The most underrated Disney animated series, and the apex of Ánima Estudios.
Genre:
Comedy Surreal comedy Action Science fantasy Science fiction
Running Time:
11 minutes
Country:
Mexico Australia United Kingdom Ireland
Release Date:
September 30, 2018 – June 9, 2019
Network(s):
Disney XD (International) Disney Channel Pop (UK) 9Go! (Australia) 2x2 (Russia)
Created by:
José C. García de Letona Rita Street
Distributed by:
Cake Entertainment
Starring:
David Menkin Laura Aikman Nick Mohammed Dash Kruck Roger Gregg Damien Garvey Lynette Callaghan Tommy Vad Flaaten Markus Vad Flaaten Harry Gregg Lucy O'Connell Astrid Wells-Cooper Liz Buchanan Sandro Colarelli Sharnee Tones Kylie Loveday Rachel Gobel Chris Crickmay Zachary Boulton Anthony Standish Sarah Kennedy Kate Murphy
Seasons:
1
Episodes:
51
"Sometimes I'm like a chicken, Can't find my egg But I feel it in my feathers, Love will find a way Can you feel the cosmic love? x3"
― The series' Ending Credits theme titled Cosmic Love
Space Chickens in Space (often shortened to Space Chickens or abbreviated SCIS) is a Mexican-Australian-British-Irish science fiction-surreal comedy animated television series created by José Carlos García de Letona and Rita Street, and is directed by Norwegian twin brothers Tommy and Markus Vad Flaaten, with Fernado De Fuentes S., Jose C. Garcia de Letona, Tom van Waveren, Ed Galton, Andrew Davies and Julia Adams as executive producers.
Produced by Ánima Estudios, Studio Moshi, co-produced by Gingerbread Animation and distributed by Cake Entertainment and Disney EMEA, the series premiered on September 30, 2018 on 9Go! in Australia and had its Disney XD premiere on November 19, 2018. It was developed for television by Alan Keane and Shane Perez.
50 11-minute episodes, one 22-minute double-length episode (titled 'Academy Rules') and 11 shorts were produced.
Follows the surreal adventures of a trio of chicken siblings, Chuck (David Menkin), Starley (Laura Aikman) and Finley (Nick Mohammed/Dash Kruck), that after hatching from their eggs, are taken from their home and find themselves mistakenly enrolled in an elite intergalactic former military academy known as the Slurp Academy, S.L.U.R.P. or simply Slurp (short for "Space Legion of Unequivocal Reconciliation and Pacifism"). They now encounter innumerable challenges, and will need all their wits, strength and teamwork to survive in this extraordinary world that they happily call home.
Why It Makes You Feel the Cosmic Love[]
Partnering with bigger studios is the strategy that led Ánima Estudios' Space Chickens in Space (and other recent productions of theirs such as Legend Quest) to brilliantly stand out from their early projects. Thanks to that, it presents a stunning level of quality that is a doubtful expectation for this company's standards, given the cheap-looking content that they were once used to create. Before SCIS, Ánima was already working reciprocally with foreign companies, which exposed the potential that they could bear in comparison to their indie development. It is the living proof that they are worthy of holding the honorable "Leaders of Latin American Animation" title, showing off that they can improve and learn from failure in order to step up from their old productions, especially if we review the lower quality of their first projects.
One could also spot the massive improvement in Ánima's content over time, as their previous collaborations evince (not being affected by the constant low quality, as it still shows some enhancements, gradually).
Befalls a superior execution that's unbelievable for Ánima's mixed bag. In this case, it puts into practice the premise of a space school abided by Earth beings, forbye alien species from the universe's far-flung loci, roughly renewing sci-fi via the coalesce of surreal comedy, beyond an offbeat approach to the genre. Early on does this intriguing and original premise supply viewers a strong incentive to watch the show, let alone bounteous plots of a diverting, unrealistic and far out bracket.
With the previous determining attributes out of the way, a triumph of similar weight is the exemplifying of how dismissal of minor mistakes can favor attending the priorities of its genre; SCIS' nature is generally frivolous and light-hearted with little attention given to following a linear direction for the plot, the dialogues are often simple and have a comical goal. Of course, this also makes room for heartwarming or emotional moments every now and then, a welcomed resource for the genre's established standards.
Comedy. The show knows what its target audience expects to see based on the genre it's tagged as. Offering countless funny moments and witty jokes, the comedy and take on absurd humor are admirable. There is to a lesser extent use of dark humor when it comes to dialogues of a specific character, and knowing him, they don't feel out of place at all. Adding up to these are the fantastic running gags:
Slapstick that involves Hugo getting brutally destroyed, only for him to bounce back at the attacks with his recurrent line "I'm fine."
