t’s finally here! The long-awaited Cuphead Show has made its way onto Netflix after much anticipation!

Since the release of Cuphead in 2017, people have been wanting more of the titular Cuphead and his brother Mugman. The game was infamous for its nostalgic animation style, incredible difficulty, and unforgettable bosses.

With DLC on the way, the Cuphead show is a perfect way to keep up the Cuphead fever.

Now, let’s see what this show has to offer! Major spoilers ahead for the first six episodes of the series!

I was someone who was already hooked on the original game, but this reignited my love for the game to the maximum.

First off, the animation.

Studio MDHR returns to animate the show and, if you’re familiar with the original game, you know this means the return of cell animation! This means that a large portion of the Cuphead show was animated without the help of digital animation.

You can see this in later episodes of the show! In episodes five and six, there’s heavy use of 3-D environments made of clay. The Devil’s lair and a majority of the graveyard

Next, let’s talk about the story!

The story is just like the game, except with a few modifications. In the original game, Cuphead and Mugman both lost their souls after landing snake eyes in the Devil’s Casino. Compared to the show, only Cuphead loses his soul from a carnival game before being pulled out by Mugman. Now, Cuphead owes his soul and is on the run from the Devil and his lackeys!

This change might’ve been due to the nature of the original story. The show is rated TV-Y7, typical for a kid’s show. As such, they probably switched out something mature like a casino with something more innocent and fitting for the targeted audience. Though this logic is quickly shot down by the inclusion of the Devil. So we may never know why the Devil’s casino was trashed.

Let’s move on to writing next! I love how the writers handled the characters and their interactions.

This show is so funny. It incorporates a side-splitting amount of vaudeville and slapstick comedy and for all of it, I found myself laughing like a schoolgirl. Cuphead and Mugman’s sibling quarrels never get old and I’m obsessed with their witty dialogue. The writers know how to write kids and the voice actors know how to make it sound. Big props to Tru Valentino and Frank Todaro for killing it

Now onto the Devil and King Dice. As much as I like Cuphead and Mugman, these two truly stole the show for me. Luke Drake and Wayne Brady smashed their roles out of the park and they’re so memorable.

The Devil sounds so comically posh and it makes a great contrast to his angrier moments. He reminds me of the Queen of Hearts from Time Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, a movie that I cherished a lot in my childhood, and I can’t wait for what else the Devil will bring later on.

And how could I forget his beef with Cuphead? We know that the Devil is out for Cuphead’s soul but, rather than going after Cuphead himself, he lets his henchmen do it for him. This could be attributed to Devil’s laziness. His laziness can be described as that of a house cat’s, he just has much better things to do. He’s the Devil after all!

And what’s a Devil without his right-hand man?

I can go on and on about King Dice. He was my favorite character in the original game and he continues to uphold that title in the show. King Dice’s entire character is based on Cab Calloway, a 1930s jazz musician. Cab Calloway was wildly popular in his day and it was through that fame that he did many films and was featured on many live shows.

But, more importantly, Cab Calloway was featured in many cartoons made by Fleischer Studios. You may know them as the ones responsible for Betty Boop (in fact you can see Bimbo the Dog in the first episode).

Cab Calloway’s most known for his dancing in these cartoons, something that was translated through a process called Rotoscoping. Rotoscoping allowed for extremely fluid and accurate animations that made for impressive scenes. It wasn’t just used in old cartoons either, lots of Disney’s older movies made use of rotoscoping for some of their scenes.

And Studio MDHR is no different.

While not completely rotoscoped, it’s most likely that animators referenced keyframes in Cab Calloway’s dancing during King Dice’s debut episode, Roll the Dice. This makes so much sense for King Dice and I’m so happy that the team didn’t cut any corners when referencing Cab. It doesn’t stop here though, references were also made with the inclusion of King Dice’s scatting and his orchestra, two things that also made Cab Calloway so notable.

King Dice himself is the perfect foil for his boss, the Devil. While the two share similar tempers, King Dice’s anger comes out more as frustration rather than rage. He’s cool and collected, yet overconfident, so his anger comes through the failure of his plans.

Being the Devil’s right-hand man, his frustration also comes from being unable to prove that he’s worthy of being the Devil’s “number one”. I’m excited to see if the show will explore this aspect of King Dice’s relationship with the Devil as the show progresses because it could provide a lot of interesting subplots.

However, I guess I shouldn’t get my hopes up too high for a kid’s show.

All of what I’ve talked about is just the tip of the iceberg compared to the rest of what the show has to offer. There are plenty of visual and musical references to the original game and its inspirations, but you don’t have to be a fan of the original game to enjoy the Cuphead Show!

I highly recommend watching it if you’re into nostalgic cartoons like Tom & Jerry, Looney Tunes, or even classic cartoons like Betty Boop.

Hot dollar, what are you waiting for? Boot up Netflix and watch it now! I guarantee that you’ll have one swell time!

And, as Porky Pig would say, that-the-that’s all, folks!