The future of Indie Animation on YouTube looks bright with new animated TV shows like Glitch Productions’ Knights of Guinevere incorporating Arthurian lore into a dystopian commentary on real-world companies like the Disney corporation.

A few nights ago now, I was searching through NYCC’s Thursday panel lineup and a voice actor from Lackadaisy caught my eye. I jumped down The Amazing Digital Circus rabbit hole for two days and last night, Glitch Productions’ newest 2D animated series Knights of Guinevere popped up on my YouTube sidebar while I was watching TADC theory videos.

I clicked on it, and was not disappointed.

The Knights of Guinevere: Pilot Review

Knights of Guinevere is Glitch Productions’ latest animated series based on Arthurian legends and Disneyland’s broken fairytale facade.

Created by Dana Terrace, John Bailey Owen, and Zach Marcus, Knights of Guinevere follows childhood friends Andrea and Francesca, who live in a world ruled by the ruthless Park family’s Disneyesque Empire that floats in the sky and is headlined by Princess Guinevere – an abused android (who may have once been human?)

So based on the unwritten context found in the story, the set designs, and the lore being built within the universe – my own interpretation of the story thus far is that Orville Park is an android-human hybrid with an uploaded, stored consciousness who brought his daughter Olivia the theme park so that one day she could “rule over” the Empire.

Princess Gwen seems to be an android modeled after Olivia’s mother or their original child if it wasn’t Olivia. I say this because Orville gifts Olivia the park before apologizing for an earlier, unspecified traumatic incident.

Given Olivia’s cold, cruelty toward “fixing” the android that keeps running away from her, the Princess Android was meant to serve as a ‘replacement’ for a loved one recently lost, or maybe a stand-in mother in an image Olivia could recognize, but has seemingly grown to hate.

The Princess Gwen android is not only to spread “joy and happiness” in a fantasy built in the sky that only the wealthy could afford while the rest live down below in the poverty of Planet Park’s glow – it serves as a high-tech surveillance device.

The Gwen android has many iterations, and each one that appeals to a target demographic has facial recognition technology built into its software so that it can “remember” every encounter it has with park guests – including Frankie and Andi as kids.

Also, based on what Sparky mentioned, and Andi’s contact and then infection by the man coughing up blue blood, it seems the android’s blue blood is being marketed as an illegal street drug attractive to more than a few freaks around town.

The “blood and fear” that machines run on must have something special to it that the substance can corrupt and kill the human body. Not to mention, these dystopian androids are highly advanced and capable of their own cognitive functions and sentience – as evidenced by the fight between Olivia’s giant goon squad retrieval robot and the OG Princess Gwen robot that was pursuing Andi and Frankie while at the labs underground, underwater base.

But, tell me your thoughts: have you watched the new pilot for Glitch Productions’ animated show Knights of Guinevere? Do you think Princess Guinevere was originally human, or somehow related to Olivia or even her mother?

Leave your thoughts in the comment section below, we’d love to hear from you! Also be sure to follow us for more Animated TV Show Reviews!   

☆ In Asian Spaces   

12 responses to “The Knights of Guinevere: Pilot is Phenomenal!”

  1. A deconstructive satire against Disney? Well, this certainly has my attention! I’m curious if the deconstruction will work well with the plot and this would be a good topic to cover.

    1. When I was watching it I thought it would be right up your alley, haha! 😊

      I think so, since the plot is that the world has degraded and everybody now lives in “company towns” forced to take scraps the corporation doesn’t want that were thrown into the ocean to live, and that they are slowly taking over the rest of the galaxy and spreading their surveillance state through cute princess androids for complete societal dominance. It premiered on YouTube last night.

      1. Oh really? Hahaha! I’ve certainly had more than my fair share of critiquing Disney in different posts and in some comments whenever necessary.

        It certainly looks like it with the plot and aesthetics. Funny enough, Disney has company towns in real life like Celebration, Florida for example. That galaxy dominance is oddly accurate given how many companies they bought over multiple decades. I wonder if they’ll make any satirical critiques about intellectual property while being hypocrites about it like how they stole from two different anime series when it comes to 2 movies in their Animated Canon, cultural appropriation, or not taking accountability when horrible things happen like the story of the woman who died from food allergies at Disney World and her husband couldn’t sue Disney at first because he had a Disney+ trial subscription and he couldn’t sue them due to the user agreement.