Glargg screaming "CHICKENS!!!" whenever anything bugs him or he notices that something's wrong at the academy
Ommm doing random Ommm stuff in the least expected circumstances
Clever writing that not only embodies creativity and randomness, but evokes the quirkiness of a surrealist world, madness of the outdoor, veneers of space and shock of the distorted. Joyously honours its inspirations the same way one could learn from the various techniques that SCIS experimented with, not fearing in the slightest the backlash its risks can unleash as product of its admirable pride.
One of the greatest selling points is the correct exploitation of its most expressive resource for its key moments: Animation. Its characteristics are bouncy, smooth and fast-paced, making it feel like a direct tribute to Ren & Stimpy and Ed, Edd n Eddy thanks to the constant perplexed exaggeration in modifying the characters' figures, which resembles the secret of those cartoons; thinking outside of the box and taking in its own style that's chock-full of personality. One notable example can be found in shots where the characters' outlines are thicker or thinner than how they are commonly, similar to the one style of the latter. Plus, the awkward faces and gestures that the characters come up with are, in the same manner with an unforgettable Cartoon Network classic, hilariouslywaggish, expressive, chucklesome, farcical and uproarious.
In odd occasions, the animation looks quite average, but it is done for comedic purposes and it works out pretty good.
The action sequences are well animated and entertaining too, but they could have been better if compared to the greater quality of the ones from other animatedshows.
One could rarely expect something like what this show did with its characters, given the general standards of its genre, yet SCIS took a step forward with its amusingly charismatic, memorable and bewitching cast of supporting characters. Each manifest fitting dynamics with each other, a line-up of distinguishing marks, ingenious design choices and the unforgettable boost of unique lessons that viewers can learn from:
Blibli the Gloraflob, Principal Glargg's adorable and playful yet tricky and bitter alien pet. She excels at engaging in shenanigans forcing others to calm her down and restore peace. Preventing disasters by carefully looking after our pets is what we can learn from Blibli
Hugo, an innocent and fun-loving child full of enthusiasm who gets amazed with ease. His species is practically indestructible and immune to any type of physical harm, explaining their lack of evolution and making him the ultimate partner for a mission. Underestimating one's intelligence and capacities in an activity is wrong, and Hugo teaches us that having weaknesses can be an unlikely strength in another job
Finley's assistant and trustworthy sidekick robot Pal 9000, genius AI packed with limitless knowledge, fitting the role of a chicken's best friend. The effort and dedication a pal executes when assisting others shouldn't go unnoticed, as taught by Pal
The lovely Piπ, a friendly open-minded internet influencer that enjoys taking part in social activities, and regularly exaggerates when her fame goes to her head. Taking into account others' thoughts on your selfish decisions stops unfavorable consequences from happening, which serves Piπ right
Problematic yet lovable rascal Ainta, a mischievous prankster that's fond of high jinks and extreme challenges, skipping his duties if needed. He's got the oddity to turn invisible in unexpectedly convenient situations. Ainta's actions of devilry are followed by an equal reaction to teach a lesson to the rebels. He is also a foil to his frenemy Chuck, being equally mischievous but much more hardworking and popular and his relationship with Hugo is the opposite of Chuck's with the poor little guy, actually feeling uncomfortable with taking advantage of Hugo, even though he doesn't mean to
Niven is as grumpy as she is shrewish. A gifted and dedicated student, head of a band of misfits (Dweezil, Zonk & Sol) and the strenuous hindrance in the chickens' path. She delves into her story in many episodes and we get to understand what made her so mean and antisocial in the first place. Granted, her hatred torwards the chickens becomes mildly annoying after awhile, but she always learns her lesson. Ungodly people are never bad by nature, and getting to know the real "them" is a better choice than jumping to a conclusion. This has saved Niven's life more than once. Sometimes she is even shown to work together with the chickens. Offering to work together with Chuck after years of fighting, and saving Starley's life, the latter cost her mother's respect
The feeble looks of Barnetta may hide her demented Mooletee nature and her possession of telekinetic powers and mind controlling abilities. These occupy an important part of her job, since teaching them is what her profession is about. She may be a toothache for her students, but she still has a soft side for her couple and symbiote host Phil. Barnetta bespoke how the mad aspects of a teacher shouldn't distract from the real person behind those acts. Sometimes, they are just traumatized and need moral support
Humboldt, a short-tempered, easily annoyed yet strict and intimidating teacher that is an expert in machinery, biology and threatening his students. Humboldt's unparalleled genius isn't immune to backfiring on him, how his plans fail at times due to his overconfidence is proof of this. One of his plans backfired so badly it almost killed Finley, but he knew how to undo it
