The Amazing Digital Circus


The Amazing Digital Circus is an Australian adult independent animated web series created, written, and directed by Gooseworx and produced by Glitch Productions. The series follows a group of humans trapped inside a circus-themed virtual reality game, where they are overseen by an erratic artificial intelligence while coping with personal traumas and psychological tendencies. Gooseworx pitched the series to Glitch, inspired by the primitive computer-generated imagery of the 1990s, as well as the short story "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" by American writer Harlan Ellison.
The series began production in 2022, with its pilot episode premiering on Glitch Productions' YouTube channel on 13 October 2023. The pilot went viral, becoming one of the most-viewed animation pilots on the platform; it was praised by critics for its animation, writing, voice acting, and dark themes, and was nominated for an Annie Award. The full series entered production following the pilot's popularity. On 4 October 2024, following the release of the third episode, the series became available on Netflix.

Synopsis

The Amazing Digital Circus follows a cast of six humans—Pomni, Jax, Ragatha, Gangle, Kinger, and Zooble—who have become trapped in the titular circus, a cartoonish virtual reality game. Under the direction of the circus's ringmaster, an artificial intelligence named Caine, they engage in nonsensical adventures to distract themselves from their situation, all while at risk of losing their sanity and "abstracting" into digital monstrosities.

Characters

Main

  • Pomni, a nervous but compassionate 25-year old woman who is the most recent human to be trapped in the circus. Originally an accountant, she unwittingly enters the circus while recording online videos of exploring abandoned buildings to escape the boredom of her job. Her in-game avatar is a cartoon jester.
  • Caine, the circus' well-meaning yet unstable AI ringmaster with a set of teeth for a head. He organises daily adventures to keep the humans entertained, which results in unintended psychological torment. The character is based on AM from Harlan Ellison's short story "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream", with the difference—according to Gooseworx—that "instead of AM being a living embodiment of hate, he's a fun-loving wacky little guy."
  • Jax, a callous 22-year old man who enjoys bullying the other cast members, fashioning himself as a comical, fourth wall-breaking trickster. His avatar is a tall purple humanoid rabbit.
  • Ragatha, a kindly 30-year old real estate agent who attempts to maintain an optimistic attitude towards her situation while habitually internalising her negative thoughts. Her avatar is a rag doll resembling Raggedy Ann.
  • Gangle, a 26-year old aspiring artist and community college dropout with depression and low self-esteem. Her avatar is composed of ribbons and interchangeable comedy and tragedy masks that represent her current mood, with her comedy mask being prone to breaking.
  • Kinger, a friendly computer scientist who has been trapped in the circus longer than the other humans, and is also the oldest of the group at 48 years old. As a result, he is eccentric and forgetful, but becomes lucid when in dark spaces. His avatar is a king chess piece wearing a royal robe.
  • Zooble, an irritable 22-year old who was a one-time bartender and tattoo artist who lacks interest in Caine's adventures. Their avatar is made of mix-and-match parts, which Zooble replaces with different ones between episodes due to feeling dissatisfied with their appearance. The design of Zooble's body is based on ZoLo playsculpture toys, while the character's name was inspired by the toy brand Zoob.
  • Bubble, Caine's AI soap bubble assistant

    Supporting

  • The Moon and Sun, a pair of celestial body NPCs that live above the circus grounds
  • The Gloink Queen, the ruler of the pest-like Gloinks
  • Princess Loolilalu, the princess of the Candy Canyon Kingdom
  • Gummigoo, a gummy alligator bandit NPC
  • Chad and Max, Gummigoo's gummy alligator partners
  • The Fudge Monster, a candy-made creature banished from the Candy Canyon Kingdom for cannibalising its inhabitants
  • Baron Theodore Mildenhall, the deceased owner of Mildenhall Manor
  • Martha Mildenhall, a ghost NPC, and wife of Baron Mildenhall
  • Ghostly, a ghost in Mildenhall Manor
  • The Creature, the undead corpse of an angel that was hunted by Baron Mildenhall
  • Orbsman, a humanoid collection of spheres who speaks in an almost-incomprehensible voice
  • Disappearing Guy, a mannequin NPC that disappears shortly after beginning a sentence
  • Ming, a mannequin NPC created to caution against the act of assuming
  • Abel, a mannequin NPC who pretends to be a human
  • Ribbit, an abstracted human with the avatar of a cartoon frog
  • The Crappy Looking Fish, a pair of primitively rendered fish NPCs

    Episodes

Background and production

The Amazing Digital Circus is directed, written, and scored by Gooseworx. Kevin Temmer is the series' lead animator, while Glitch Productions' founders, Luke and Kevin Lerdwichagul, are executive producers. Pre-production on the pilot episode began in mid-2022, and production started in full later that year. Gooseworx conceived the characters and designs; she reported designing the characters in under a week. The show's main character, Pomni, was originally designed with frog-like appearance, before changing in development to a jester. The character Kaufmo was initially conceived as part of the main cast, before being demoted during development to a more minor role, due to Gooseworx feeling that the cast was too large. Inspirations for the show include Harlan Ellison's short story "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream", along with "creepy early 2000s prerendered computer games and colorful kids toys from childhood".

