A chance to look as cool on the outside as I am on the inside!

November 8, 2014 4:33 PM

Bee and Puppycat (previously) began as a two-part cartoon short by Natasha Allegri, a former Adventure Time writer and artist. Now, after a successful Kickstarter campaign, Bee, a recently unemployed 20-something, and her interplanetary cat (erm... dog?), Puppycat, have graduated to a full nine-episode series on the web-only Cartoon Hangover network.

The first two episodes have just been released.
posted by Room 641-A (34 comments total)

I generally approve of this; of course there will be inevitable comparisons of Bee & Puppycat to Finn & Jake (or Fionna & Cake), especially since Allegri is an Adventure Time veteran. But its semi-grounding into a kind-of-a-real-modern-world kinda made me think of something else... then, when I first saw Puppycat dance, I thought OMG, TOKYO PIG (a comically bizarre anime that was imported for - and pretty much killed - ABC's Saturday Morning cartoon block). The physical similarity between Puppycat and 'Sunny Pig' is obvious, as is their roles of 'bringing magic into a loser's life', although the Pig has a MUCH better attitude and his beneficiary Noriyasu/Spencer is far less helpless. Still, I will be disappointed if I do not see pigs or a character resembling the Weather Lady before the end of B&P's first season.
posted by oneswellfoop at 5:21 PM on November 8, 2014 [4 favorites]

of course there will be inevitable comparisons of Bee & Puppycat to Finn & Jake (or Fionna & Cake), especially since Allegri is an Adventure Time veteran.

Not just an Adventure Time vet, but the one who designed Fionna and Cake! But Bee & Puppycat feels a lot different.
posted by jason_steakums at 5:26 PM on November 8, 2014

aw man this is great stuff. I especially like how... down to earth and yet not it is. That bit with the text messaging is me to a T
posted by rebent at 5:45 PM on November 8, 2014 [2 favorites]

You took too long
Now your candy's gone
...
That's what happened
Puh-gow!
posted by delicious-luncheon at 5:52 PM on November 8, 2014 [15 favorites]

These made an appearance at XOXO fest--I have never seen Andy Biao more excited to introduce anything. And I went from not knowing about it to being an instant fan.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 5:52 PM on November 8, 2014

It perfectly hits a tone that I didn't even know was already familiar to me.
posted by vogon_poet at 6:20 PM on November 8, 2014 [3 favorites]

Not just an Adventure Time vet, but the one who designed Fionna and Cake! But Bee & Puppycat feels a lot different.


Bee and Puppycat simultaneously cracked me up and made me squeal when it first showed on Youtube, as did the Fionna and Cake episodes. There's a lot of surface-level bubblegum and cutesy to Allegri's illustrative style, but it all plays at darker themes.

I think B&PC has potential to turn into something wickedly phenomenal.
posted by ourt at 6:22 PM on November 8, 2014 [2 favorites]

I love Bee and Puppycat. The comics are worth picking up, too- they're a little disjointed, but feature cute shorts by different artists in different styles, but it all captures a kind of whimsy-meets-reality vibe that really works.
posted by Torosaurus at 6:29 PM on November 8, 2014

Bee & Puppycat feels a lot different

That's true, although I think the jelly planet in ep 2 is far more like Adventure Time than the pilot was.
posted by robcorr at 6:59 PM on November 8, 2014

Wow, this is also really pretty. The way the light changes throughout the first few minutes (cat with cicada, bike ride, at the store) is really visually appealing. Her art is a great balance between simplicity and expressiveness. Grade A, IMO.
posted by DGStieber at 7:00 PM on November 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

There's an old-school anime charm to the art here that's very appealing.

Also: "If you didn't have animals I'D MURDER YOU."
posted by JHarris at 7:41 PM on November 8, 2014 [4 favorites]

I'm so happy the kickstarted episodes are finally starting to come out. The first one (or is it two since it's two separate videos on youtube? It's one whole story. Whichever) is every bit as delightful as I was hoping it would be.
posted by sparkletone at 9:30 PM on November 8, 2014

In terms of the pacing, it kind of reminds me of Bravest Warriors or Steven Universe more than Adventure Time itself. The jokes are told with a smirk and a shrug, and the storyboards keep zooming along. Which is great! It packs a ton into a tiny, six minute package.

Speaking as a hapless and immature adult lady, I'm super looking forward to where this show about a hapless and immature adult lady is going.
posted by evidenceofabsence at 11:27 PM on November 8, 2014 [2 favorites]

delicious-luncheon: "You took too long
Now your candy's gone
...
That's what happened
Puh-gow!"

why does this make me feel so sad?
posted by boo_radley at 12:52 AM on November 9, 2014

I showed the pilot to a friend tonight, who's not usually into this kind of thing. He dismissed it after a showing, but on a second viewing decided he quite likes it.
posted by JHarris at 1:31 AM on November 9, 2014

This is superb, thanks so much for posting!
posted by Quilford at 1:56 AM on November 9, 2014

So excited! These weren't quite as awesome as the pilot, maybe because they're so short. Still good stuff though, thanks for posting!
posted by Athanassiel at 2:10 AM on November 9, 2014

So yeah, I looked it up, and it turns out this is the best thing ever.
posted by LogicalDash at 3:59 AM on November 9, 2014 [2 favorites]

I backed it!

