Film Review Friday: Kid Cosmic
by Emily Nagle
[usr 4]
Recently when I was scrolling through Netflix, I got “Kid Cosmic” recommended to me, and when I saw it was made by Craig McCracken – the creator of some of my childhood favorites such as “The Powerpuff Girls” and “Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends” – I was all in.
“Kid Cosmic” is about the imaginative, excitable Kid, a young boy living in a junkyard who dreams of leading a team of superheroes. When a spaceship crash lands in his quiet desert town, leaving behind 5 Cosmic Stones of Power, this big dream finally seems like it can become real. Kid discovers that the stones give power to whoever is wearing them. The catch? Now, aliens are attacking the town. Once Kid assembles a ragtag team of heroes to defend Earth from intergalactic forces, he learns that there’s more to being a hero than just glory.
While Kid gets the hang of learning how to fly, his grandfather Papa G has the power to multiply himself, 4-year-old Rosa grows to be 40 feet tall, teenage waitress Jo has the ability create portals, and even a fat cat named Tuna Sandwich who can see into the future.
In addition to the creator being familiar to me, another aspect of this show that made me want to start watching was the art style. It looks like a comic book, and I found out that its art style was inspired by comics like “Dennis the Menace” and “The Adventures of Tintin”. For a superhero series like this, it works perfectly, and makes the show feel like a graphic novel come to life!
Over the course of the first season, you really get to see Kid’s mindset change. At first, he’s super picky about who joins his team, as seen when Rosa gets ahold of one of the rings and Kid gets upset because he just sees her as a baby. However, Kid doesn’t have much experience himself with leading a team, with all of his knowledge on leadership coming from what he’s read in the comics. With so many people viewing him as the weird superhero-loving kid living in a junkyard, he wants a chance to prove himself by saving the town. In one particular episode, Kid beats himself up mentally because everyone else on the team has saved the day except for him, and begins to doubt himself. As the show progresses, Kid realizes what it really means to be a hero, and how it’s okay to not be able to do everything himself.
I loved this show, and was delighted to hear that season 2 is already in production! I hope that the future episodes delve more into the development of the other members of the team of local heroes. I can understand why the first season focused completely on Kid coming to terms with what it means to be a hero – we have to understand where Kid is coming from, and why it’s so important for him to prove himself – but I would’ve liked to see more of the other characters as well.