In late 2018 we animated an episode of Pencilmation entitled I’m With Cupid. This was by far the most challenging episode we worked on, clocking in at an impressive 3 and a half minutes. We really put a lot of elbow grease into the animation of this one and hopefully, that shows. Additionally, there was the challenge of; LGBTQI+ representation, cartoon violence and the relationship between the two.
It’s rare (but is becoming increasingly common) to show LGBTQI+ themes in a children’s show. Artur had Mr Ratburn’s Wedding this year and I hearNickelodeon has done some great stuff with The Loud House. While the script and storyboard for ‘I’m With Cupid’ was provided, we had some control over the ‘acting’ within this episode. Something we flagged early was the violence against a (temporarily) Queer Identifying was a little concerning. To us, the message of this episode is about consent and respect and we wanted to make sure that was the predominate takeaway that viewers of all ages and orientations had. To ensure that message came across we dialled up the sleaziness of the Cupid character. Hopefully we were successful but why not watch it and see for yourself!
