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'My Brother The Minotaur' Is a Kids Cartoon Anyone Can Enjoy |
Beautifully animated and compelling, the Celtic fantasy series scratches a "Scooby-Doo" itch that cartoons have been missing.
Few premises are as eternal or as durable than a group of friends solving mysteries: Hanna-Barbera practically made an entire genre of it in the '70s, taking the premise of the classic "Scooby-Doo" and xeroxing it for a dozen other shows. And yet, that type of storytelling is in frustratingly short supply, at least on TV: Scooby-Doo hasn't had a real kids' show since 2021, while the options for children's entertainment nowadays tend to lean more towards the infantile and episodic like "Paw Patrol" than anything parents can enjoy alongside their kids.
So that makes a rare gem like "My Brother The Minotaur," which premiered on Apple TV last week, all the more satisfying. One of the best recent children's offerings from the streamer, which quietly has arguably the best library of quality family programming, "My Brother, The Minotaur" marries its gentle, charming comedy with a genuinely compelling serialized mystery. It's the type of show you can pace out from day to day, or gleefully binge in one go.
The show opens with main character Lorcan (Ely Solan) waking up and screaming in horror at the sight that awaits him in the mirror: an acne breakout. His horns and fur aren't a particularly surprising sight: Lorcan is a Minotaur, living on the Irish island Bryony as just another kid for as long as he can remember. Adopted by a human family, Lorcan is occasionally the target of some bullying, but otherwise spends most of his days as just another kid, attending school with his adopted brother Charlie (Billy Jenkins) and their two best friends Dana (Billie Boulet) and Harper (Luciana Akpobaro).
When the show picks up, Lorcan is experiencing a strange series of nightmares centered around a terrifying rabbit-faced man, a creature pulled from Celtic mythology known as a Pooka. When the dreams start bleeding into real life, Charlie — who fancies himself an amateur detective — convinces his brother and friends to investigate Lorcan's mysterious origins, a thread that soon unravels an entire secret fantasy world kept under wraps by the elders of the island.
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"My Brother the Minotaur" is a co-production of Irish animation studios Dog Ears and Cartoon Saloon, the latter of which is best known for its stunning Oscar animated features "The Secret of Kells" and "Wolfwalkers;" creator Donal Managan has worked on several of the studio's films.
The difference between a movie and TV budget is clear from watching "My Brother the Minotaur," but the series is still a stunner, mixing blocky thick-lined characters that wouldn't look out of place on Cartoon Network in the early aughts with lush, rustic backdrops that draw inspiration from the studio's Irish roots. In set-pieces involving the Pooka, dark lighting and strong use of shadow results in some scenes that can give younger viewers a genuine fright. The pedigree of the studio also shows in some of the vocal talent involved, which includes a hammy Michael Sheen as a scheming hotel owner and Brian Cox as Locran and Charlie's kindly grandfather.
The quality of the animation remains consistent across the shows 10 episodes, which range from 22 to 28 minutes long with a finale that stretches up to 40. Each episode title is formatted like a reference to "Dungeons & Dragons" — from "Gateways & Gatherings" to "Labyrinths & Lies" — nodding to the show's sense of joyous discovery. Each episode clips along at a steady, smart pace, unveiling new revelations about the secrets of Bryony without ever feeling like it's stretching the story out or spinning it in place.
It helps that the characters are so charming, with development that proves genuinely meaty for the show's light and optimistic tone. Dana and Harper occasionally feel extraneous, there to fill out the group rather than carry out their own narrative arcs, but the bond between Charlie and Lorcan, and Lorcan's search for his place in the world, is a solid emotional core the show never loses sight of.
"My Brother the Minotaur" goes to strange, fantastic places, and by its end has some rousing action setpieces. But its well-sketched setting and realistic depictions of the kids means its deeper conflicts are very of this world, tackling questions of identity and displacement that people of all ages can relate to. The season ends on a cliffhanger promising another adventure for the gang: here's hoping the show gets a chance to peel its mysteries back even further.
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In some assorted animation news from this week:
- I didn't write about it, but Andy Serkis' animated take on George Orwell's "Animal Farm" finally hit American theaters today, after premiering at Annecy last year. It's...not good. My colleague Alison Foreman has a great review discussing its many flaws.
- In more exciting news regarding live action filmmakers making the jump to animation, Bong Joon Ho's "Ally" is set to come out next year, and will be distributed by Neon.
- "Stranger Things: Tales From '85," which I wrote about last week, has already been renewed for a second season.
- Taylor Swift might be releasing a "Toy Story 5" song? If so, she has big shoes to fill: the Sarah McLachlan song from the second film still reduces me to tears.
That's it for this edition of Sketch to Screen. If you're new and want to see more of this in your inbox, subscribe here for more.
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