Animation
Good Times
Netflix takes a classic sitcom, Good Times, and turns it into a vulgar, violent, sexually-charged TV-MA show.
For years, Kitty has been locked up on Orc Island, forced to do menial grunt work for a bunch of orcs who love nothing more than casual toilet humor.
For years, Kitty’s only solace has been an orc named Orc, the son of the Orc King, who has always been seen as different from the rest of the orcs: He doesn’t really enjoy mindless brutality, for instance, and would much rather dabble in flower-growing magic.
For years, Kitty has promised Orc that, one day, they’d escape Orc Island to go to Battle Island in order to defeat its monsters and become champions.
But in order to do that, they’re going to need help! And they’re asking viewers to help them pick which adventure to go on next!
Battle Kitty prides itself on being an interactive story, but that’s a bit misleading. When I think interactive, I immediately picture Black Mirror’s “Bandersnatch,” in which viewers were able to directly affect the outcome of the story through a variety of choices that had real consequence—the virtual equivalent of R.L. Stine’s “Give Yourself Goosebumps” series or, before then, Choose Your Own Adventure books.
That’s not really the case here. You won’t be telling Kitty to dodge left or right, nor will you be playing as him to defeat the various bosses he’s required to take down. Instead, your options are highly limited: you get to choose which video clip of Kitty and Orc’s adventure you want to watch first.
Each of the show’s nine episodes are divided into small world maps which you can explore by clicking on the area to go to. In each area, you can find a short video which makes up the cumulative total of each episode’s runtime. If you watch all of the available videos in a section, you are rewarded with an additional short video you can watch as an unlockable.
But in order that the story doesn’t get all out of whack with your random clicking, certain episode areas are locked behind large gates that prevent you from accessing them if you haven’t first watched all of the prerequisite episodes. For instance, if you tried to instantly go watch the final episode of the series, an animated gate will tell you that you’ll need to first go back and collect the keys found in previous episodes (which are obtained by watching the episodes to completion). All in all, the interactivity in Battle Kitty plays more like a restrictive episode list than providing the viewer with any actual influence.
Battle Kitty brings us on the chaotic journey of Kitty and Orc as they attempt to defeat the many bosses on Battle Island and become champion. As they complete their journey, they come to meet unique characters who they’ll befriend or defeat, dependent on the somewhat erratic whim of Kitty. Even some of the monsters themselves will be cheering the duo on!
Kitty and Orc make a good team, often triumphing through teamwork and their unique skillsets. With Kitty’s Kitty PunchesTM and Orc’s ability to design magical bows for Kitty to wear, they often overcome challenges much easier than other hopeful adventurers.
The real obstacles come when a monster requires Kitty and Orc to overcome it through methods other than a few wallops to the face. In those cases, the two of them will learn valuable lessons that’ll surely benefit their character development for years to come.
Being that the show revolves around defeating a bunch of monsters, viewers should expect a lot of animated punches to be thrown and injuries to be had. Characters die and often turn into skeletons or ghosts. Buildings will get destroyed and people will be pierced by arrows and blown up by dynamite—though all of this happens in a PG, bloodless sort of way (though characters do incur bruises, black eyes and broken arms).
Additionally, parents will want to be aware that the male Orc, the show’s secondary protagonist, is gay, and he has an obvious crush on another man. By the end of the show, the two agree to go on a date together. Kitty is also male, but he wears bows and dresses made by Orc that power him up. Often, Kitty refers to Orc as “baby boi.”
The majority of the jokes in this show are based around various characters’ rear ends, and viewers will be subjected to consistent barrages of characters talking about each other’s behinds, being pinned under each other’s behinds, slapping each other’s behinds and frequent flatulence.
Because of the show’s “interactive” nature preventing the viewer from being able to skip any episodes, there’s no way to avoid the content in this show. While the animation is cute and the unyielding friendship between Kitty and Orc is noble, viewers may consider whether their children learning the Kitty Walk is worth the content they have to endure to do so.
Kitty and Orc escape Orc Island to start their adventure on Battle Island. When they get there, they make quick rivals of the famous Zaza Royale. (Note – a main character is named Orc, but there are also a multitude of orcs that appear in the show. For clarification’s sake, all uppercase uses of Orc refer to the character, while all lowercase uses of orc refer to any other orcs.) Kitty knocks two orcs unconscious as he escapes his prison. Kitty fights other orcs, leaving them in an injured pile. Kitty and Orc fight a giant monster, and Kitty is punched, kicked and smashed into the ground by it, leaving Kitty with a black eye and broken arm. The monster disintegrates Kitty with a laser beam into a pile of ash, but another character brings him back to life. Kitty shakes his behind, and he slaps a robotic rear. Orc vomits up water and passes gas. Zaza slaps Orc’s rear on two occasions. Orc’s father pretends to be a baby and is rocked to sleep. When stuck in a pile of injured orcs, Orc’s father complains about having the rears of other orcs in his face. Orc’s father is punched into the sky. Many orcs flatulate frequently. Two orcs ram their rears together while yelling “butt punch.” An orc shoots himself with an arrow, and another orc uses a towel to whip another orc’s behind. Various orc skeletons dot the landscape of Orc Island. One orc is squished into the ground. Another orc has dynamite placed into his pants, and it explodes, temporarily dismembering him before he falls back into one piece again—although it blows off his underwear, revealing him in the nude (though nothing is seen). An orc sniffs his brother’s rear. A man vomits black liquid, and another man dies from injuries accrued offscreen. Many characters shake their rears while dancing or just for comedic effect. A character says to “get your butt back here.” A person calls another “vermin scum.”
Having successfully beaten Battle Island’s entry boss, Kitty and Orc must collect three monster keys by defeating more bosses in order to get through the next gate. Kitty uses a litter box. While racing, Kitty and Orc crash, and their car explodes. Kitty is forced to trim large dirty toenails, and Kitty accidently shoots Iago—a muscular man focused on fitness and fashion—with an arrow. Kitty defeats a monster with spiky metal fists. He also punches the celebrity Zaza and the barbarian adventurer Bozark in the face. Kitty punches a man for startling him in a minute-long gag. Orc is revealed to be gay, and he has a crush on Iago. Orc calls Iago cute and handsome. Orc saves Kitty from drowning. He also punches various people and wrecks many buildings while being controlled by remote-controlled armor. Orc sings a magical song that heals everything in the landscape. Zaza shoots a man (who later appears uninjured). Zaza’s car explodes while in a race. Zaza electrocutes Kitty and Orc. Zaza’s robotic squire Merchin dries Zaza with his “hot butt wind.” Iago is seemingly killed by an arrow piercing his chest, and Kitty and Orc sneak off during the night to bury the body and hide the evidence. Later, Iago shows up claiming it was a way for him to motivate the two, and he coughs up dirt. Iago runs a “hip-hop yoga booty camp.” Iago spits out his teeth. A warrior is repeatedly hit in the rear with an arrow to form the beat for a song. Another arrow lodges itself into the defined rear of a statue. A character says, “Look at those booty gains.” Merchin calls Kitty and Orc stupid. “Idiot” and “poo-head” are used as insults.
Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”
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