After only waiting six months for the new season, Netflix’s The Cuphead Show! continues the hysterical chaotic adventures of Cuphead and his brother Mugman. Season 2 delivers more laughs with new characters and longer episodes but continues to stay the course in regards to the chosen non-serialized format. The Cuphead Show! adapts content from the well-beloved video game Cuphead that uses an art style inspired by 1930s rubber hose animation.
The Cuphead Show! season 2 is available to stream now only on Netflix.
Story: Welcome Back to Inkwell Isle
Continuing from where we left Cuphead and Mugman last season, the boys attempt to break out of prison while constantly bickering. Afterwards, most of the season returns to its non-serialized format of one-off adventures, including episodes involving new and old characters from the video game. The overarching plot involving the main antagonist The Devil, attempting to take Cuphead’s soul, takes a break for the majority of the season with only two of the thirteen episodes containing this plot line.
The Cuphead Show! struggles with adapting to giving their audience a more complex overarching plot that adapts to what occurs throughout the show. Though simple it’s not exactly a bad thing, most animated shows use the serialized formula to tell their story, but with The Cuphead Show!, it’s not exactly essential given what type of show it is. The creators have fully committed to the 1930s rubber hose concept with solo stories which works considering the Cuphead game, only had a simple storyline, making endless possibilities for one-off stories.
Most of the solo tales are a great mix of humour and adventure, the episodes featuring boss characters from the video game stood out the most. However similar to season 1, The Devil episodes are the highlight of the season and with the “Release The Demons” episode, we get both The Devil and King Dice putting on their A-game. The season ends similar to season 1, however, unlike that ending, season two uses the main overarching story to tease what season 3 could be about.
Characters & Performances: New Foes to Entertain The Masses
One of the main highlights of The Cuphead Show! is the colourful characters. They all have wonderful designs and are a cast of absolutely chaotic individuals, whether they are friendly or deadly.
Cuphead & Mugman
Cuphead and Mugman are delightfully entertaining, whether they’re together or on solo adventures. In season two, the brother’s dynamic starts to evolve from both characters coming off as almost carbon copies of themselves to now having individual personalities. Sadly, because of the show’s non-serialized format, any lessons they learn won’t fully stay with them when the next episode starts which backtracks any growth in their personalities. Though no matter what there’s no doubt they will band together to fight off any dangers, especially when one of them is on The Devil’s radar.
The Devil
Speaking of The Devil, he’s practically the best character in the show. He’s the despicable main antagonist that comes off as an absolute showman while also being an intimidating threat. His attempts to take Cuphead’s soul are utterly hysterical and display the best parts of the show. His back and forth with his main henchman (also named henchman) brings out a lot of laughs as well as his scenes with King Dice. Sadly in season 2 we only get two episodes of his contribution to the show, though for how little he was in the season, it still left a lasting impression and hopefully season 3 will deliver on even greater content for the show’s main villain.
Elder Kettle, Ms Chalice and More!
Recurring characters like Elder Kettle and Ms Chalice are a lot of fun too. Elder Kettle, the father figure of the household who at first, I didn’t care for but when the episode focused on him, he became one of my favourites. Ms chalice is a new arrival from the last season who continues to entertain with her mischievous and again delightful personality that is a welcome addition to the main ensemble. Some one-off villains definitely caught my eye this season with characters like Cala Maria, Baroness Von Bon Bon and Werner Werman being great antagonists that deliver the boss fight content we all truly deserve. We also got some fun cameos from other boss characters from the video game, though they were brief, hopefully, they may appear again as antagonists for Cuphead and Mugman to take on.
King Dice
Finally, one character that needs some attention is the host with the most, King Dice. He only appears once in this season (and last season too) and gives a great performance as one of The Devil’s main lackeys. Annoyingly, the show has decided to bench him as just an average villain when in the video game he’s the Devil’s, right-hand man and has some very creative abilities the show could really use. Hopefully, just like the inclusion of more Devil-themed episodes, King Dice can also soak up some of that spotlight in future seasons.
The Performance Of A Lifetime!
The vocal performances of each character are superb, every actor chosen matched what I imagined the characters sounding like from the video game. Cuphead and Mugman are voiced by Tru Valentino and Frank Todaro, who give off great comedic chemistry with their chosen accents matching the 1930s depression era American as well as the choice to give Mugman a more nasally voice.
Luke Millington Drake voices the Devil and completely knocks it out of the park, he gives the Devil an intellectual-sounding voice that can really fill up a room when turning on the intimidation. Wayne Brady does a fantastic job as the villainous showman King Dice. Some of the standalone villains, Cala Maria (Natasia Demetriou), Baroness Von Bon Bon (Zoë Moss) and Werner Werman (Chris Kattan) give out great performances throughout their episodes.
Editing & Pacing: Short trips Into Animated Chaos
Season 2 of The Cuphead Show! extends its episode count to thirteen and in doing so gives us a mixture of short 11-15 minute tales alongside 19-26 minute grand adventures. Similar to season 1, The Cuphead Show!’s second season isn’t a necessary show for binge-watching like most Netflix original series, but it does give you a wonderful amount of bite-sized adventures that will keep you wanting more.
Highlight episodes for me were the Release the Demons episode focusing more on the overarching plot with The Devil, A High Seas Adventure! that has the boys assisting a pirate on a deadly quest for love, Sweet Temptation, which involves Cuphead discovering a land of sweets, and Rat’s All, Folks which had our heroes face off against a small home invader. I’m hoping in future seasons the length of episodes may grow so that we can get more content out of the world of Cuphead.
Cinematography & Sound: A Mixture of Ink and Clay
The Cuphead Show! continues to deliver on its promise to be a faithful adaptation of both the video game and the inspired rubber hose animation of the 1930s. The aesthetic of the show uses depression-era cartoons mixed with modern comedic timing. The exaggerated facial expressions, slapstick humour and surreal characters make this more kin to modern animated shows like Animaniacs.
One particular aspect of The Cuphead Show! I enjoy is the use of live-action clay miniatures being used for the backgrounds and landscapes the 2D characters walk along. Any time this method of animation is used in the show left me in awe of what I was watching, it really helped elevate the episode’s atmosphere and my own appreciation for the animators. I particularly enjoyed a sequence in the fifth episode involving Baroness Von Bon Bon where we get an almost perfect recreation of her boss fight.
A Classic Soundtrack
Another great aspect The Cuphead Show! has taken from its source material is the classical soundtrack that the game provided during its many challenging levels. It may not be using pieces from the video game but they’ve still given the same amount of thought to what classical pieces should be used in the show. My favourite this season was the classical piece Dies Irae Requiem by Verdi, which was featured in the Release the Demons episode. It mainly stuck with me since it was used as both a badass dramatic moment and a hilarious visual gag with King Dice.
Alongside the classical pieces, The Cuphead Show! also enjoys serenading its audience with original music sung by multiple characters. This season had a fun swashbuckling love song by the pirate Captain Brineybeard and an entrancing villain ballet by the sea monster Cala Maria. It’s definitely a highlight for me to hear these interesting characters sing their hearts out and would love to hear more characters (maybe even Mugman) sing a tune in future seasons.