Cinepals - ARCANE 1x1 "Welcome To The Playground" Reaction & Review!

Episode Date: May 26, 2024

For the first time, Kristen & Michael watch the hit Netflix series "Arcane," an animated series set in the "League of Legends" universe, exploring the origin stories of iconic characters Jinx and Vi amidst the escalating tensions between the utopian city of Piltover and the oppressed underground of Zaun.   This show stars: Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit & Bumblebee), Ella Purnell (Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children & Fallout The Series), Kevin Alejandro (Lucifer & Southland), Katie Leung (Harry Potter series & The Foreigner), Jason Spisak (Young Justice & The Legend of Korra), Toks Olagundoye (Castle & The Neighbors), J.B. Blanc (Breaking Bad & The Count of Monte Cristo), and Harry Lloyd (Game of Thrones & The Theory of Everything).   SOCIAL MEDIA: ~CINEPALS~ YouTube: @CinePals Insta: https://instagram.com/TheCinePals Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheCinePals   ~KRISTEN STEPHENSONPINO~ Instagram: @Kris10Kesp   ~MICHAEL~ Insta: @booseisloose 

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Go to IQBar.com today and enter promo code Keller 20 to get 20% off all IQ bar products plus free shipping. That's IQBAR.com promo code Keller 20. Senna. Today we're watching Arcane. Arcane. Arcane? Arcane.

Arcane? Yeah, as in like arcane magic. Okay, cool. I heard that this was based off of a video game, which... League of Legends. This one has played. Yes, I was a League of Legends player through high school. I haven't played for like years, so I'm not super duper caught up on everything.

But I watch Worlds from time to time, and I still stick with the Eastport stuff. I like League of Legends, but I've never seen Arcane, despite hearing a bunch of really good stuff about it. Long and short of it, this is like based on the lore of the game, but not super deeply based on the actual gameplay of the game. Anyways, let's just go hop into it. Oh, so much for that cat. No, leave the cat alone. That's not making it. I don't like that.

Oh, my God. I don't like that. Oh, no. Is it the kid? What? That's how you're going to leave us? You're going to leave us hanging there? That was incredible.

All right. Yo! That was so cool. Oh, my God. I was so sucked in that I'm like, I don't even want to talk to you right now. I just want to go to the next episode. I do. I want to binge watch and be like, I'll see you guys next time.

Let's know your thoughts in the comments. I'm going to go. Let's go, go, go, go, go. That was amazing. Okay, okay, okay. All right, starting from the top. The animation, oh my God, the animation is so good. Like the blending of, I don't know if some of it was hand-drawn animation or so, like the backgrounds and everything,

but they had that hand-drawn vibe. The melding and the animation style of the characters and the detailing, so good, so, so, so good. And like, from what I remember of my time with League of Legends, it elicits the game look for sure, but they've definitely taken it and, like, heightened it or, you know, made it their own. So it's not just like a perfect carbon copy of the game art style. It's the game art style, but taken to a new level, I think. And it's so stunning. Just like beautiful right off the bat.

This is just so done so well. I'm already loving the storyline and we're going with it. I love the sister dynamic. Yeah. I love that this guy came and basically like adopted them and he's raising these kids. And I love that we have somebody on the upper ground. level that's like kind of in on the inn and I was like obviously

you always need some type of corruption. Yeah I was going to say rule number one of organized crime is you always have somebody on the inside. Yes, I did not like the cat scene at all. At least they did it off screen, you know, you didn't have to suffer through. I know, but it's so so sad still. He was like purring

and like, okay, whatever. He was an evil looking cat. He was, he didn't mean any of harm. He's like with evil people. You don't have a hairless cat in an animated movie without it being like he was just hungry going for the rat you're right okay he did nothing wrong he just has bad owners no like this was

very entertaining and great I'm I love all the detail and throughout it I'm like taking it in there's so much to take in that I'm like oh god look at this look at that it's almost like find Waldo you know or like where's Waldo yeah I'm I totally agree like my eyes are just like scanning every because there's such, like, minute detail.

And I pointed out a couple of, like, the obvious throwbacks to the game or callbacks to the game. But I'm sure there's things that I'm missing as well. I mean, like, League of Legends itself has, like, a whole laundry list of, like, items you use in the game. And I'm certain that they're, like, hiding the items in the background and things like that. This makes me wish I would have, I played the game or something because then I would kind of, like, have an idea of what to look for or something.

That's okay. I don't think it's going to detract your enjoyment from what I've seen so far. I'm just saying. I like, I like, I like, to play hide and seek okay and I like to seek and go there it is oh my gosh the detail for this

yeah must have taken hours hours hours for something like this absolutely absolutely and that's what's so amazing really cool because there's like a lot of episodes so it's like somebody had a somebody had to sit there

for hours and hours I fully agree like the level of detail that goes into the foreground and the background and then like the visual establishment of all of the settings. Like that bit where they're coming down from the elevator and it's like looking out

over the undercity. So cool. And just the depth of field that they create using the animation. And the music. Soundtracks on point. It's on point. The voice acting also is incredible. It's good. Really, really, really good. So I'm excited to see where this goes. Same. I'm excited to see where

the story takes us. We're just we didn't even do anything. We just we just dusted some things off. Yeah, and you're like, we just barely scratched the surface of, like, what's going on. Like, all of this was exposition, but it was done in such a really, really good way where you feel like things are moving on. Because sometimes, especially when you're establishing, like, a fantasy world that is so distant from our own or so separate from our own, a lot of times you can feel like, all right, the exposition's dragging on, or you don't get enough explanation for how the world works, right? You're, like, trying to introduce it in a natural way, but it doesn't work. So it either comes up clunky or it feels like you don't have enough information.

but the way they did this episode is so strong because it's a lot of exposition and also character establishment, like far and away, but like it's a lot of exposition heavy stuff in this episode, but it's done in such a really natural way that goes with the characters that we're introduced to the world through the eyes of those who already live there. We don't need an outsider to come in and introduce the world for us and be like our proxy in it. They do a really good job of like, all right, we're seeing the world as these characters see it. We are already part of the world, but we're establishing things that are already known to everybody else for us in a way that's like, okay, this is just casual discussion about it.

And I think that's huge kudos to the writers for being able to do that and get us engaged so quickly in one episode because now we've got all the details. Now we can just get right off to wherever this roller coaster ride is going to take us. And I think that's incredible. I second everything he just said. I think you did a great job breaking that down. Thank you. I think throughout the emphasis, I have a feeling. We're in it, and we're going to have some heart-breaking moments because of the way.

I feel like just the storytelling is so good already that they're setting this up to be crushed. That's just my opinion. For sure. That's what I'm feeling. And I'm like, I'm not excited for that, but I'm ready to watch the next episode. So I'm going to end it here. You guys, if you want to keep up, okay, hit the. that subscribe button, bell icons, all notifications

up both this video. So when next episode comes out, Bart Reaction, you're ready to go right there, front and center. As soon as it drops, you're right there next to us watching it. I'm Kristen Stavisapino. I'm Michael Boos. We love you, and then we'll see you next time. Let us know your

thoughts in the comments. Bye.