You may touch me.
posted by Drexen at 6:04 AM on November 9, 2014 [4 favorites]

Gotta say, this is pretty wonderful. Thanks for the heads up.
posted by kafziel at 12:47 PM on November 9, 2014

Here's an interview with Bee and Puppycat's creator. Nataha Allegri. She mentions that the inspiration for the art style comes a bit from Sailor Moon, early 90s anime, and Super Book, that weird CBN/Family Channel anime with Japanese animation with kids going into Bible times. Huh.
posted by JHarris at 12:04 AM on November 10, 2014 [2 favorites]

Has anyone mentioned that MeFi's Own Brad Sucks has written a bunch of music for Bee and Puppycat (that will be in later episodes)? No? Because he has and Brad is fab and his music is pretty much the only thing that will make B&P better than it already is.
posted by Phire at 10:47 PM on November 10, 2014 [3 favorites]

They hadn't, but that's awesome! That means that Bee and Puppycat is just one remove away from Steamshovel Harry!

I've seen all the episodes several times now, and it's still impossibly charming. I hope Bee and Puppycat gets a long run and lots of sweet, whimsical stories. I especially like Bee's voice, which is very different from your standard cartoon female voice. I'm starting to think it might be one of the great cartoon voices, as foretold on the coming of the Great Blanc.

The stories are well-written too. Food/Farmer is especially great from a construction perspective because every detail is used. The story juggles like five different subplots, between the Bee's hunger, her finances, the gum, the leather jacket and the farmer's crops, and they all fit together by the end.
posted by JHarris at 2:03 AM on November 11, 2014

Comics Alliance article with Natasha Allegri. Very interesting!
posted by JHarris at 10:00 AM on November 12, 2014

(WARNING: Allegri mentions she loves The Room! I knew I liked her.)
posted by JHarris at 10:06 AM on November 12, 2014

JHarris: " The stories are well-written too. Food/Farmer is especially great from a construction perspective because every detail is used. The story juggles like five different subplots, between the Bee's hunger, her finances, the gum, the leather jacket and the farmer's crops, and they all fit together by the end."

and the cooking school! and Deckard!
posted by boo_radley at 8:42 AM on November 13, 2014 [1 favorite]

It's okay, we can work with that.
posted by JHarris at 1:58 PM on November 13, 2014

So, I'm still on a B&PC kick, it's so charming and sweet-natured. But it's hard to nurture an addiction when there's only four six-minute episodes so far. But it turns out there are now five issues of a Bee & Puppycat comic, from Kaboom and available digitally through Comixology. Allegri wrote a two-part story spread across the first two issues. I've seen four of the issues now, and it fills in the gaps of Bee's world a little bit. It is a wonderful little universe.

Later issues it seem focus more on short one-shot anecdotal stories than furthering continuity. But that's okay, I think, those kinds of stories work really well for these characters. #4 has stories involving: B&PC going on a picnic, a one-pager in which Bee and Deckard try to play a video game, Bee struggling to get to the post office before it closes, B&PC visiting a florist's and failing to raise plants, and the two of them making a sandwich. Every story is written and drawn by a different artist, each has a completely different art style, and they're all great.
posted by JHarris at 3:00 AM on November 16, 2014

Just before the thread closes, they've released episode 3, Beach, which reveals the significance of that picture above Bee's couch, and introduces Bee's little kid landlord, Cardamon.
posted by JHarris at 12:43 AM on December 5, 2014 [1 favorite]

Also, here's a voice-over of a story in the third comic book that some fans made.
posted by JHarris at 12:52 AM on December 5, 2014

Oh, man I love this show.
posted by Room 641-A at 7:31 AM on December 5, 2014

"I don't like telling people what to do."

<YOU SHOULD. IT'S AMAZING.>

But what is up with the dirty-minded invertebrates? Between the cicada in Food and (what is apparently named as) Keith the Crab here, it's not very positive behavior from of the Lower Orders.
posted by JHarris at 2:00 PM on December 5, 2014

How often are episodes supposed to come out? There were two, then like a month, and now #3.
posted by kafziel at 2:11 PM on December 5, 2014

Bee and Puppycat's Kickstarter was enough to fund six episodes. We've now seen half of them. From what I can tell, they're being released as they finish production. There were some brief shots of this episode shown in an early promo, so I presume it's been in the works for a bit. Beyond that there is no definite schedule that I know of, I assume they're monthly. Animation takes time to produce, and the main work in-betweening is being done in Korea as it is with most cartoons these days.
posted by JHarris at 2:23 PM on December 5, 2014