Conception

Glitch initially noticed Gooseworx's 2019 YouTube animated short Little Runmo, which Jasmine Yang—development producer and general manager of Glitch—felt was exactly what they wanted to do: "It was funny, a little dark, and definitely very weird, like nothing we had seen before". Glitch contacted Gooseworx and asked her to create a pilot, which she then accepted. Gooseworx presented three pitches to Glitch, with the one that would become The Amazing Digital Circus being chosen. Knowing that the pilot would be in 3D, she tried to create an idea that would best fit that style, mentioning in particular her inspiration from 1990s and early 2000s 3D works, "where it looked kinda bad and creepy but was also completely unrestricted creatively". Yang said that the pitch's 1990s-inspired computer-generated imagery style and nostalgic references to toys and computer games caught their attention, feeling that their audience would enjoy these characteristics. The Glitch team felt that this particular pitch had the greatest potential, especially due to the nostalgic appeal of the 1990s-inspired CGI renders, and recognised it as something uniquely distinctive that no one else could replicate.
Gooseworx stated that, while her original pitch was "more chaotic and silly", the story unexpectedly became "a lot deeper and more nuanced", with a "stronger emotional backbone", during the show's development.

Animation

The 3D animation process of The Amazing Digital Circus pilot was structured similarly to most other studios, with dedicated departments for various tasks. They primarily used Autodesk Maya for the 3D work and then rendered everything in Unreal Engine. The series is animated at 30 frames per second. Kevin Temmer, the series' lead animator, who was previously a junior animator at Blue Sky Studios, initially received a message from one of Glitch's founders, Kevin Lerdwichagul, asking him to animate a teaser trailer for The Amazing Digital Circus. During the process, Temmer was asked to join Glitch's team full-time. According to him, he "couldn't say no to an opportunity to work on something so wacky and cartoony". The animators, including Temmer, were given a few scenes to complete every two weeks. They would regularly submit their progress for review by Gooseworx and Temmer, and this process would continue until both approved the scenes. Some of the movements, shaking, and glitching of characters and props in the pilot were inspired by Source Filmmaker and Garry's Mod machinimas, something that Glitch had already done with their SMG4 videos.
Gooseworx had little experience with 3D works prior to working on The Amazing Digital Circus, with hand-drawn 2D animation being her area of expertise. As such, according to Yang, Glitch had to work "very closely" with Gooseworx to translate her 2D style to 3D; Gooseworx became the showrunner and they "worked hard to maintain her vision as much as possible". In developing the show's visuals, they wanted it to resemble early CGI animated films and series without seeming outdated. Gooseworx and Glitch worked to create a balance between retro 3D and toys; Gooseworx initially wanted the show to be "pure and faithful to the retro rendering style of early 3D animation". Ultimately, they went with a "rose-tinted version" of that style. As Gooseworx likes "juxtapositions like happy music playing to something horrifying or cute little characters being miserable", she wanted the visuals to not necessarily reflect its darker story. She wanted the show to "feel kind of lonely".

Release

During The Amazing Digital Circus pre-production phase in the middle of 2022, Glitch released character trailers that served as proofs of concept testing the series' animation style and visuals. A teaser was released on 27 January 2023. The pilot's official trailer was released on 22 September, and the episode was released on 13 October. Following the pilot's popularity, Glitch confirmed in November that there would be "more Digital Circus". In February 2024, a full nine-episode season was announced to be in production, with the pilot being "upgraded" to episode one., seven episodes have been released; the eighth episode is scheduled to be released on 20 March 2026.
Initially, Glitch stated that there were no plans for The Amazing Digital Circus to be put on streaming platforms besides YouTube, as they want full creative control of their productions. Later, it was announced that, following the release of the third episode on 4 October the series would become available to stream on Netflix; episodes will continue to premiere on YouTube first, and Netflix will have no creative control over the series. The show has been promoted with merchandise. On the long wait between the release of each episode, Yang said: "If we had to wait until the entire season was ready before dropping any episodes, would not have premiered for years ... dropping all the episodes at the same time is not only impractical but also counterintuitive ... For us, not only is practical but it works a little bit in our favor because every time we make a new episode of anything, we can make a big event about it."