"Ghosts Ain't Real!" (The Cuphead Show, 2022)

Main Entry 



If you've been paying attention, you've noticed that I've been posting screenshots from "The Cuphead Show" lately. I was going to post a thread about how the show was; that it was pretty funny, but that they seemed to be getting most of their laughs (as with the new Mickey Mouse cartoons) through frenetic activity and exaggerated expressions. So I was prepared to write it off a bit until I watched this one.

This one is hilariously funny and, although these are supposed to be a salute to the old Fleischer shorts, this one seemed to be more of a homage to every scary Disney cartoon you may have ever seen. Imagine throwing in bits from "Snow White", "The Old Mill", "The Skeleton Dance", "The Mad Doctor", "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", "Lonesome Ghosts" and probably more that I missed. And still retain it's own character! This is one wild ride.

Having not seen this episode (or the show, for that matter), did they make a reference to "Pluto's Judgement Day"?

Having not seen this episode (or the show, for that matter), did they make a reference to "Pluto's Judgement Day"?

I didn't notice one but I may have missed it.

One thing I did notice that I didn't mention in my OP. Fleischer had an animation technique where he would film an animated character in front of a rotating real life background to give the illusion of movement. It looks like that's what they did here as well when Cuphead and Mugman are walking through the graveyard and it gives a nifty effect.

I still am kinda writing it off the episode and the show, mostly that it doesn't have the tone of a 30s cartoons at all, instead going for a mix of 40s zany and the 90s trying to capture 40s. This wouldn't be an issue if this wasn't a Cuphead show, which has been pretty respective towards the pre-code era in other mediums like the game itself and the comic novels. I did think that the references to the classic Disney and Fleischers were a bit too much and caused it to lose a bit of identity. Even with ignoring that, I did think it took awhile to get the main focus of the story, and spent the first two minutes as mostly just talking heads before any action truly began. Other than that, it was fine I guess if you like this stuff