Mike Snider
USA TODAY
Published 2:32 PM EDT Jul 9, 2019
Cuphead is making the move to Netflix.
The acclaimed side-scrolling video game "Cuphead," inspired by cartoon classics of the Thirties, will become an animated Netflix TV series called "The Cuphead Show," the online video provider announced Tuesday.
Like the video game, the TV comedy will star Cuphead and his brother Mugman. In the game, they have made a deal with the devil and must do his bidding.
The game's developers used classic techniques such as traditional hand-drawn cel animation to create the games appearance, which looks like classic cartoons. That makes it appropriate that King Features Syndicate, the home of cartoons such as "Popeye" and "Betty Boop," will serve as executive producers along with game creators Chad and Jared Moldenhauer, who co-founded Studio MDHR in Canada.
The FCC's robocall offensive: Text messages and international 'spoofed' calls targeted
Augmented reality goggles: FORM is sorta like Google Glass, but for swimming
Netflix Animation will produce the series with Dave Wasson ("Mickey Mouse Shorts") and Cosmo Segurson ("Rockos Modern Life: Static Cling") also executive producing.
The brothers Moldenhauer came up with the idea for the game, released in 2017 for Xbox One and PCs, based on their love of classic cartoons and games such as "Contra" "Street Fighter III" and "Gunstar Heroes."
“As kids, we watched old VHS tapes of Popeye, Betty Boop, Silly Symphonies and more – the art style has always stuck with us,” Chad told Games Radar in 2017. “Once we came up with the Cuphead character, we knew we had something special. Everything that we've done since then has been us just trying to do the memories of those cartoons justice.”
Since its initial release, "Cuphead" has gone on to win many awards and become available for Macintosh computers and Nintendo Switch.
This is just the latest video game-TV mashup for Netflix. The net TV company is also developing a TV series based on "The Witcher" video games and, as reported earlier this year by Deadline, is developing a "Resident Evil" series, too. And a movie based on "Tom Clancy's The Division" is on tap at Netflix, too.
