WE NEED MORE INFINITY TRAIN - Season 4 Review

thanks again to skillshare for sponsoring this video you know i wanted to do a more proper review of the recent season of infinity train but i really just have one major sentiment we need more infinity train on a conceptual level infinity train is one of the most brilliant series with endless creative potential by nature of its setting every season has featured new protagonists undergoing a unique journey of personal growth and introspection while exploring an ever-changing fantastical environment that could literally be anything any range from the realistic with a twist to the straight up abstract that is a blank check for writing any kind of character story in any visually spectacular setting man you'd sure have to be crazy to discontinue an idea as great as this why detect a note of sarcasm are you kidding me this baby is off the charts that said the quote-unquote final season is a bit of a different breed than the others where nearly all of them had a more immediate sense of danger and even horror this one was much more light-hearted and focused its time nearly exclusively on just delving into the relationships of its main characters aided by the boy's music literally giving the season a different tone it's also the first one where its protagonists were not callbacks to characters introduced in previous seasons from what i hear owen dennis said that after season three with all of its horror and surprisingly grotesque ended we needed a more low-key season like this which i understand but aside that it still continues to do a lot of the things that infinity train does excellently creative worlds unique challenges great character interactions it also shows how this format can fit multiple genres not just horror or mystery in this case more slice of life realistic character drama we also explored the new concept of the train handling two people coming in at the same time with more or less the same problem and since the problem is their relationship the number doesn't go down unless they both have made progress the wannabe rock stars that are the cautious mingy and the impulsive ryan are great contrasting characters and the arc of their relationship goes through a lot of different phases starting from the very beginning to that amazing split screen sequence that starts the moment they separate going through their lives and how they've diverged but still stay connected in a way and doesn't stop until they've reunited their interactions and conversations are amazingly human how when ryan's impulsiveness gets them into trouble it seems to reaffirm mingy's strict follow the rules mentality which manifests into smug satisfaction and condescension and how ryan at first just goes along with it because of how much life has already beaten him down they truly feel like two people with a very involved history the way that they're playful with each other the way that they're awkward the way they fight but just call it having a conversation and despite the time apart do not deny that they are best friends and yet how they talk about how they don't want to be each other the way they default to geeking out about music whenever they're not sure what to say how each challenge reveals their character and their varying issues with each other as they slowly open up and become vulnerable their interactions are the biggest hook of the season and also kez was there i notoriously have a low tolerance for comedic characters who are funny because they're annoying and at the beginning i was genuinely struggling to tolerate kez but ultimately saved by the character's more complex nature of wanting to help but only on her own time and terms while still prioritizing her self-preservation and while she does have her own burdens it doesn't just wave aside her selfish and neglectful traits like they're just quirky kez is outright called out for her behavior at the end and that was so cathartic because that so rarely happens for this kind of character and then on re-watches you're able to appreciate their humor a lot better when you're not constantly stressed out about how much they're going to have everything up i mean alan dracula still easily wins for best denizen tagalong followed closely by hazel but she works well enough for this story also aided by the fact that this season was dropped complete on hbo max as opposed to the previous episode by episode and as this one was more low-key and not as much mystery based and because we needed to hurry up and get used to kez i completely understood why what this season didn't have was very much in terms of furthering the ongoing story of amelia or any of the mysteries about the train at least not in the same way or quantity as past seasons that i could obviously perceive we did get of course the very brief flashes of amelia undergoing i guess an internship with one 1.1 and notice that the story clearly takes place in the past closer to the time amelia first got on the train which explains why this is pre-instructional video and why passengers apparently now wear uniforms which is exactly the point even though it's not part of the story in any way infinity train is a very well thought out show that makes use of its short run time by putting a lot of care into very subtle visual storytelling alluding to some of the train secrets in this case mostly showing us what the train was like before amelia massively intervened and we also learned that the train isn't above just straight up effing with people as it fakes putting ryan's number down to zero and opening the door for him prematurely still i admit that part of what i liked in all of the previous seasons was seeing things go wrong with the train system or seeing the gaps in it even addressing some of the moral questions in terms of how one one designs the train system and what its effects are on its passengers or even denizens i mean a lot of the denizens are very unhappy but this happening before the intervention this was the first time a character's story went relatively smoothly i wonder if season 4 was supposed to be season 2. still other more patient fans than me really have taken their time to comb through the backgrounds in art for more clues and i'm sure that this season still has plenty of things that i didn't even catch yet oh my god that monster is made out of the arms of dead passengers the numbers and i'm usually not one to propose theories but this one almost instantaneously made me go okay so denizens are reincarnations of dead passengers at this point might even be an old theory even then i really don't expect owen and his crew to answer every mystery about the train nor do i want them to i just love seeing them explore various aspects about it and then leaving the rest to fan dissection and speculation but really no amount of speculation can hide the fact that this season was clearly not a finale and not meant to be we already talked in the almost literal last video on why parents tend to not like showing horror to their kids which is why it's so hard to get them green lit let alone be profitable unless of course it's already nostalgic again creator owen dennis said at some point that they did want to finish amelia's story with a film but it wasn't greenlit by cartoon network because they didn't have enough child appeal or a child protagonist which is so baffling on just a practical level given what previous seasons were able to get away with that's the reason why it's not going forward also don't they think that kids who have been watching this series so far want to see the conclusion of amelia and hazel's story there's your child appeal just closure still in this age where everything is constantly getting either picked up by other channels or getting rebooted in record times i find it hard to believe that this is actually the end of infinity train which i hope isn't just denial not to mention we have made significant headway in just this year to help people along the way of realizing the animation can in fact work without a child audience but clearly it still needs a little bit of help from us so on thursday april 29th there is going to be a fan push to get infinity train trending on both twitter and hbo max where owen dennis himself will be giving out random prizes and yes this does mean that you might actually have to buy an hbo max account and watch it legally and hopefully it's a legacy that can persist even outside of the eventual movie just because of its open-ended nature means that its concept is rife for material for fan insert characters and fan scenarios because infinity train is an amazing series and ultimately things that are both good and undervalued in their time just means that all of their fans are not going to shut up about it anytime soon and thanks again to skillshare for sponsoring this video skillshare is an online learning community built for self-motivated creatives and lifelong learners it has literally thousands of interesting courses whether you're determined to pick up a new skill perfect a passion or just fun experimentation topics from art film animation music covering a plethora of mediums styles programs as well as skill levels and in my journey to maybe actually animate one day i'm taking frame by frame tips and tricks for non-animators with chris piezek for the cool people who prefer to stay low-tech and two-dimensional the classes are mostly less than an hour so are easily manageable and frequently come with resources as well as projects to get your wheels turning creating an ideal environment to explore and learn so no ads and they are always adding new classes and subjects and i'm sure you'll find something to engage and inspire you too the first thousand people to use this link in the description will get 30 off an annual skillshare premium membership try it out and explore your creativity thank you all and see you next time [Music] animaniacs you

Channel: CellSpex

Views: 57,083

Rating: 4.9790649 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: NycSr0cAM-U

Length: 9min 42sec (582 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 29 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/smashlime2001]

I love Cell! I feel that a lot of people respect her opinions regarding what makes entertainment good, and to make an entire video based around this show is incredible enough as her usual content usually goes for bigger projects like movies or themes. I'm so grateful that an influential name like her is talking about Infinity Train!