Exploding Kittens, an animated series based on the card game, debuts on Netflix July 12, and has some heavy hitters among its producers. They include Mike Judge, Greg Daniels and Peter Chernin.
Judge, Daniels and Dustin Davis are executive producing for Bandera Entertainment. Chernin and Jenno Topping are doing so for the Chernin Entertainment Group.
The show sees God get fired and sent to Earth to reconnect with humanity. But he’s trapped in the body of a house cat. He moves in with a dysfunctional family and tries to solve their problems, but is distracted by the laser pointers he keeps chasing, and by the Antichrist cat living next door.
The voice cast includes Tom Ellis, Sasheer Zamata, Suzy Nakamura, Mark Proksch and Ally Maki.
“The result is the ultimate fight between good versus evil…except, Godcat (Ellis) is distracted by a pigeon he saw in the yard and Devilcat (Sasheer Zamata) is busy napping on someone’s laptop,” according to Netflix.
The card game sees players try to avoid drawing an Exploding Kittens card, which are scattered in with other cards, including Attack, Defuse, Nope and Skip.
Matthew Inman, who is behind the cartoon site The Oatmeal, created the franchise, with Elan Lee, and is creator, showrunner and executive producer, with Shane Kosakowski, on the series. Lee is an executive producer too.
A review in the Los Angeles Times said: “Family and friendship are the themes, threaded through the mayhem, and because the central characters are underdogs — even the gods trapped in their furry feline bodies — we root for them, as disgust turns to affection, competition to cooperation, and lost love is found again. It’s corny as … hell, but it’s genuine corn. You might let your kids watch, depending, of course, on your kids.”
Judge’s credits include Beavis and Butt-Head and King of the Hill. Daniels’ include The Office and King of the Hill.
Chernin was chief operating officer at News Corp. before focusing full-time on production. He is co-founder and partner at The Chernin Group.
