Thanks for all the interesting replies! Given the response, I decided to make a whole community around this, hope you’ll consider joining!
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Oooh, this is great!
I love Hilda. The Netflix series. It has this feeling of adventure, an ubiquitous optimism and (and this is where it really gets difficult) combines this with a mixture of fast and slow pacing and (almost) traditional 2d animation. I haven’t found anything similar. Friends recommended gravity falls and adventure time, but I didn’t really like the faster pacing and American slapstick humour. The only thing that really ever came close was the ghibli adaptation of Ronja, which had this off-putting uncanny 3d cell shaded look of the characters but which I still enjoyed due to the writing (but which has disappeared from streaming services in Europe since).
Hilda is kind of like star trek tng, with episodes being not too connected and the protagonists mastering their challenges without antagonising their adversaries or resorting to violence as the solution (the final movie being the exception here, which was really weird imho).
And ideas?
Over the garden wall
Ha, good one… Watched that already though. Also doesn’t really match this universal optimism. Over the garden wall was great but is to hilda what American McGee’s Alice is to Disney’s Alice, kind of. That world is morbid. Thanks for the recommendation though!
Steven universe? Just realised I found Hilda when asking the same question as you, but looking for more shows like Steven universe.
The Owl House might be simillar, the world is like a Hieronymus Bosch painting and past the first season the overarching story picks up, but there’s a consistent undertone of optimism throughout.
Didn’t know that one, will check it out! Thank you!
Hilda was great fun, I forgot about that one.
It’s very much aimed at kids, but you might enjoy Sarah and Duck, it has some similarities IMO. It’s upbeat and fun, and just a little bit weird, with some strange world logic. And it’s brilliantly narrated by Roger Allam.
I can’t really remember Hilda but I remember liking it. I think these recommendations are a similar vibe. I also did not like Gravity Falls but should probably give it another try since I didn’t give it a fair shot.
Dara, Steven Universe, Bee and Puppycat would be my recommendations.** I’ve ranted about them below trying to describe them but honestly you should probably just ignore my rant and watch some episodes since they are all short.**
It’s been a while since I’ve watched Dara so I can remember deets but it’s a cute and chill show.
Steven Universe is possibly my favourite show, 12 min episodes so really easy to consume. It’s dorky (especially at first) and takes a while to get going. But when it does it has a lot going for it. Action, adventure, humour, all with an upbeat and warm tone. It tackles some pretty deep topics but can be a little on the nose sometimes. The character arcs are satisfying and the whole plot feels very intentional and comes to a close satisfyingly. Who am I kidding it’s definitely my favourite show. If you’ve seen ATLA I think they are quite similar in plot and episode structure, but SU has more adult themes, better humour & character arcs, and a better plot overall. (IMO, don’t yell at me ATLA fans).
Bee and Puppycat has two runs, a YouTube one then a sort of remake on Netflix, it’s confusing and idk which one to recommend, I like the both though. So far it seems quite similar to SU except much less structured. It’s very cutesy and fun but I feel like there’s some ADHD vibes in terms of writing and the main character (I don’t mean this in an entirely bad way, I have ADHD). It just feels a bit scatterbrained at times. That being said I really like it and I’m hoping the creator gets more seasons approved.