Gwimbly: Definitive Remastered Enhanced Extended Edition DX 4k (Anniversary Director’s Cut)
Plot Summary:
Smiling Friends is an adult animated television series created by Zach Hadel and Michael Cusack. This series follows Charlie, Pim, Allan, and Glep’s daily lives as they attempt to make troubled customers smile.
While our protagonists’ goals are simplistic, their lives are anything but ordinary. From magical forests to the bottomless pits of Hell, Charlie and the others have their work cut out for them. In Smiling Friends Season 2, fans can expect our cast to trudge through more surreal and dark situations.
Episode 1 Recap:
Episode 1 of Smiling Friends Season 2 begins with Charlie and Pim walking to work. Pim confronts Charlie about Mr. Boss. Pim says Mr. Boss started acting abnormally around him. Charlie tells Pim he hasn’t seen Mr. Boss in a while. Nonetheless, Charlie promises to update Pim with intel if he discovers something. Next, Charlie and Pim notice Allan spraying someone with a hose at work.
Allan tells Charlie he’s spraying this individual because he refuses to leave their workplace’s entrance. Pim looks at the individual closer and tells Allan to stop spraying him with a hose. Pim tells Allan and Charlie this is Gwimbly, a popular gaming mascot. Pim showers Gwimbly with kind words and Gwimbly thanks him. Eventually, Pim suggests Gwimbly come inside so he and the others can assist him with his issues.
Gwimbly tells Pim he doesn’t need help because he’s living a nice lifestyle. Then, Gwimbly performs his iconic victory dance and collapses after the second attempt. Charlie and Pim comfort Gwimbly but Gwimbly says he’ll be fine. Before the two ask Gwimbly if he needs help, Gwimbly receives a Cameo alert on his phone. Gwimbly responds to the request.
While Gwimbly responds, Pim suggests he and Charlie help Gwimbly. Charlie refuses because he doesn’t want to go against Mr. Boss’s rules. Then, Allan chimes in and offers to help Pim assist Gwimbly with his problems. Charlie enters the Smiling Friends’s headquarters while Pim and Allan confront Gwimbly. Pim tells Gwimbly that he understands Gwimbly likes to handle his issues alone.
However, Pim insists Gwimbly open up to them about the matters that are bothering him. Meanwhile, Charlie and Glep watch TV at the Smiling Friends’s headquarters. A large, muscular figure enters the room and examines the place’s cabinets. Charlie tells the stranger to stop and informs him about his job of making people smile.
The muscular man asks Charlie to make him smile by getting him milk. Before Charlie hands the muscular man milk, the individual interrogates Charlie, throws the milk at the refrigerator, and orders him to clean the mess he made. Charlie refuses but the muscular man reminds Charlie about Mr. Boss’s rules. The muscular man tells Charlie he’s in for an unpleasant time since it takes a lot to make him smile.
Next, Pim, Allan, and Gwimbly enter the Insane Ground Breaking Games building. Pim asks Gwimbly how he feels about returning to his old gaming company. Gwimbly’s not happy to be here since his company’s workers don’t value him. Pim argues against Gwimbly’s claims and encourages him to confront his company’s CEO about starring in a new video game.
The CEO makes an offhand comment about Gwimbly’s solo career as soon as Gwimbly, Pim, and Allan grace his presence. Pim prevents Gwimbly from attacking the CEO. Next, Pim tells the CEO why he should offer Gwimbly another video game role. The CEO laughs. He refuses to grant Gwimbly a shot because he wants to center the business around DLC, microtransactions, and more.
Then, the CEO summons Troglor and says he’s the company’s new gaming mascot. Allan asks the CEO if he can take Gwimbly off their hands. The CEO says he’ll let Gwimbly have a character-skin in the new Troglor game if they kiss his chicken nugget. Allan and Pim hold Gwimbly back before he hurts the CEO. Pim tells Gwimbly that they can craft a video game of their own.
After the three depart from the CEO’s office, the CEO tells Troglor he doesn’t want Gwimbly and his friends making a new Gwimbly game. He suggests they follow and eliminate Gwimbly and his companions. Meanwhile, the muscular man asks Charlie to accompany him in the Smiling Friends’s kitchen. Charlie arrives in a maid outfit and reminds the muscular fellow why he’s dressed like this.
The muscular man grabs the casserole Charlie baked him and throws it at the wall. Charlie begs the fellow to smile, but the guy chooses to rip Charlie’s nose off his face instead, causing Charlie severe pain. Simultaneously, we see Pim, Allan, and Gwimbly confronting Gwimbly’s video game’s main antagonist Count Groxia. Pim asks Groxia to star in a new game with Gwimbly, but Groxia refuses because of his busy schedule.