        I hope the series goes well, has a good plot, characters, and sharp deconstructive elements.

      2. I remembered and associate you with the Disney thing because you were the one who told me about Kimba the White Lion. The Lion King was one of my favorite movies as a kid and each time I see a reference or meme for it, or read more discourse on Disney’s theft of Japanese IP, I remember our conversation, haha.

        Yeah, I heard about the company towns. One of my (weird) guilty pleasures is watching Disney adults on YouTube for some reason. I have no interest in visiting the parks nor do I watch the movies or their modern TV shows but I love watching park content from those creators. One of the people I occasionally watch if I hear about them on the forums apparently used to live in the Celebration community in Fl.

        I think in the show, Park Planet’s underground research lab for forgotten and abandoned projects is supposed to mimic the Epcot ball in the park.

        The show might delve into the satirical critiques about intellectual property theft. From my understanding Dana Terrace is one of the head writers on the series and had previously written for The Owl House on Disney. Apparently, they canned her show because it was too “off brand” and then turned around and released promo for “Hexed” which many fans are calling a gender-swapped Owl House clone. Which might explaining the timing of Knights of Guinevere’s pilot release on YT and then the Hexed first look from Disney.

        I heard about that! I also heard (don’t remember if it’s a rumor or not) that somebody allegedly died on Disney property because they didn’t have an ambulance or emergency staff because it was bad for park aesthetics, and they quietly covered it up and paid off the family to stay silent or something.

        I hope so too. I’ve watched the pilot three times already and kind of want to watch it again and talk about it more. The lore and worldbuilding is so good and refreshing to see in an American animated series. (I know it’s an Australian company, but you know what I mean haha)

      3. Well, that’s an interesting thing to remember. Hahaha! I’ve certainly posted about that issue before and talked about it with people offline. The Lion King was also one of my favorite movies as a kid, but I got so disillusioned with it when I became an adult. Even though I have bigger issues against that franchise because of the “Hakuna Matata” cultural appropriation controversy, “Africa is a country-isms” with bad Swahili mixed with Zulu or other unrelated languages, the Mbube/The Lion Sleeps Tonight plagiarism case in the Netflix documentary The Lion’s Share, the racist implications of the hyenas (Shenzi’s name should be “Mshenzi” which is Swahili for “idiot” which really doesn’t help given how the character talks and having some Black voice actors isn’t a pass), and the protagonist-centered morality compared to the Kimba/Jungle Emperor Leo controversy. However, the fact that they had the temerity to have white lion villains in the Mufasa prequel movie comes off as backhanded self-incrimination like Disney was saying “Yeah, we ripped off Osamu Tezuka, so what are you going to do about it?!”. Don’t get me wrong, Kimba/JEL has it’s own issues, but the fact that Disney totally didn’t know about that 1965 anime is bunk. Funny how you’ve seen other references or memes about it. Even The Simpsons referenced that issue in a 90s episode where random James Earl Jones characters show up in the clouds and Mufasa says “You must avenge my death, Kimba…I mean Simba!” Hahahaha! I am also unshaken in my views of Scar being the most unoriginal Disney character of all time with some blatantly shameless similarities to the Kimba villain Claw. XD

        Good on you for being aware of the real life company towns. That’s an interesting guilty pleasure of sorts. I also am not interested in watching the modern shows or movies they’ve been putting out as there’s this huge bombardment of Disney with merch, card games, video games, memorabilia, or getting their hands into so many media in general including manga for example. How did that person feel living in Celebration, FL?

        Oh, I can see those parallels making sense with the Epcot ball. Out of curiosity, have you ever seen or heard of the movie Escape From Tomorrow? That was filmed in Disney World in secret and has interesting satirical stuff in it.

