Exploding Kittens is a new animated show on Netflix. What’s it about?
With any TV show, having a premise that is instantly easy to understand what it’s trying to do and grok the tone of from the jump gives it a massive advantage to hook its audience and keep them watching.
I believe Exploding Kittens to be one of those television programs.
The trailer opens with a white bearded figure, who turns out to be God. God is sitting at what looks like a corporate boardroom table, and someone siting across from him says, “God, you need to rehabilitated.”
Then a few others seated at the table chime in. “Go down, connect with humans, and then you can come back,” someone else says.
“You’ll live as one of them… sort of.”
Suddenly God is dropped through a trap door and crash lands into a children’s playground somewhere on Earth. A fiery ball erupts and what emerges but… a little kitten. With a strange beard.
The plot itself is easy to follow: God needs to help the creatures of his earthly dominion in order to earn his way back to heaven.
Which is a great premise to start from. That being said, all shows – animated, wacky, or neither of those things – thrive on writing and performances, and Exploding Kittens looks strong on both scores.
God is voiced by Tom Ellis, and his educated, sarcastic British accent thrives when he announces (n the form of an earthly cat with a beard), “But now I’m only here as a mitten with an anus. I’m only here as a PR ploy to make it look like I give a dump about you people.”
Other voice actors include Kenny Yates, Syzy Nakaura, David Gborie (as Aslandeus), Ally Maki, Sasheer Zamata, and the great Mark Proksch of What We Do in the Shadows and Better Call Saul fame.
Along the way, we meet a family in which the mom says, with regard to her concern for son, is that he’s only interested in “vaping or rollerblading or roller vaping.” And that’s before we get introduced to Beelzebub, Lady of Darkness.
We see one hilarious bit where Beelzebub, who seems to take a cat like form (with devilish tail and horns), says to Kitten God, who is standing inside of a garage, “Hey! As Lord Satan, I command you to open this enchanted robot wall,” as we see the garage door slowly close. And, as kicker, Kitten God flips the bird to the Lady of Darkness.
I’ll also note that the animation style is bright, cheerful and super well done. Which makes sense, as Exploding Kittens touts that it comes to us from the producers of The Office and King of the Hill.
Exploding Kittens: when and where can I watch it?
Exploding Kittens premieres on Netflix on Friday, July 12th, 2024.