Allan and Pim try enticing Groxia to let Gwimbly crash at his place, but Groxia’s wife persuades Groxia to end his conversation with Pim and the others. Gwimbly suggests they visit Mr. Millipede, his trusty sidekick. Unfortunately, Gwimbly learns Mr. Millipede died. Gwimbly grieves at Mr. Millipede’s grave with Pim. Suddenly, the CEO and Trolgor arrive and chase after Gwimbly and the others.
Meanwhile, Charlie’s on the phone with someone. The muscular man mocks Charlie and slaps his phone out of his hands. Next, he tells Charlie that he wants to cut his head off. Next, the CEO, Troglor, Gwimbly, and the others arrive. The muscular fellow mocks the CEO, enticing the CEO to tell Troglor to murder the muscular man.
Troglor refuses because the CEO told him not to shoot inside buildings during the office discussion with Pim and the others. The muscular man stabs the CEO and he perishes. The muscular man smiles and leaves the area. Gwimbly confronts Troglor because he’s upset that the CEO’s dead. Gwimbly suggests Troglor team up with him on a new project.
We cut away to Gwimbly, Troglor, and another character competing in a platform fighter game (an homage to Super Smash Bros.). Then, we cut away to Pim, Allan, and Glep playing this platform fighter game. Allan and Pim are thankful Gwimbly found some happiness. As for Charlie, he’s upset that he got tortured by a muscular psychopath.
Suddenly, Mr. Boss appears in the video game and defeats Gwimbly, Troglor, and the character Glep uses in the game. Allan recognizes Mr. Boss, and Mr. Boss arrives out of the blue. He tells Allan and the others he sold his likeness to be in Gwimbly’s new game and performed motion capture activities. Then, Mr. Boss spirals out of control, making Pim and the others panic.
Later, we see the muscular fellow at his complex. He’s drinking booze and is upset that he pushed Charlie away. The episode closes with him crying and caressing a photo of Charlie.
The Episode Review
Smiling Friends returns with a video game-centric affair. This one offers a parodic and dark take on classic 3D platforming mascots like Crash Bandicoot, Mario, and others. From Gwimbly’s disheveled lifestyle to the CEO’s corrupt persona, many can tell the showrunners had a blast poking fun at the realistic complications that plague the entertainment industry today.
Like the prior season, this episode features a distinct array of visual styles. Although most shows (anime specifically) opt to utilize CGI in jarring ways, Smiling Friends’s implementation of polygonal and 3D character designs feels justified here. Smiling Friends Season 1 already established that anything is possible with Charlie and Pim’s universe, visually and narratively.
Therefore, seeing a 2D figure like Pim interact with a polygonal-designed individual like Count Groxia feels right in Smiling Friends. It’s a status quo fans of Bocchi The Rock and The Amazing World of Gumball adored and expected from those productions. All in all, this was a fascinating and smart way to get Smiling Friend’s fandom back into the mix with Charlie, Pim, and the other’s happenings.
Cast:
Smiling Friend Season 1’s cast reprises their roles in Season 2. Michael Cusack plays Pim and Allan. Additionally, Zach Hadel returns as Charlie and Glep. Also, Marc M. reprises his role as the four friend’s boss, Mr. Boss.
However, like Season 1, we anticipate many of Cusack, Hadel, and Marc’s acquaintances will return to play as new characters who’ll pop up in Season 2. Who those folks will be and play as begs to be seen though.
Will It Do Well?
Critically, we can see Smiling Friends Season 2 being a hit with audiences like the first season. Based on the premiere chapter and the trailer, we can tell more money was pumped into this sequential production, allowing Michael and Zach to experiment more with the story. Nevertheless, we can’t say for certain that this entire season will be phenomenally written since we’re basing this on Season 1 and Season 2 Episode 1’s offerings.
Commercially, we can see Smiling Friends Season 2 enticing several folks to purchase an HBO Max subscription or tune in on Adult Swim at 12am (EST) on Sundays to check out the Season’s latest offering. Moreover, Zach and Michael have a commendable following, with the former being a co-host for the popular YouTube channel OneyPlays while the latter’s worked with folks like Rick and Morty’s Justin Roiland.
Should You Continue Watching?
For the most part, Smiling Friends offers audiences a nice mix of parodic, dark, and surrealist humor that’ll keep them engaged. As mentioned earlier, this series is known for being short and snappy with its content, allowing anyone to tune in and laugh at Charlie, Pim, and the other’s woes.
Additionally, the story remains episodic and some scenarios in Season 2’s first episode felt like rehashed material from Season 1 (at times). Nevertheless, this series will seemingly release new chapters by the end of June, giving audiences more hilarious, chaotic, and calm scenarios to sit through at night, morning, or dawn. If you love short, irrational comedies with hints of creativity, Smiling Friends Season 2 may be a sequel to keep up with.
These are just our first episode impressions of Smiling Friends Season 2 and we will not be recapping the rest of the episodes. However, expect a full season review to appear on the website soon.
What do you think of Smiling Friends Season 2? Will you be watching it? Let us know in the comments below!
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Episode Rating
(4)