        Good to know about The Owl House connection even if I never saw that show. I heard of the Hexed movie, but knew nothing about it. That is insane how they’re just being unoriginal against a cartoon unrelated to Disney’s Animated Canon despite producing it for Disney Channel! It’s no wonder Dana Terrace and others would be miffed. I’m curious if they will go there with IP theft being brought up.

        Yeah, that was such an infuriating story and I couldn’t believe Disney would actually use the surviving husband’s former Disney+ account as some kind of alibi. I thought it was something from The Onion until I found out it actually happened. I also noticed how there was another boycott given the Jimmy Kimmel situation, but they then raised their streaming prices after the fact. Did they want to lose more customers? I haven’t heard of that story, but that sounds oddly believable.

        Sure thing. Good to know how the pilot episode was that engaging. I get what you mean, so don’t worry!

      4. It’s a really fascinating topic. I’ve noticed that a lot of these companies enjoy “telling on themselves” as a form of subtle disclosure to admit their guilt but not really “admit” it so that you can’t formally call them out on it without looking crazy, or getting a lawsuit in response. So I can totally see Disney allegedly claiming they don’t know about the anime and then having the creative choice to make the lions white in the prequel.

        Haha, that’s funny about the cloud joke in The Simpsons. I guess it was already industry news and they wanted to make the joke public. Scar is even unoriginal compared to modern Disney works? 😅

        It’s embarrassing to admit but its fascinating watching Disney Adults because they all have the same core personality traits and seem to have “meltdowns” when their fans begin to catch on that their Dis-persona is a facade. I don’t know if its the food or the movie programming or what but they all literally react the same to the same items on the food menus at the parks, re-hashes of the same food items and merch at “new” and “seasonal” events or rides, and go to other parks just to diss their food in favor of Disney’s. I’ve heard Disney has strict influencer guidelines to retain access, but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t include virtue-signaling their love for the park and its perceived superiority at other, outside park properties.

        Yeah, that’s actually really annoying to me. So many companies are jumping on the manga bandwagon. Marvel is going to jump into “anime”-esque animation and “manga-inspired” properties now, too. I think a few other (dead) comic IPs are now trying to revive their franchises by shifting to the webtoon/manga/manhwa audience. I know Batman is about to get the animated treatment.

        The YTber is kind of a miserable person who has been running from himself since the pandemic apparently, so he lives in Celebration but doesn’t stay there most of the year due to traveling. When he is there, from my understanding, he just wants to “show off” that he lives there but doesn’t really give his opinion about being there…but just reading between the lines he’s just a miserable dude pretending to be happy and refusing to deal with his internal, emotional issues – which is a lot of these Disney influencers and Disney Adults projecting their idealized, happy fantasy lives onto the parks when you get down to the crux of things. (That’s why Andi and Frankie resonated so much to me watching Knights of Guinevere – Andi is like a Disney influencer who works for the parks, and Frankie is still the child who never grew out of their magical experiences at the park.)

        No, I’ve never even heard of that film before but I bet its based on a true experience based on just looking it up – haha.

        I’m not sure, but its definitely an interesting situation to watch develop as Hexed and Knights of Guinevere continue their respective movie and show promos.

        Have you ever heard of the “King Charles” clause they invoked during a recent legal battle? Yeah, but I don’t think Kimmel is very profitable for them in general and they wanted to get rid of him but couldn’t due to backlash, so they raised prices to compensate for the loss they are taking keeping him on air. That is just my opinion though, I don’t actually know the true situation behind it. I know Hulu’s prices have been raised again, as well.

        (Did you enjoy the pilot?)

      5. Very much so. That’s a good point about large companies doing self-incrimination in that way, even if not everyone gets it, especially if they have millions or billions in their coffers. It’s so insane that they made white lion villains instead of continuing to pretend they didn’t know about Osamu Tezuka’s anime despite some identical scenes, every notable character having parallels to someone in the original anime except for Timon and Pumbaa, and Roy E. Disney calling Sarabi “Kimba’s mother” in a Prodigy Q&A session a year before The Lion King debuted.

