Smiling Friends
Entry updated 15 April 2024. Tagged: TV.
Australian/US animated tv series (2020; 2023-current). Princess Bento. Created, directed and written by Zach Hadel and Michael Cusack. Voice cast include Michael Cusack, Zach Hadel and Marc M. Nine 11-minute episodes. Colour.
Smiling Friends is an organization dedicated to cheering people up: working from a building shaped like a giant smiley-face emoji, its members visit the despondent and attempt to bring a smile to their faces. The focus is on the team of Pim Pimling (Cusack) and Charlie Dompler (Hadel); the former is an enthusiastic and optimistic believer in the Smiling Friends mission, the latter more laid back and half-hearted. They share their office with the fussy Allan (Cusack) and small be-hatted Glep (Hadel), who speaks in a strange language which everyone understands. Though humanoid, none of the four are human; the owner, The Boss (Marc M), is human but his features are disturbing, particularly his encouraging smile. His appearance at the Halloween party dressed as Charlie Brown is unnerving.
Episodes usually have a fantastic element: in some it is simply that characters are not human, such as "Mr Frog" where the celebrity (see Media Landscape) they are helping is a giant frog; in others it is central to the plot. "A Silly Halloween Special" has Pim lost in the woods, to be chased by a demon (see Gods and Demons) back to the Smiling Friends building, into the room where a Halloween party is being held: mistaken for someone in a costume, the demon is accused of wearing blackface (see Race in SF), torn to pieces and devoured. "Enchanted Forest" has Pim and Charlie distracted from their mission to cheer up a princess by becoming involved in several quests: Pim, who dreams of being a hero, is disgruntled and turns into Gollum (see J R R Tolkien) when it is Charlie who slips comfortably into that role. The episode also features Aliens: "I'd call it Sci-Fi slash Fantasy," offers Charlie. The only partially true "Charlie Dies and Doesn't Come Back" is a Christmas episode where Charlie does indeed die; going to Hell (see Eschatology), he finds it has frozen over because Satan is suffering a depression brought upon by work. The pair reach an agreement: if Charlie manages to cheer him up, Satan will restore him to life: Charlie succeeds but Satan reneges; fortunately God appears and resurrects Charlie. Other characters are sometimes given prominence: in the first episode, "Desmond's Big Day Out", whilst Pim and Charlie are out on a job, the sub-plot involves Allan seeking a stolen cheese, thereby discovering a room hidden between the office walls, from whose ceiling hangs a scrotum-like sac; when he unwisely pokes it, the sac bursts and thousands of little humanoids come forth.
A very good series, Smiling Friends is a Horror comedy (see Humour): but though there is gore, its strength lies in its weird and disturbing elements, which are often intertwined with the small talk and low-level social interactions of everyday life. The tone is sometimes reminiscent of Don't Hug Me I'm Scared (2011-2016; 2022), whilst there is occasional Satire. The setting allows for a flexibility with plots, whilst the animation style frequently shifts: this, though made with a small budget, is often interesting. [SP].
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