Shorts Review: ”Manly”

The third of this year’s Cartoon Hangover shorts is out. Check out the Moynihan brothers Manly below.

You may have seen Jesse Moynihan’s webcomic, Forming, and a lot of his work is recognizable on Adventure Time. If you do recollect either, the style of Cartoon Hangover‘s latest short, Manly, will be of no surprise to you, it’s pure Jesse Moynihan and very visually strong.  James Stokoe’s brilliant backgrounds add to the eyeball blazing visions of Manly’s space-capade.

Co-written with  brother Justin, Manly is the Moynihan’s vision of a space Warrior trying to do right by her Emperor father, a guy who didn’t really want a daughter in the first place and is content to send Manly on the most perilous of missions with scant regard for her welfare. Manly would be better off being the writer or painter that she daydreams about but her Dad wants her to punch things so that’s what she does.

If you are looking for Cutesey, Manly is not the cartoon for you. If you are looking for kick-ass and cosmic, Manly is most definitely the cartoon for you. The least Cartoon Hangover-ish style wise so far, but also the most like Adventure Time, you’ll be surprised how much of the Moynihan design styles you recognise, Manly is something entirely of it’s own creation and can’t be compared to anything else we’ve seen. It’s great stuff and I’d like to see more of this on Cartoon Hangover for sure.