        Yeah, it was so funny, and a lot of people didn’t get the joke until much later in reruns or that clip being referenced in this particular controversy. Hahaha! He certainly is unoriginal since Jungle Emperor Leo/Kimba the White Lion has a villain named Claw who is an evil lion with a black mane, injured left eye, takes over the main character’s kingdom after the father is murdered (even if Leo/Kimba’s dad was shot by hunters), and has hyena henchmen with him. The Mufasa prequel brought up more similarities since Claw wasn’t related to the main character’s family, since Disney retconned Mufasa and Scar to be adopted brothers instead of biological and Scar gets his scar by the evil white lion Kiros while Claw got his left eye slashed by Kimba’s father Caesar/Panja, so both villains got scarred by white lions! It’s remarkable how oddly specific that retcon was, and someone must have known. Hahaha! Even the Sanrio-produced anime movie Ringing Bell had a scarred animal villain with dark fur who kills the main character’s parent before Scar existed (Woe the wolf).

        Interesting points about Disney Adults because I did notice this about some people especially when they freak out whenever Disney gets criticized like their business practices or anytime they do terrible things in general. This company tribalism is certainly frustrating to say the least. I’m not surprised about the influencer guidelines most likely for PR purposes.

        Glad I’m not the only one who noticed this about the manga bandwagon. I heard that about Marvel, DC did a few things including an actual Suicide Squad anime that came out not that long ago. Disney had Stitch-based anime and manga from what I heard, has that partnership with Tokyopop with Disney manga, and other things with their various IPs even if they involve actual mangaka.

        Gotcha and that sadly makes sense why someone would move to Celebration, FL especially if they know Disney owns that town. I could see this as an escapism gone too far with these individuals. That’s a fascinating comparison with Andi and Frankie! It makes a lot of sense.

        It’s a fun one even if it’s darkly hilarious. I think it’s an absurdist take of one’s experience and it was filmed in secret and edited in South Korea to avoid Disney.

        Very fascinating. I’ll have to research those respective properties if there’s some kind of counterprogramming for each other.

        I haven’t heard about that clause but I’ll have to look it up. I noticed that about the timing of the raised prices and it is quite suspicious. Hulu’s prices were raised again? SMH.

        I watched it yesterday and enjoyed it. I really liked the quote of (apologies if it’s not verbatim) “All royals are usurpers or descendants of usurpers” which was hilarious, applies to real life monarchies, and something Disney would NEVER say in a ton of their movies since a huge portion of the Animated Canon involves royalty as good guys. It really makes you think if the ancestors of all these princesses and princes took over the kingdom in the past and were tyrannical to make sure their families stayed on the thrones. I’m debating of reviewing this pilot on my film/documentary/anime review blog.

      6. Are the character arcs really that similar? And he was quoted saying that in an interview? Maybe it was a “Freudian slip”, haha.

        Yeah, I heard about that retcon and always wondered why they made that decision. It went from being a jealous feud between brothers, to an outsider coveting Mufasa’s birthright and then stealing his son, Simba’s. The story kind of loses impact with that change. Yeah, based on what you just explained maybe the retcon was to further bury the ‘similarities’ and distance themselves from the truth within the story.

        (Even Sanrio was in on the joke, I guess haha. I just looked up that character along with other stills and for whatever reason, it reminds me of what Bambi could have been if he sought revenge against the hunters. OR just, Brother Bear’s storyline – becoming the monster you sought to defeat.)

        Yeah, it feels like it almost goes beyond tribalism – like they interpret any criticism about the company as criticism against themselves. Like the corporation and its “products” (movies, tv, etc.) are their own personal identities. It’s weird.

        Yeah…I feel like the industry push into manga and anime in the name of “graphic novel” adaptations is going to get even worse. I’m happy that manhua and manhwa are getting more shine, but it seems like there is even “talks” about companies partnering with those IPs, as well. I don’t think a lot of these companies realize people gravitate toward kdrama, anime, and manga because the stories are still just that – stories. They aren’t propaganda pieces trying to shame you for “wrong-think” or virtue-signal you into believing an ideology you want nothing to do with. East Asian media is just stories about people for people. I hope that doesn’t change due to “Western” influences.