Wise and generous Sensei Marigold, acrobatic, flexible and skilled master in Zen martial arts, capable of training even the wildest species. She's the owner of the Slurp art gallery, which hides stunning artifacts, and senior of the library, possessing sinister books and mythical rolls that prevent the universe's murkiest secrets from being disclosed. Marigold instructs how emanating benevolence and charity will always come back to the good
Slurp Academy's super computer AIIA (short for Artificial Intelligence of Invader Academy), a timid and shy yet kind and strong-willed robot who just wants to make friends and live up to people's expectations, she's pretty much the polar opposite of GLaDOS. A friend like AIIA reminds that being unduly different is a good quality of a friend, not an imperfection. Though she isn't always perfect, sometimes losing patience with others like Chuck and Niven, but you can hardly blame her for that, knowing those two
The cute and adorably tough Narcibelle, an agile and optimistic but not that super smart girl who likes to get fit and be sane, and loves to exercise. She can read minds and reveal secrets or embarassing thoughts of others, besides, and while doing so, she has a remarkable quirk of changing color to reflect her emotional state. Not even the bestest of friends can agree on absolute decisions, submitting another choice is ok, and close friends may understand that thanks to Narcibelle. She genuinely cares about her best friend Starley and has a lot of patience with her
Ommm, the Almighty Janitor, comically the custodian of Slurp, stands out as the best and most memorable character from the cast. Ommm's mellow remembrance is sent out by his good-hearted, humble and bizarre personality, his dazzling powers, the surprisingly unnatural yet fetching design, and a concept that's fairly zany and unique withal. Seeing a janitor that's simultaneously a 4th-dimensional superbeing with plentiful attributes such as the abilities to freeze time itself, levitate, predict the future, between gobs of others, is something that's both imaginative and undeniably interesting. Humbleness before anything, Ommm's ideology opens eyes when it must. And when it must, it will.
Spilled a great extract of inspiration from the unlikable or generic characters who shine in dire situations.
Adele has no chemistry with Chuck, but her relationship with Finley is sweet. When Finley leaves his siblings for her, she tries to convince him to return to them. She also helps him out in his time of need even though she was hurt by being rejected as his lab partner. Finley spends a lot of time being jealous of his friend, but when he finally surpassed her in grades, she was happy for him
Finley, in spite of his stereotypical nerdy nature and occasional cruelty, his inventions are actually quite impressive, being unusually smart for his age (assuming he isn't much older than Chuck). He is also willing to save his siblings in dire situations despite of being physically weaker than them
Glargg, despite being the sadist principal and the butt monkey, he has his moments of genuinely caring for the chickens and even ensuring their safety. He especially shines in 'Players Gotta Play', he worked hard and did whatever he could to restore his honor. However, when the chickens were in danger, he sacrificed his chances just to protect them. He also occasionally gets to do what he always wanted; combat, and he is a force to be reckoned with, especially in 'One of a Kind' when Blibli and the chickens were kept in horrible conditions
At her best, Starley is a great sister who loves her brothers very much. She was willing to protect Chuck when he said he was being bullied in 'Chicken Feed', and in 'Ultimate Niven', she was the first to see good in Niven, despite being tired of her actions as anyone else
Winner medal is awarded to Chuck here. As BQ#1 unearths his absolute mean side, his good actions don't go unnoticed. He showed an act of courage and care when protecting Starley from a dangerous blaster in 'The Egg'. 'Draw Anything' has a sweet moment between them, when the Pen of Awesomeness took control of Chuck and Starley gently asked to draw something for her, he managed to resist the pen's powers and stop the ritual. In 'Beat Beat Chicken Chicken' he felt real repentance for his actions and apologized for lying to his siblings for his own good. In 'The Good Guy Choice' he gave priority to saving his fellow cadets before boosting his social status. In 'Smartest Chicken in Town' he had to be in charge and protect the academy while everyone else had their intelligence taken. And in 'Chicken Back Again' he came up with a plan to get rid of the bounty hunters and save the brotherhood
On top of that, it's implied in 'Chicken Feed' his personality isn't really him being himself. He just tries too hard, but when he's himself he is nice and Adele actually likes being around him
Oodles of character designs not only look pleasant, strikingly creative, varied and tremendously attractive thanks to the colorful art-style, but as previous pointers state, their sophisticated design choices help define their personalities from there; preferable paradigms are suggested with the following in particular.
