Smiling Friends, created and written by Zach Hadel and Micheal Cusack, is an animated show featuring the characters Pim and Alan (Michael Cusack), Glep and Charlie (Zach Hadel), and Mr. Boss ( Mark M.) The show follows the characters who work for a charitable organization that helps people smile through mundane plots spiraling out of control.
Colorful World
Since Zazh Hadel and Micheal Cusack are responsible for almost everything in the show, including the story, art style, animation, and voice acting, they show many of their ideas that have only been seen on their 2010s YouTube and Newgrounds projects.
The uniqueness shines with the artwork of the characters, who are colorful and grotesque. Most characters are 2 dimensional and are drawn simply or with inconsistent anatomies, like Mr. Frog, who is a frog-man, but his hands are drawn like claws, and his body looks like a t-shirt. 3d stop motion is sometimes shown like characters like the devil and 3D Squelton, who is humanoid shaped with gray skin and a very large and deformed head almost naked, and says “Boo-hoo ” a lot.
Squishy differences
Another main point that separates this adult show from other big shows is how the comedy works. Other shows would build up the comedy from the episode’s plot, like Rick and Morty when something is working but fails or has an ironic twist, Family Guy styles in the cut-away gags, and The Simpsons is trying hard to be relevant in any way by doing irony like episodes on millennials or something like that.
Smiling Friends’ comedy weighs more on the characters’ nature, background, and especially Hadel’s Voice.
Backgrounds in the episodes have small details if you look closely, such as a party with a dead guy in a beanbag no one seems to notice or some mad protestors pulling down a statue and then getting quashed for a quick second.
The strongest aspect of the show are the characters, Charlie and Pim being the most shown are the duo that go together but arent the same compared to other comedy duos, they instead have opposite interests that combine together. Charlie is an average guy who just does his job with a somewhat amount of care into his job like many people. Pim on the other hand, he is a happy-go-lucky purple-pink guy who is always cheerful about doing his job except when he becomes depressed or becomes into a goblin.
Glep is just a green wizard that mostly sits on his iPad or does nothing and talks obscurely. Alan, a red guy with a blue tie, is the co-worker to the main character who doesn’t care much for his job and tries to take an easy way out to finish his job.
Mr. Boss, being the most unique of all but not having much screen time, is the boss of the Smiling Friends Company, who has a large head and is more detailed than the rest of the cast and does random acts like breastfeeding a baby creature in the pilot.
Smiling Friends is a unique show that I would recommend to people who want to try something new and experimental, as the comedy is less traditional and straightforward, or people who have been trying to find a new Newgrounds-like animation. I give the show a 3 out of 5. It is funny and grotesque.