        Wait, they went all the way to South Korea to edit the film? Doesn’t Disney have a presence everywhere in this world? Haha

        Yes, they keep raising prices for everything. Yesterday morning the news had a segment about “saving money at Disney World” because apparently there is a sharp decline in attendance due to the price of tickets being raised (again) and because of people boycotting due to the whole Kimmel thing.

        Yes that quote stuck out to me as well. I think it might also be a (secret) reference to the Park family and maybe even Gwen, herself. (I’m in the theory camp that believes she’s a cyborg and never wanted to be experimented on and turned into Olivia’s play thing). They probably were – especially if it mirrors real life. Do I follow your film/doc/anime review blog? I’d love to read your review of the pilot!

      7. There are some differences between Jungle Emperor Leo/Kimba the White Lion and The Lion King with plot and character arcs, so I don’t want to lie to you. The biggest difference is that Tezuka’s lion story has humans in it and the main character’s father is shot by hunters, but Claw does take over the kingdom after the father lion is murdered. Also, there is one episode where Leo/Kimba doesn’t think he can save the kingdom and his father’s spirit is in the sky to motivate him and it is jaw-dropping how similar that scene was to the “Remember who you are” part of that Disney movie. The verbatim quote in the interview is “Jill, you asked whether we had any “nice motherly figures in Disney’s animated future. Wait until you see next summer’s “The Lion King,” and Kimba’s mother. She’s quite lovely.” from Roy E Disney. Then again, Disney has sued people for “infringing” on their works for less or for petty reasons even if they didn’t have the same overall plots.

        I was curious if you were aware of the retcon of the recent prequel. It certainly diminishes the “Hamlet with lions” argument in one aspect even if The Lion King really isn’t that much like Shakespeare’s story except for very basic plot points. I also half-jokingly said that Disney wanted to beat the “Nala incest theory” allegations and not make Kiara and Kovu look like cousins even though they fixed that situation in The Lion King II despite Kovu literally looking like a younger version of Scar (fun fact: Kovu is the word for Scar in Swahili). Ironically, Scar not being biologically related to Mufasa anymore makes him more similar to Claw since he wasn’t related to Leo/Kimba’s family anyway. I actually talk about some of these things in my review of JEL: Symphonic Poem which I posted recently.

        Ringing Bell came out in the 70s, so that would’ve been after JEL existed but still way before The Lion King did. Bambi is a good comparison if he did get revenge on the hunters. I haven’t seen Brother Bear, but I know about the plot, so that makes sense. However, Ringing Bell is VERY dark, especially the ending as it really hammers that cycle of vengeance at it’s most tragic conclusion.

        Oh, 100% it goes beyond tribalism. I have noticed this about not just Disney fans, but other fandoms like various singers or bands, some video game fans, and even pro wrestling fans like WWE vs AEW spats.

        That wouldn’t be surprising with the negative trajectories. I’m seeing some of it now with major companies and I doubt they understand audiences of anime, manga, manhua, manhwa, etc. Good point about stories versus propaganda dressed like stories like in the West not to get conspiratorial. Sure, there are some slants with art coming from other cultures, but it’s not as prevalent from what I’ve noticed. I hope that doesn’t change and they don’t try to bend the knee for those influences.

        Yup. That’s what the director did at least. Maybe they did notice and didn’t care since it wasn’t going to make as much money as their own IPs? I could be wrong. Haha!

        Even the theme parks have raised prices? I’m not surprised. Of course they would have segments like that. If they came from ABC and/or USA Today, then that would be more biased since Disney owns those companies.

        I’m glad you noticed the brilliance of that quote and those theories make a lot of sense. If it pertains to the Park family being “usurpers” then it could be an amazing reference to Walt Disney’s beef with Ub Iwerks with who really created Mickey Mouse for example. I could see Gwen being a cyborg as one possibility and it would be so creepy if it was the case with being Olivia’s biomechanical princess toy to manipulate and reprogram.

