A few years ago, Cleopatra in Space came on my radar for it's very bizarre concept. One of the most well known rulers of ancient Egypt is somehow a space warrior in the distant future? This had me more confused than intrigued and I wasn't sure if I wanted to subscribe to Hulu just to watch it. I eventually caved and subscribed to Hulu after canceling my Apple TV+ account and gave it a watch to see if I missed out on an overlooked gem. Oh brother was I HORRIBLY wrong! This is yet another misfire from DreamWorks' television division that throws in over 20 different ideas and not a single one sticks! From the abhorrent writing to the terrible voice direction, this show should've stayed in imprisoned in it's forbidden tomb!
Developed by Doug Langdale and Fitzy Fitzmaurice, this series was based on the graphic novel of the same name written by Mike Maihack. The basic throughline of the show is Cleopatra fights evil robots in space while trying to find her way back to ancient Egypt. That sentence alone is already litered with ideas that do NOT mesh together! Cleopatra? As in, the well renowned queen of Egypt during the Ptolemic Dynasty? She's fighting evil robots? And the robots are evil because...? And this takes place in the distant future? And in space? None of this makes any sense! And I know I'm gonna get that one comment that brings up Samurai Jack as having a nonsensical premise but a great execution, and my response is 2 fold. 1. Samurai Jack isn't based on a real person and 2. Samurai Jack showed the audience how Jack was sent to the future, why almost everyone is out to get him, and why he must return to the past. This is all because Samurai Jack has the one thing Cleopatra in Space only dreams of having: GOOD FREAKING WRITING! The first episode speeds by the origin to just throw her into the distant future, and while she's there, she's stuck in a generic high school with all the tired tropes and cliches! The world building consists of exposition dump upon exposition dump, all of prerecorded history conveniently wiped out, and Cleopatra having powers because Heaven forbid the story takes the time to hint at it before completely showing it off in the 3rd episode! It's all one bad joke, which is the lesser of 2 evils because the humor is Cringe with a capital "C!" It is nothing but a bombardment of toilet humor, lousy puns, explaining the jokes, and dull visual gags. There's even a moment where they put a joke in the middle of an intense action scene, thus killing any tension. Now I know how MCU detractors feel! This show was fighting a losing battle by not having a clear idea of what it should be about, and it only got worse in execution.
The characters are all varying degrees of annoying, and as such I hate every single one of them! Cleopatra, as opposed to being a cunning, seductive, manipulative ruler, is demoted to being an irresponsible, stupid girl who makes her problems worse! Her homesickness comes of as her whining like a 2 year old, her overconfidence makes her really stupid, and her nosey nature makes really annoying. Speaking of annoying, by Horus' blinding eyes is Akila a FREAKING CHATTERBOX! She goes on and on about unrelated nonsense, she doesn't have the spine to say no, and she never listens to reason! Did I mention that she never SHUTS THE FLOP UP??!!! Brian is the failed comic relief cyborg, Khensu is an uptight teacher, and Zaid is the generic love interest who, surprise surprise, is the freaking spy sent to capture Cleopatra. Then there's Callie, the show's designated spoiled brat! She has no legitimate reason to be in this show! None! She a rude, bossy, annoying, pampered brat that puts others down to make up for her own insecurities! This show already has so many badly written characters that her inclusion is utterly pointless!
The voice acting is very bad, which is unfortunate as they're all really talented in their own right. Lilimar Hernandez sounded flat and not nearly as believable as Cleopatra. Katie Crown sounds very manic and eccentric with a bubbly personality...as Izzy from Total Drama Island. Her performance as Akila sounds too similar to a much better character in a much better show. Jorge Diaz didn't sound as tech savy or enthusiastic as Brian as I would've liked. Sendhil Ramamurthy only plays Khensu as this stern cat and doesn't sound as enthusiastic when he's supposed to show his fun side. All the veteran actors were a treat to hear from Dee Bradley Baker, Kari Walhgren, and John DiMaggio. I was even pleasantly surprised to hear Steven Universe himself, Zach Callison, playa group of flies called Zuzz with a surfer voice. That said, I don't think Dee Bradley Baker's nasaly kid voice fit with Dennis, who's this large creature you'd think would be more baritone. This all comes down to really bad voice direction, something that's not often looked at but you know it when you hear it.
Visually, this show has some decent animation during the action scenes, but otherwise looks very stiff. DreamWorks and Titmouse collab once again to bring the animation to life and the result is a mixed bag. On one hand, the characters have really good designs with Cleopatra given a modern teenager look with an ancient Egyptian esthetic, the aliens having distinct desgins, and the attire looking really futuristic. I also think during the action scenes, the characters have very fluid movements and dynamic poses. All that said, the during the non-action scenes, the characters have very restricted movements and limited facial expressions. The backgrounds are well crafted and have a futuristic look to them while having some Egyptian esthetics. The problem is, though, often times the characters stick out of the backgrounds like a sore them and that takes me out of the illusion very quickly. The animation could've been the one saving grace of this show, but bad animation and art direction is holding it back.
This show is another weak link in the chain of DreamWorks Animation output! Cleopatra in Space is an atrocious cartoon that doesn't have a clue of what it wants to be! What we're left with is a show with abysmal writing, annoying characters, stale voice acting, cringy humor, and passable at best animation! This is such a jumbled mess of a cartoon that more than deserves the worst fate to bestow upon it: to be ignored and forgotten! Do NOT watch Cleopatra in Space! Spare yourself the headache and just watch Samurai Jack! It's every this show wishes it was, and so much more -.-
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