Ommm's (turquoise elderly humanoid, spike-shaped head, neck long and twisted, and very skinny extremities) eccentric and oddly tempting looks supply a good characterization of his attributes & persona
While others including Narcibelle's (pink youngling humanoid circa a mushroom, feminine eyelashes & red cheeks, hanging "skin bags" all over her nape and back) adorable & friendly chidlike looks, in all likelihood, emanate a sweet sympathetic nature
Related cases are brought up with AIIA (achromatic oval-ish, nucleus mouth betwixt four parallel eyes inner of a curve-bordered cross), Marigold (sepia humanoid, devoid of a torso, five asymmetrical hair strings on her head) & Piπ's (yellow humanoid, an extra arm and leg, curved square eyes, fluffy hair, horizontally wide mouth), other female characters that are a joy to encounter when they partake in their particular segments
On the other side of the coin, miens of characters relating to the standards of Humboldt's (greenish yellow cephalopod, two bulging eyes covering mammoth anthenas behind, and a vertical mouth in between) monstrous manners can quickly be identified
A big extract from the supporting cast pointers is the feeling of excitement that's wrapped up with their clever introduction in their corresponding episodes primarily focused on them, together with their important roles and recurrent interactions & apparitions.
Blibli stars in 'Bliblisitting' and 'Blibli²'
Hugo stars in 'Idle Idols' and 'Chuck's First Command'
Pal stars in 'Best Pal'
Piπ stars in 'Smells Like Chicken' and 'Chicken Feed'
Ainta stars in 'Idle Idols'
Niven stars in 'Quizardry', 'Personal Space Time' and 'Ultimate Niven'
Barnetta stars in 'Phil My Heart', 'The Good Guy Choice' and 'Snot Like This'
Humboldt stars in 'Final Exam' and 'No Brain No Pain'
Marigold stars in 'Draw Anything' and 'Stop Bugging Me!'
AIIA stars in 'Final Exam', 'The Good Guy Choice' and 'Pale Blue Rock'
Narcibelle stars in 'Friendchip'
Ommm stars in 'Freezing Awesome', 'Ommminous Foreshadowing' and 'Finley Cleanly'
Slurp Academy in space.
An impressive aspect of this show is the gorgeous background artwork, particularly the space layouts which step out from the generic blend of black and deep blue, and instead are composed of a mesmerizing merge of diverse colors where the predominant vibrant blue, purple and turquoise are put together to convey the analogous effects. Another amazing detail is the fact that these environments embrace planets, stars, asteroids, cosmic dust, space gases and nebulae, all in one frame.
These designs are easily comparable to the slightly colorless interiors of the space academy, incorporating watered down tones and pale palettes primarily consisting of white, beige, gray and black in order to get differentiated from the prismatic space
Thanks to the harmonious backgrounds and setting of the space academy, these give rise to a cozy atmosphere that's not easy to pull off for cartoons of this tone. This show's atmosphere envies nothing from delightfulatmosphericcartoons and successfully grasps visually appealing scenarios, lacking neediness of outdoing others at it.
'Cosmic Love' is a dream-like and satisfying song, and was definitely the perfect pick for the ending credits to relax after the catastrophic events of the show with its greatly catchy melody and memorable lyrics.
Other songs in the show are equally groovy and nice to listen to, serving as outstanding exemplars are 'I R What U R' and 'Smooth as jimmee jams'
That one incredibly zippy Ommm scene at the beginning of the intro and the epic explosive sequence at the end of it, those work out as other godlike elements of the show's sprightly animation. Hypnotic, right?
While the stories don't need to rely on villains (given how almost all (neutral) characters get to shine as antagonists), it's surprising how the show made room for them to intensify the situations and adventures. Out of all the villains, the spotlight vanquisher here is Atori. Atori is a clever criminal that knows the essentials to trick her victims into collaborating with her, providing jaw-dropping manipulation skills. She's a perfect example of the ingenious planning in the looks of the characters, being a total eye candy to viewers and of course benefitting from an accurate design to her spurious intentions as a character. The use of her resources and unnerving physical points flawlessly expresses what dangers are to be expected upon interacting with this shape-shifting fire-spitting lizard. It's doubtful to disagree her most appealing attribute that compresses all her charm is her soothing voice.