        I haven’t reviewed it ye, but if you’re curious it’s http://iridiumeyereviews.wordpress.com

      8. Hmm…you’re not lying to me, the facts are the facts. Just based on explanations alone the two works do sound very similar in core themes and from a thematic perspective. Yeah, that really does sounds like a Freudian slip hearing the whole quote, haha ☺︎

        I’ll have to take a look at your post and read it! I remember being so mad when I found out years ago (before the prequel retcon) that Kiara and Kovu were cousins. I guess Kovu’s name meaning “Scar” is a “funny play” on the fact that he looks exactly like Scar. (Aren’t Simba and Nala still related though? Since Mufasa was the alpha (and sole) male lion in the pack?)

        Ringing Bell sounds really interesting though based on what you’ve told me and what I looked up. I wouldn’t mind seeing a 4k restoration of that film in theatres ☺︎

        Yeah, it does extend beyond Disney. I guess every fandom has a cult-like quality when you get really deep in and examine its “core” mega-fans.

        They don’t understand the audiences, they just want to force-fed their drivel and “modern audience” interpretations to the fans of long-standing series that were purchased by greedy corporations. It seems that superhero films are now transitioning (or attempting to) anime, graphic novels, and Hollywood personalities now want to dominate podcasts and YouTube – because apparently the silver screens, TV, and media dominance for decades just wasn’t enough for them. I really hope they don’t bend the knee, because these big (arguably dying) corporations are literally having public strategies and discourses on how to break into that market and take their fans, and they are partnering with the school systems and their librarians to disseminate certain works of fiction and series that promote said message. It’s literally happening in real time, I don’t know if anybody is mentioning it openly to the public.

        Wow, that’s hardcore ☺︎ and yes – theme parks have raised prices and according to many YouTubers, the parks are pretty empty and the ride wait time is waaaaay down to reflect this drop in attendance. Disney owns USA Today, too? I’m surprised and I know I probably shouldn’t be. Man.

        I loved that quote (and everything Space Cat says) so much that I even broke down and spent $15 at NYCC to buy a plushie of the shady cat, haha. There was another animator at the time who Disney had a rivalry with as well, and eventually overcame. I think it was the Fleischer brothers, and that’s what the video game “Bendy and the Ink Machine” is based around alongside Disney.

        It would be really creepy but I hope the story does go that route and have some sort of sick twist like that. It would make for great storytelling. And thank you – I’ll check it out

      9. Thanks. Just doing my best to shed light on this issue and bring up these different facts. It is likely a Freudian slip and self-admission. Haha!

        Sure thing! Yeah, that was such a weird thing and I also thought Kovu was the biological son of Scar since he looks just like a younger version, but I found out they mention he was adopted in passing in Lion King II even if he could easily pass as a blood relative. However, I hear that about the Nala incest theory since I noticed the prequel didn’t address that issue from what I’ve noticed which is very squicky especially as you pointed out that Mufasa would’ve been the only alpha male lion around. Not to get all National Geographic on you, but that is unintentionally an accurate thing given the gender ratio with adult lions in various prides. However, we’re not supposed to think about that and I’m sure Disney didn’t think about that either. I’ll give JEL/Kimba credit for making sure there was no way the main character and his girlfriend Lyra/Kitty could ever be related.

        It’s a very fascinating movie even if it’s quite tragic. A 4K re-release would be amazing though!

        Absolutely, and I’ve noticed this with so many fandoms in general.

        That is not surprising at all. I’ve noticed that with the superhero stuff as they bank on how popular those movies have been for over a decade. That’s not even counting other properties outside of superheroes with various IPs.

        It’s funny to me how the rides are getting emptier with the raised prices and other factors. Yup, it’s one of the myriad of companies they own.

        Space Cat was hilarious with those little quips. Good on you for buying that plushie! Hahaha! I haven’t seen Bendy, but I know it has that old-school cartoon aesthetic those old Disney and Fleischer brothers had. That makes a lot of sense.

        Very much so, but I could see it working with storytelling. No problem and feel free to check it out!

  2. […] Secret of Blue WaterNotes:
-The pilot can be watched for free on YouTube.

-Special thanks to In Asian Spaces and Scott for making me aware of this animated project.
Fun Facts:-Knights of Guinevere is an […]

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