phantom Thieves of Hearts'' always says things like ''Boy, I sure love being a Phantom Thief!'' and then later, when someone recognizes him as Skull (his Phantom Thief Alter-Ego), he gets surprised and says ''WHAT?! You found out I'm a Phantom Thief?! How?!''
Another great example would be Venture Bros. It uses essentially the same basic concept of creating something original based on older ideas, but does it in a way that the viewer doesn’t need to get all the references to enjoy it, just get extra mileage out of.
You’re one of my favorite cartoon reviewer. I’m glad you love Kid Cosmic as much as I do. I love how well written, and funny this was, and how much your influence can bring a new audience to this good show.
16:47 I really liked how these agents shared their voices with the Powerpuff Girls when the 2016 reboot _absolutely_ snubbed them. (Not that Tara Strong has ever been particularly hurting for work but it was a d*ck move for CN to not even ask her if she wanted to return and EG Daily and Catherine Cavadini aren't even half as prolific as her, especially Cavadini)
I AM SO HAPPY SOMEONE IS TALKING ABT THIS. When I first started watching Velma I couldn’t help the notice the amount of references in the show it just got annoying for me. What they were doing is making references EVERY SINGLE MINUTE it was very annoying.
Simple! Craig Mc Cracken cares about his show and went on to write a great story with likable characters, hilarious jokes, and relatable & heartwarming moments. It also stays respectful of its source of inspiration (Kid Cosmic was inspired by classic superhero comics from the '50s and '60s). Velma was made as a cheap cash grab loosely based on the beloved 70's cartoon only to be completely mutilated with horrific Flanderization of the main characters, painfully unfunny jokes, and an obnoxious amount of politics forced down the viewer's throat only to have them keep vomiting it out every time.
I think one of the best uses of the more vapid side of reference humor is in Archer. There's a lot of low-hanging fruit (which plays into how functionally dysfunctional everyone is), but sometimes they'll whip out references so niche or high-brow that it either lands as an anti-joke for the viewer, or is hilarious specifically because they just referenced something that only a handful of people could possibly know or care about.
This video actually inspired me to watch Kid Cosmic, and it was one of the best experiences I've had in recent years. Kid Cosmic is genuinely such a good story about what heroes are supposed to be, watching both Jo and Kid grow and work through their problems and actually improve as people in the end was such an emotional ride.
I had been trying to get into this show for awhile; and the episode where Chuck reveals that Kid had been lied to was the tipping point that finally made me love it. It was such a perfect moment.
Being personal,i have always loved Kid Cosmic but never knew the reason why it was so good. Seeing your channel and understanding more of writing has basically made everything so clear to every series i have ever loved and i have gained the dream to make an manga in the future,thank you! :D
Quite the presentation here. I like it when creators use bad shows to instead talk about something better, and this was a great show he recommended. I'll have to check it out. As for well done reference humor... my go-to example is from the first Shrek movie, which actually had quite a bit of good reference humor (the later movies less so, but that's irrelevant here). When Shrek and Donkey cross the bridge to the castle where Fiona is, after Donkey panics and Shrek pushes him to the other side, after Donkey realizes they made it across Shrek pats him on the head and says "That'll do, Donkey. That'll do." and Donkey perks up after that. The line and Shrek's nice demeanor when saying it is a reference to the movie Babe -- a movie about a pig who ends up being an incredible sheep herder -- and that line is the last line in the movie, said by the shepherd ("that'll do" being what the shepherd tells his herding dogs, and it means "good job"). But it kinda works in context too. On Shrek's end, since Donkey was slow and worried when crossing the first half of the bridge, and screaming and panicking on the second half, Shrek saying "that'll do/good job" can come across as a bit condescending or sarcastic... which is perfectly in character for Shrek. As for Donkey reacting sincerely to that remark... Donkey wants to be friends with Shrek, so he probably thinks Shrek is starting to warm up to him by helping him get over his fear, and he is happy about that. Not quite as clever or well-constructed as the examples shown here in Kid Cosmic, but still an example of good reference humor: an extra layer of enjoyment for those who'll see the reference, but still quite functional as a scene on its own. A shame more writers can't seem to find that balance.