An on point, highly eloquent Latin American-Mexican dub which makes up for the inferior original voice acting thanks to its reinventions of jokes & dialogues and a ramp up to the mad spirit of the characters. Not only that, but each of the voices efficiently embody their characters' personalities as well as the emotion their participation conjures.
The dub provides exceptional performances from Gerardo Alonso who goes off limits conquering Chuck's madness, Carlos Miguel Siller reflecting common sense and weakness in Finley, Dan Osorio connoting masculinity and leadership in Glargg without feeling minacious nor overly stressed, Alan Fernando Velázquez indicating friendliness and calm in Pal, Gabriel Basurto and his striking contribution to the wisdom, mystery and power of Ommm, Rosalba Sotelo stemming the robotic atmosphere and attractive enchantment of AIIA, Karla Falcón shattering the loony mind of Barnetta, Laura Ayala emanating wisdom and care in Marigold and Erica Edwards deceiving the cord between safety and danger in Atori.
Spectacular soundtrack by Jonathan Casey, with each track that melds fantastically into its corresponding scene, whether it be by adding intensity and adrenaline to action, goofiness to slack moments, or spilling emotion to fragile segments. A signal fact that applies to the soundtrack's essence is how episodes feature a singular score, reusing little to no tracks at all in more than two episodes.
Slurp has its own typography that's different from the real life alphabet, thus giving farther uniqueness to the universe of the show. What makes this language exceptionally distinctive from other fictional alphabets is that it combines letters to create one-syllable glyphs. These texts lead to lore revelations, mysterious foreshadowing, hidden references and funny jokes, disregarding that they are totally out of place. Several of these can be found in the episode 'The Good Guy Choice', an example is when Barnetta handles to her class their exam tablets, these showcasing a text that literally says "Start of Endless Exam" (written in Slurp), the thing is that throughout the episode she keeps saying that her moral exam will finish soon, only for her to enlarge its duration until the end of the episode, when she finally gets her comeuppance.
Tons of astonishing and splendid title cards, all drawn in their own unique ways whether it be because of their art style, color schemes, creativity and concept or custom fonts, they all get to exceed quality from previous ones and it shows. 'Poor Dweezil' (which has a sad Dweezil in between rain droplets and appealing color combinations), 'Ommminous Foreshadowing' (an awesome picture of Ommm twisting his neck like a spiral), 'Draw Anything' (drawn like crayolas in a white piece of paper), 'Chuck's First Command' (a beautiful color scheme and satisfying views of the characters) and 'Finley Cleanly' (a majestic view of Finley holding a broom around piles of garbage) represent prominent samples.
The show aknowledges the fact that the chickens are chickens by having them cluck with their beaks, flap their wings or lay an egg from time to time, proving that they aren't just anthropomorphic animals attempting to imitate human behavior.
Myriads of remarkable episodes that get to stand out in their identity and look good in front of better ones, usually matching the characteristics of the ones listed below:
Trolling Thrognak: A decent start for the series that early on presents the fantastic comedy that you might expect from SCIS. Though it has its reasonable negatives, the positives in contrast are more than enough to earn it said rating
Atori: Features an impressive concept for a villain and well executed, next to clever dialogues and the panoramic absurd comedy
Players Gotta Play: Introduces hilarious characters that are super-advanced in their technology but ignorant to sarcasm. It too has its underwhelming negatives, but the general attributes of the series redeem those with ease
Friendchip: A best buddies-type episode that explores the sweet relationship between two characters, not forgetting SCIS' other selling points in the process
Freezing Awesome: An amazing character gets their first major role, exposes some lore and memorable scenes, yet it does have some notorious bad qualities
Poor Dweezil: A character living life from a perspective they've never imagined. Flows the well-known phenomenal comedy and wholesome nature of SCIS and surprises with the return of a famous character
Final Exam: A super-powerful character becomes the biggest obstacle to a group that clearly doesn't meet the requirements to outlast their confusing challenges
Ommminous Foreshadowing: A true delight in visuals, dialogues and comedy, revealing more unimaginable marvels of a fan-favorite character who successfully steals the episode in favor
Draw Anything: Unleashes the potential of a lovable character in the form of action, hilarious dialogues and awesomeness as a whole
Beat Beat Chicken Chicken: An emotional experience featuring a memorable song that's open to all interpretations
Finley Cleanly: One last time the superbeing is dedicated an episode, introducing an adorable comic relief and some of the most exciting segments this ominous being took part of
Pale Blue Rock: A wholesome friendship once again, this time with a more introverted being seeking the help of a confident friend to neglect their fear
The Good Guy Choice: A hilarious character gets a power they can't show responsibility for. Their crazy segments of dialogues and interactions with a sane character do satisfy while the other supporting and background characters' appearances are repulsed.
