Review: Bee and Puppycat Revamp on Netflix

Netflix introduced the famous Youtube start-up Bee and Puppycat on Sept 6 this year, garnering an abundance of critically-acclaimed reviews.

Netflix picked up the 16-episode project in 2020 and planned its release for this year. The show was originally created by Natasha Allegri and released in 2013 on Youtube with ten short episodes.

The show begins with Bee, the main protagonist meeting her loyal and mischievous friend, PuppyCat. The two go on many different adventures together throughout the revamped series while seeing old faces from the original Youtube episodes along the way, giving the show a poignant comeback.

The reboot also expands on developing some of the characters, including the Wizard family, who serve as prominent figures in the story. An example of this was when the show revealed that Merlin Wizard was having a child with Toast, another supporting character, who was used for comedic relief in most scenes. This reveal was a significant surprise because Toast was never portrayed as having serious thoughts or feelings in the original Youtube series.

By reintroducing past characters, the show incorporates old plot themes from the original series while maintaing a perfect balance with the updated storyline. The new series essentially resets the storyline to the beginning of Bee and Puppycat’s initial interactions to cater to a new audience. The reboot dives much deeper into the main story of the two protagonists by displaying fundamental dynamics between them that were not yet introduced, including why Puppycat is secretly connected to Bee before they even meet.

The Netflix series also has beautifully updated animation to stun its original and new audiences with vibrant colors, unique character designs and more fluid facial expressions. Because of small touches like these, the show felt more whimsical and the outstanding reviews corroborate this with IMDb rating the show with an 8.2/10 and Google users rating the show with 5/5 stars.

Though there was full backing for the show, several issues arose while trying to release the new episodes. The largest setback occurred in mid-2020 when the CEO of Frederator Studios, Fred Seibert, leaked all of the new episodes of the show on his Vimeo account. Seibert had meant to post the episodes privately but it was too late to mend his mistake. The creators worried the show would lose its steam due to the leak. However, even with the major setback, the show still hit its targeted goal of numbers within weeks of the Netflix release.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this masterpiece of a show not only because of its excellent storyline and animation but also because of its tenacious fanbase and ambitious team of creators. The show has been years in the making but it now has the accreditation it deserves.