Kid Cosmic is one of the best animated series I’ve ever seen since the COVID times,and Craig McCracken is a genus when he made this cartoon. The art style,animation and storytelling are well made. All the characters are likeable and memorable. It did something that no modern “adult” animation shows couldn’t do. They really need to stop copying what Rick & Morty are doing,and start taking inspiration from Kid Cosmic and see what made that show unique in the first place.
Love this show nan. It’s the most optimistic thing I needed in my life at that point. In such a cynical world you need something like this to remind you that it’s possible to succeed by just helping others. Beautiful stuff.
I've been avoiding this video off of the soul purpose that I didn't know what kid comic was. But I'm not even done watching, and you've already convinced me to binge Kid Comic. Then I heard how they are made by the same person responsible for wander and fosters and I got excited. It looks like a series that puts reality into fantasy and shows a kid who's passionate about what he loves and needs to come to terms with the fact that what he loves is usually never the case. This show sounds amazing the way you put it and every shot you put in the video only makes me more confident to watch it.
I was surprised to see you drop a video on Kid Cosmic of all things. Given that you're a popular RU-vidr AND that it's another Velma critique, I can guarantee this video will receive an extremely high number of views, introducing Kid Cosmic to an audience bigger than it deserved after two years of being on Netflix. The show may have ended with an actual ending, with no loose ends at all, but that doesn't mean that it can only have a small audience.
Kid Cosmic is a truly PHENOMENAL SHOW!!! It’s a shame that not a lot of people know more about it. Honestly, if Craig McCracken had a mentorship program into creating an animated series, I would be there 55 years ago lol
I loved Kid Cosmic when I watched it(at least, as far as I got through it before I forgot, whoops), and even then I didn’t realize how good this aspect of it was. Ed Edd n’ Eddy did this pretty well too. Ed comparing situations to comics and monster movies and using them as reference, Edd’s particular essay-thesaurus-ish speech patterns, and Eddy calling people names alluding to pop culture before his time. More shows should take this aspect into account when doing references.
I remember this show from a singular meme of the Grandpa building his contraption with the title "When the FBI is planning to search my house" or something stupid like that, and from the music alone it was fantastic.
This video made me go watch Kid Cosmic and I’m so thankful for it! It’s a really good show! I also like your breakdown of how other shows fail at references, it’s been helpful in a few conversations on similar topics
I like to think of Kid Cosmic as a Kid Friendly Venture Bros.: All the characters with super powers, personas, archetypes, etc., are all larpers and the real heroes are the common people, struggling to make what they can.
19:36 This breakdown also made me think to Ducktales 2017 and its return of Darkwing Duck in "The Duck Knight Returns!" I had never watched Darkwing Duck, and only had passing knowledge of the original Ducktales for good measure, but every single one of these bullet points was used flawlessly in that episode. That episode marks another really great point of contrast comparison with Velma when it comes to rebooting an existing franchise. "Oh boy, a big budget reboot of something I liked as a kid! *Those are ALWAYS great!* " -Launchpad
THANK YOU for making me get off my ass and actually getting around to finishing Kid Cosmic, because I had been *sleeping* on this absolute gem of a show. I think I watched the first 2 eps like a year ago, got bored, and never came back to it until this vid came around and halfway thru the video I just went, you know what? I need to watch this. so I paused and went to watch the whole show and... God it's amazing. Came back to finish the video and loved your points!
I think that it’s important to have references be between characters who actually know what they are talking about as well as being relevant to something within the story, instead of just being one liners that characters repeatedly shout at the audience because the writers think it’s funny (like in things like “Velma”)