Bad Bad Bad: A wasted villain's debut can't deny how epic their song is, tricking a character into rebelling just to unintentionally teach them a deep and important lesson to finalize with a great conclusion
Ultimate Niven: Redeems a mean character from their bad actions, and people (almost) always have motives to do what others portray as "bad"
Chicken Out & Chicken Back Again: The profoundly heartwarming two-parter finale, showing a sweet reconciliation of characters and tearjerking moments that prevail till the end while still delivering the expected content from the product
Apart from innovative, funny, affecting, adrenergic and uplifting, this show can also be educational to younger consumers, as episodes resort to leaving positive and useful messages near their endings:
Never judge others by their looks ('Trolling Thrognak')
Real people with free will make better friends than mindless machines ('Best Pal', though the moral is kind of destroyed at the end)
Every bad action leads to consequences ('I Believe I Can Fly' and 'Presidential Coop')
It's ok to make mistakes, and you shouldn't get mad at your friends if they mess up once ('Friendchip')
Sometimes you have to make sacrifices to protect those you care about ('Players Gotta Play')
Consider accepting the helping hand of others even if you're sure that you can do something all by yourself ('Freezing Awesome')
Don't be afraid to tell the truth, because lying to others is wrong
Don't take advantage of naive people for your benefit (both from 'Idle Idols')
Mean people can change for the better ('Poor Dweezil' and 'Ultimate Niven')
No matter what anyone says you have value and are not replaceable ('Alpha Chuck')
Treat teachers with respect, they are people and they have feelings too ('Being Glargg' and 'Phil My Heart')
Don't fall for mysterious superstitions and ominous foreshadowing ('Ommminous Foreshadowing')
Working together is better than fighting ('Personal Space Time')
Forcing someone to do something they don't want to do is wrong, and you should respect their opinion and choice ('Beat Beat Chicken Chicken')
Making fun of other people's jobs isn't ok and instead you should appreciate their small contribution to society ('Finley Cleanly')
You shouldn't depend on technology for everything that you do in life, and it's a valid idea to disconnect for a while ('Chicken Feed')
Always stand up for your friends when they need you ('Cadet Clarkk' and 'Pale Blue Rock')
Don't let power or fame corrupt and take control of you ('Chicken Feed' and 'The Good Guy Choice')
You don't always have to be the best at something that you enjoy ('Draw Anything' and 'No Brain No Pain')
There is always someone out there who respects you and you may lose that respect if you betray them ('Bad Bad Bad')
Talk to your loved ones about their actions before holding a grudge, they probably still have feelings too ('Chicken Out')
True bonds can never be replaced ('Chicken Back Again')
Bad Qualities[]
Characteristic of ruining the experience for masses of viewers, the only big notable flaw this show carried throughout its run was the notorious and despicable Chuck. Thanks to all his pitiful qualities including being a selfish coward, a liar, a lustful creep, a megalomaniac private, an indolent slacker and a mean-spirited teammate, he's arguably the worst character. However, some of the scenes of him getting hurt or made fun of are still not satisfying but actually cringeworthy. It often seems less like karma and more like the world is out to torture him, especially since he is punished for being mildly rude or annoying but not when he's at his absolute worst.
Discarding the issues mentioned above, there are still other inconsistencies with a few characters, specifically the clichéd, but fortunately likable:
Adele is the pretty and smart girl who conveniently happens to be the main character's love interest. She never gets any real development or interest from the writers to redeem her genericness as a supporting character. She also has better grades than Finley yet she is utterly oblivious to Chuck's creepy feelings towards her even when it's obvious. She also switches between feeling sorry for or relating to Chuck and being one of the many who laugh at him
Finley is the overcautious fearful nerd and brains of the group. Every once in a while he isn't much better than Chuck, this can be seen when he interacts with Pal, as he sometimes is outright abusive to the robot
Glargg is the crusty sadist school principal with a soft side. Much to his dismay, he usually falls under the mh:loathsomecharacters:Butt-Monkey trope, especially in the episodes 'Being Glargg' and 'Cadet Clarkk'. He also hates Finley equally to Chuck even though Chuck is way worse. He also had some wasted potential, showing two different sides to him, one being a wannabe tyrant and the other caring deeply for the chickens. But alas neither is explored
You is the cool and popular guy who never speaks. He never gets any full-blown dialogue at all unlike the other background characters, and is just there as a filler and badly done comic relief. He is Chuck's idol who occasionally gets along with the selfish chicken, but this is never expanded upon
Starley is the sweet, cheerful and fun-loving girl. Sometimes her actions are extremely selfish and petty, most notably in 'The Egg'
Dweezil is the apathetic and arrogant rich kid
Barring comprehensive content explained earlier, this show has its bits of hideous, vile and foul animations which are thoroughly painful to witness, chiefly the stilted walking of Barnetta and Glargg (albeit avowedly funny) and a handful of cringy faces, opposed to usual.
