The Owl House always deserved better than it got
The Disney series was and is magical in more ways than one.
by Rollin Bishop
Among my friends, I somewhat infamously love "kids media." Which is to say, media specifically aimed at children or young adults — animation, games, books, et cetera. Across all mediums and genres, I can dig it. This often means I'm the one defending the merits of a creative work against diminutive assumptions and preconceptions, a role I've come to accept as sometimes necessary and always worthwhile. With that in mind, I'll repeat myself:
The Owl House always deserved better than it got. From Disney, from critics, even from audiences… It's a more general complaint than not, but the company that bankrolled the show should take far more blame than anyone or anything else.
The Owl House is an animated series following a teenage girl that is transported to a fantasy world instead of summer camp as she goes on to learn magic herself from an elder outsider. It ran for three seasons between 2020 and 2023 on the Disney Channel, with the last season being a truncated series of specials instead of a traditional full season of episodes. Counting those specials, and ignoring crossover shorts and the like, there are 43 episodes in total of The Owl House.
Which is a shame, because by the time that The Owl House actually made it to the end of its run, it had established a wild, body horror-tinged world with its own magical systems, an incredibly diverse cast of characters, and some shockingly stunning animation.
As just a single example, check out the storyboard sequence below of main characters Luz and Amity dancing together during the episode "Enchanting Grom Fright" from Hayley Foster and Spencer Wan. Wan, re:frame readers might recognize, also happens to be the owner of Studio Grackle of Hades 1.0 announcement trailer and Hades 2 announcement trailer fame, and that expertise is certainly on full display in these storyboards.
https://x.com/SpencerWan/status/1292561852380020737And then here's the actual clip from the episode itself:
Again, this aired on Disney Channel. And to address the obvious elephant in the room, of course the COVID-19 pandemic had an impact on the show's production. That's not just speculation on my part; that's directly from Dana Terrace, the show's creator.
"Every show had to tighten their belts," Terrace shared on Reddit back in October 2021 about The Owl House's budgetary limitations due to the pandemic. "Budgets were constrained and episodes were cut across the board. But we took the biggest bullet and I wasn't given the option of a 'season 4 when parks open again'. They just wanted to be done with [The Owl House] and this was the perfect chance to do that. Even getting the consolation [Season 3] episodes was difficult, apparently. Hard to say, I wasn't allowed to be a part of any conversations until I was just... Told. Wasn't even allowed to present my case."
That's not to say there isn't a silver lining here. While I could easily go to bat for The Owl House in any given week, it is not a coincidence that I am doing so now; Knights of Guinevere just released its pilot episode. Produced by Glitch, the show is created by Terrace, John Bailey Owen, and Zach Marcus — the latter two having previously worked as writers on The Owl House alongside Terrace.
"My end game is not to continue writing kids cartoons (which are wonderful and rewarding but not my personal jam)," Terrace shared on Reddit five years ago this month. "I prefer stories for older audiences where things like whimsy and darkness can coexist. I mean hell, look at my personal artwork. Owl House is as kid-friendly as I'll ever be."
Based on what we've seen of Knights of Guinevere thus far, it does look like Terrace got exactly what she wanted. That is, however, a blog for another time…
/out of frame
🏨 Rollin: I've been watching Haunted Hotel, which is… fine. I prefer a premise that isn't quite so wacky in my adult animation, but I'll also take what I can get at this point.
🛸 Kambole: Caught up on Dan Da Dan over the weekend, now that the season has finished. The final episode was spectacular – particularly enjoyed that its most out there cut of animation was reserved for a character desperately running to the bathroom to throw up, and that's in a plot including a kaiju and a giant mech.
🦟 Toussaint: On Monday, Hideo Kojima premiered the first look at Death Stranding Mosquito, an upcoming animated feature set in the universe of Death Stranding, during his "Beyond the Strand" 10th Anniversary Livestream. The preview footage looks incredible, with a 2.5D animation style accented with calligraphic outlines and impact frames á la Kamikaze Douga (Star Wars: Visions, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure) or art director Daigo Ikeno's work on 2008's Street Fighter 5. Don't keep us waiting too long, Kojima.