Nine years ago, an unannounced animation faltered on YouTube’s Cartoon Hangover channel. The brainchild of writer and storyboard artist Natasha Allegri, Bee and PuppyKat‘s off-the-wall take on reality and droll humor was a sleepy success, slowly building a fandom of its own that was so enchanted by the premise that they funded the most successful animation-related Kickstarter in the platform’s history to to finance the first season.
Fast-forward to 2022, and Netflix has picked up on the show, with sixteen episodes of a new(ish) series coming out last week and sending fans into ecstasy. So, if you’re new to the wild and quirky universe of Bee and her long-suffering… whatever… what should you expect? We’ve got you covered.
Bee and PuppyCat: The Storyline
It’s easy to see how Bee and PuppyKat profession in the fraught and precarious circumstances of the present time. Bee is a rudderless twenty-something stuck in a cycle of minimum wage jobs and struggling to pay the monthly rent. One day, her savior falls from the sky, in the form of an alien, half cat, half dog, whom she befriends.
In exchange for her company, PuppyCat arranges for Bee to be transported to another dimension where she sees TempBot, a huge sentient television screen with the power to assign the weird and wonderful jobs that help her pay the bills.
With TempBot acting as a cosmic plot generator, Bee and PuppyCat’s adventures can literally vary in time and space. Add in a lingering mystery about PuppyCat’s backstory and one will she, she’ll have no relationship between Bee and her chef Deckard, and the makings of a hit. Kickstarter raised nearly three-quarters of a million dollars in 2013 to turn what was then a short YouTube video into a full 10-episode six-minute series.
A second season, subtitled Lazy in spacewas leaked online in 2020. Netflix’s soft reboot truncates the first season into three specially produced episodes, featuring Lazy in space make up the rest of the season’s content.
Bee and PuppyCat: The Cast
The voice of the role of Bee is Allyn Rachel. With rather few TV and film roles to her name Bee and PuppyKatRachel has since appeared in small supporting roles in such films as Kong: Skull Island and the Mark Wahlberg vehicle from 2018 Immediate family. Her television work has been more varied, including a recurring role opposite doctor who star Karen Gillan in the short-lived ABC sitcom selfie and appearances opposite Kristen Bell in the right place.
Her co-star – if “co-star” is the right term – is a Vocaloid named Oliver. Using a voice work software program is anything but de rigueur these days on high volume YouTube and TikTok channels, but a little less common for a TV series. The gamble works, though, as Oliver’s tones, edited appropriately, make for an alien-sounding PuppyCat – the cat (maybe) that has a “dog smell”.
The role of Deckard, meanwhile, is voiced by Kent Osborne, whose animated credits include: Kung Fu Panda and Monsters vs Aliensand who has written for other animated projects such as Spongebob Squarepants, Phineas and Ferboand Cartoon Network’s The wonderful world of gumball.
And with a variety of well-known voice actors offering their services over the years, including: Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s Marina Sirtis, King of the Hill‘s Stephen Root, Looney Tunes voice actor Eric Bauza, Donna Jay Fulks of the Sonic the hedgehog franchise, and the invaluable creator of The room Tommy Wiseau, Bee and PuppyKatThe esteem and credibility could hardly be higher.
Release & Reviews
Bee and PuppyCat: Lazy in Space is now on Netflix, and the reviews were equally gushing and enthusiastic. “Like a warm hug from a long-lost friend,” declared The edgewhile “casual, whimsical and comfortably relatable” was GameRant‘s verdict. It’s not just the combination of cute visuals and comforting storylines that do it for viewers, but the demanding nature of the work, spearheaded by Japanese studio OLM and American company Frederator Studios, and the attention to detail that sets the show’s mark. have given quality.
But the big question on fans’ lips is: will there be a third season? Since the series has only been available for streaming since the beginning of the month, Netflix has not made an announcement so far. Undoubtedly, it is analyzing metrics such as completion rate to gauge audience response. Earlier this year, though, creator Allegri posted short animated clips to social media that hadn’t been released before, suggesting a third season is on the way at the very least if not actively worked on. As always with such things, the only surefire way to ensure the continuation of the series is popularity and ratings.