The original english voice acting is inconsistent. While enjoyable a shade, it can also feel somewhat dense, then range to annoying, just to finally collapse into vapidity. It quickly gets annoying when it comes to Glargg's shrill voice.
On a side note, Monserrat Mendoza's performance as Piπ in the Latin American-Mexican dub isn't really the most memorable out of the main cast as her bland performance sucks out the charm of Piπ's intentionally annoying trendy teenager-like accent
Were you not to utilize the out of this world song that was employed in the show's trailer? Tasteless news, as it was replaced by an awful theme song that's made up of repetitive lyrics.
Scarcely any bad and/or mediocre episodes that somehow slipped under the radar:
The Egg: Shows how cheap gross-out comedy never works out for SCIS, as well as questionable interactions and out of character behavior
Green Eyed Monster: A generic green eyed monster-type episode where the predictable story of a character feeling jealous over one's more positive life is put into practice
Being Glargg: A torture episode for a character that already goes through a lot was clearly not a good idea, of course featuring cruel scenarios, terrible comedy and segments that are painful to witness
Cadet Clarkk: As if the previous torture episode wasn't enough, this doesn't improve but worsen the latter's mistakes, repeating them shamelessly
Little episode plots are generic or downright bad (although good episodes' panoramic quality isn't ineluctably extracted):
'Trolling Thrognak' is the space war/invasion episode
'Bliblisitting' is the "look after my pet while I'm gone" episode
'Best Pal' and (partly) 'Friendchip' are the "unbelievably advanced AI brings out unfavorable consequences" episodes
'Green Eyed Monster', 'Food Fight', 'Final Exam' and 'Blibli²', already displayed by deducing their names
'Finley Cleanly' is the "characters swap roles" episode
'Camp Ghosty Pants' is the camping episode
Despite most vague designs succeed in complimenting the personality of their characters, having polar opposites Big Steve (tough little guy) & Gub (shy big girl) as a good example, on the other hand there are characters like You, whose design while doing its job correctly, is still lazy and stupid, looking not only generic but akin to the characters of mh:awfulmovies:The Emoji Movie.
A portion of the random humor isn't safe from being forced occasionally, and the jokes neither from being boring or unfunny.
While not relying on it that much, the show did suffer from a sub-par praxis of gross-out humor, and knowing perfectly that gross-out was never good friends with Disney to begin with, it would be obvious to think that, in the end, they'd mess up once again by experimenting with this genre.
Superfluous mean-spirited moments suddenly pop out of nowhere, which delivers an uncomfortable and crude tone for the basic nature of SCIS (carefree, goofy and bubbly). One formula in particular which consists of a character doing something mean only to apologize in the end becomes tedious very quickly.
All the villains that aren't as original as Atori fall flat in disappointing ways:
Thrognak, a microscopic bug and leader of a generic horde of darkness. He is presented in the first episode as a rude power-hungry meathead and a weak recreation of most space dictators and internet trolls. The actions of his that are mentioned in 'Jail Birds' further display the exact thing you'd imagine when thinking of him as a bad guy
Sweet Skulls, despite her memorable design and song, is a blatant imitation of our beloved Atori; a manipulative lady and wanted criminal. Much like Thrognak, she was underused and only participated in 'Bad Bad Bad', one of the last episodes which clearly shows how uninterested the writers were in expanding this character's role. It was also a lazy decision to have her randomly betray Chuck, rather than have him choose for himself
Episodes With Their Own Pages[]
Chicken Back Again
Reception[]
Space Chickens in Space was met with a negative, rude and dishonest response from the public. A preponderance of audience's criticism was supremely directed at the redundancy of the main title, freakish animation, inconvenient character designs and surreal humor, to the point where wads of blind reviewers that clearly didn't bother to watch the show call it without a doubt the worst animated show to ever been broadcast by Disney XD. Aside from that, watchers tend to compare it to the infamous Breadwinners only because both cartoons share "bean-shaped beaks" for the designs of their bird characters, ignoring how this art-style was correctly implemented in another nicktoon, Harvey Beaks.
