Think Thunderbirds, Bond, Star Trek, North by Northwest, and then think Nintendo and StarFox. Now add unique animation, memorable writing, genius incorporation of existing StarFox lore, and now make cheesy but likable video game characters into TV characters loyal to their personalities yet are as easy to take seriously as they are to laugh at, and that's Matthew Gafford's A Fox in Space. I should mention upfront that I myself am an animator and only played StarFox 64 through once as a child. So I have reasonable knowledge through that, pop culture and Smash Bros.
The only hand drawn animation is on a TV budget or flash animated (not including the hand-drawn films that can be counted on one hand) seem to be held back by money and time, but incredibly this overcomes it's (assumingly) small budget. The animation in this is so lively and so in sync with the intended spirit of the characters that it sucks you into the story consistently. I seriously didn't want it to end. The conversations between Fox and Wolf are so entertaining, so funny, so interesting in how it pulls you in to their past, and so well animated when they are simply sat in a chair talking. Little things like Wolf pouring himself a whiskey and eyeing Fox up and downing a whiskey is just so genius on an animation stand point as it brings you into a situation and the character's feelings with visuals without them having to tell you about it. This is something most adaptations lack because of studios too afraid of anyone under their corporate butterfly net not 'getting it'.
The writing is just awesome. Everyone sounds so within their world and yet so natural in their situations. It is perfect for a sci-fi that demands you accept the rules of a world that isn't yours because you can relate to them. It's also hilarious - "I waited until we were alone, but, can I see your legs?". It's the kind of humour that works for fans but is still funny as a result of the characters interaction if you are seeing them for the first time. Also Slippy's not annoying - I'll make that my only point that is directly related to StarFox and not the animation at hand. The way their personalities are so in their game spirits yet natural and likable just makes me wonder why I didn't think of that (and yes things like that did bother me because I am an animator and have always scraped the idea of a fan parody).
I don't even know how to do justice to everything else without waffling. The voice acting is great, and I was shocked to find Matthew Gafford plays Fox, Wolf and Falco - three perfect voices out of the same mouth. The music and sound effects are amazing, with really intimidating voice modulation, very stylized music, and sound effects that are campy yet cool, fitting perfectly with the theme. The overall art style is just spectacular. The lighting and color is so atmospheric (and honestly so much more well directed than a lot of Sci- Fis and really exciting to see more in animation), and is always in tune with each moments as well, never is the mindset along the lines of "a lens flare would look cool here in case the audience gets bored", but instead is more "Fox is about to meet Andross in person for the first time, so Andross needs to stay in the shadows in be only slightly visible by a red light". Just expert visual story telling that sounds simple but is easily lost when the creator doesn't give a sh*t and it's remarkable to see that a very, very small crew (with the animator, director, writer and main voice actor being one person) do definitely care. I have to think really hard of things that I didn't like, I can't think of anything that isn't technical, I'm not sure how the colored frames were rendered but sometimes they are slightly pixelated. But I think if I'm scraping at technical difficulties in a short made on what I assume is a budget only as big as Patreon has offered, then there really isn't anything very bad to say.
It is an unbelievable shame that Nintendo have become the company they are in the way they penalize parodies to an extent where they are essentially handicapping the free expression of their fans. I hope this arrogance is temporary (though I think the name A Fox in Space is much better than StarFox: The Animated Series). I really felt the need to comment on how amazed I was with this in light of the tiny crew that managed to make something like this possible as well as being a one-man animation team myself. But that is not relevant to it's greatness - check it out if you are a StarFox fan or not - I have more than once.
P.S - Due to my own situation of making films on the budget of a cookie I am not an official Patreon supporter, but intend to donate in a larger, singular way when I am not in the swing of a particular project. If the crew are reading I hope work is well on episode 2 (I have been watching some live streams).
