REVIEW: Crossing Swords
From the minds of Robot Chicken producers John Harvatine IV and Tom Root comes a new adult animated Hulu original. I mostly watched it because of the Robot Chicken connection and had no idea what to expect. It is mostly the kind of dumb sophomoric humor you'd expect from adult animation, but, at the same time, I found it amusing.
The show revolves around Patrick (Nicholas Hoult), a peasant from a raucous family who has a dream of serving as a knight in the court of King Merriman (Luke Evans) and Queen Tulip (Alanna Ubach) and their daughter Princess Blossom (Maya Erskine). But, when he is finally assigned to being a squire, he realizes that life is not as he dreamed and that the kingdom is filled with a bunch of weirdos. And, to make matters worse, his family comes to make his life hell. But, regardless, Patrick continues to soldier through life's obstacles.
Rounding out the cast are Tara Strong as Coral, Patrick’s pirate queen sister; Adam Ray, Rueben, the gay Robin Hood-esque brother; and Tony Hale as Blarney, the drunk clown brother. And then there is Adam Pally as Broth, the inept fellow squire-in-training and Yvette-Nicole Brown as instructor Sergeant Megan. The all star cast is hilarious and sound like they are having fun talking about gross and overtly sexual things.
The big thing I liked about it was the animation style. There was something fun about them making this a saucy show featuring these peg characters that look not unlike those beloved 70s Fisher Price Little People. They are so adorable that you almost forget they are about to vomit or explode.
The humor in this is not going to be appreciated by a lot of people. When they say it is intended for more mature audiences, I don't know if mature is necessarily the word for it. Juvenile maybe...but, in the basest way. Regardless, it is definitely not meant for children. I think this programming only goes to show how much Disney wants to differentiate Hulu from Disney+.
I can't normally stand this kind of humor as I don't get why swearing every sentence is funny and I don't think genitalia jokes are humorous. But, I have to admit that I laughed at several of the gags and there were enough of them every episode. So, if you are going to watch this, I think you should tread lightly and see if its something for you. Nobody would blame you if it wasn't.