In this case, the biggest offender is the animation-oriented Mexican youtuber Doliv, notorious for taking advantage of nostalgia to misinform, in addition to only following popular opinions to get a good reputation quickly. He ranked Space Chickens in Space at #1 in his January 2021 'The 10 Worst Modern Cartoons' video. Note that this placement was higher than Cartoon Network's critically panned ThunderCats Roar, and anonymity-overflowing Boris e Rufus, another Disney XD cartoon that was mysteriously absentee of Doliv's video. "Imagine Breadwinners but with space chickens" was Doliv's deplorable depiction of SCIS, whereas he claims that the humor is reduced to throwing random and unfunny nonsense, when a show that perfectly fits that definition is Uncle Grandpa (but in a positive way), and right there his blatant hypocrisy is exposed, since he mentions the latter as a good absurd show in one of his videos. On top of that, he shamelessly qualifies the show as one of those in the same level of mh:terribletvshows:Pickle and Peanut and mh:terribletvshows:Future-Worm!, labelling these last two as of "a questionable quality in terms of everything". Unironically, he refers to Fish Hooks and Kid vs. Kat, two shows very well known for their nostalgic appeal as iconic, proving once again that he only takes into account the nostalgia factor when reviewing products. His final conclusion was that "It's more fun to watch how the grass grows rather than watching Space Chickens in Space".
As a consequence of the show's cancelation after its first and only season, it is continuously ignored by the animation community and the vast majority of animation fans has never heard of the Space Chickens, eventually resulting in the show becoming one of, if not, the most underrated Disney animated series in history. Up to now, SCIS' paucity of prevalence persists.
On IMDb, the show has a 7.2/10 rating.
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Trivia[]
José C. García de Letona, creator of the series, is the co-founder and current CEO of Ánima Estudios.
You may remember Rita Street by her work on the animated series Ruby Gloom and Hero: 108.
The ending song was arranged by the directors of the show, brothers Tommy and Markus Vad Flaaten.
This show is one of Disney's international collaborations with other countries in animation, hosting the participation of Australian Studio Moshi, British Cake Entertainment, Irish Gingerbread Animation and Mexican Ánima Estudios, making it the first ever Disney animated series to be produced in part with a Latin American studio.
Speaking of Ánima, they are actually the biggest animation studio in Latin America and are famous for producing the well-known Las Leyendas animated movie franchise in México, yet at the same time infamous for producing El Chavo Animado and the disreputable Top Catmovies in favor of Warner Bros. worldwide.
Specific audiences will be turned away by the deranged, off-model and uncanny animation that quite possibly references the style of Ren & Stimpy, relating the show to the gross-out genre regardless of it not relying on gross-out.
Ommm and Pal were voiced by the Vad Flaaten brothers.
Some of the writers and storyboarders would later work on 101 Dalmatian Street, another good Disney show.
Despite popular belief and the difference between Breadwinners and this show's announcement and release dates, the Vad Flaaten brothers have already stated in frequent occasions that the chickens' designs were created before the announcement of that other show, denying any idea of Space Chickens in Space ripping-off the style of Breadwinners.
The character Dweezil Gearle is named after famous rock guitarist Dweezil Zappa.
According to the Vad Flaaten brothers, Chowder served as an inspiration for the show.
Dwaqu and Marigold were originally meant to be called Briqu and Peg respectively. This was later changed.
Harry Gregg, son of Marigold's voice actress Sarah Kennedy, voices Hugo. He would later get replaced by Lucy O'Connell.
Adele has the same name as one of the twins' wife.
The character design for Narcibelle could be inspired by the Pokémon Chansey, due to both designs sharing a lot of similarities like pink skin color, a simplistic face and the hair-like growths on each side of their heads.
In an interview with the show's creator, he revealed that co-creator Rita Street initially came up with the concept of the show, starting from the concept of fish out of water, until they swapped fish for chickens and Earth for space.
The creators say that Finley is the oldest and Starley is the youngest, however the intro implies Chuck was the last to hatch. Furthermore, it's implied that Chuck and probably his siblings are preteens in 'Green Eyed Monster' and 'Personal Space Time'.
Like a lot of shows, the chickens are main characters without parents. It's possible they were raised by Glargg, since they seem attached to each other deep down, especially him and Starley.
Chicken Out has no English dub.
This show used to have a page in mh:terribletvshows:Terrible Shows & Episodes Wiki until its removal in May 29, 2021.
From March 1st, 2022 onwards, this article is the longest page in Best Shows & Episodes Wiki.
