Lost in Translation 468 – Exploding Kittens

Card games have been a popular form of group entertainment since cards were first printed. As printing technology improved, the types of cards available broadened from the traditional deck of cards, with four suits of thirteen cards, to a wide range of possibilities. The technology also came down in cost, allowing for smaller publishers to produce games. Such is Exploding Kittens.

First developed in 2015 by Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal. former X-Box developer Elan Smith, and Shane Small, the game is a card version of Russian Roulette, as players try to avoid getting the exploding kitten. There are ways to avoid a kitten explosion; defuse cards to distract the kitten, action cards to avoid finding the kitten, and other cards to make it more likely another player will explode instead. If the kitten explodes, the player who drew it is out of the game. Last player standing wins. Nice and simple, as the instruction video shows.

Inman had plans of turning The Oatmeal into a TV series, but Exploding Kittens was not how he expected to go. Working with Steve Kosakowski, the pair brought the card game to animated life on Netflix. The series stars Tom Ellis as Godcat, Sasheer Zamata as Devilcat, Suzy Nakamura as Abbie Higgins, Mark Proksch as Marv Higgins, Ally Maki as Greta Higgins, Kenny Yates as Travis Higgins, Betsy Sodaro as Aidan, Tom Kenny as Craig, and David Gborie as Aslandeus. The series runs nine episodes on Netflix, and was release July 2024, in time for The Oatmeal‘s 15th anniversary.

The series begins with the board of Heaven telling God that he has been resting on his laurels and burned down a part of Heaven after falling asleep while making a pizza. They send him down to Earth to help a family come together. To help with the humility thing, the board turns God into Godcat, a chonky white cat with a limit on his powers.

The Higgins family is a mess. Abby is an ex-Navy SEAL now working for Animal Control. Marv is a low-level employee at bulk store. Their daughter, Greta, wants to be a mad scientist by the time she graduates high school. Travis, the son, went viral as the “Horky Porky” kid when he was five and spends his time trying to get his video streams to become more popular. The prayer Heaven is responding to is Abby’s exasperated, “Dear God, help this family come together.”

Meanwhile, in Hell, New CEO Beelzebub, taking over the role from her father, is getting raked over the coals over her ideas of being evil. While the ideas are evil, they’re not up to the standards set by the boared and her father. Beelzebub, too, is sent to Earth, this time to wreak havok in the body of a chonky black cat. She sets out to interfere with Godcat, though he doesn’t really need hlp there.

As the series progresses, Godcat learns who the Higginses really are beyond the surface; why they are the weay they are. The Higgins family, thanks to Godcat and Devilcat, come to realize where the dysfunction is and work to overcome their problems. Even the supernatural machinations around them help the family come back together.

The animation is based on Inman’s style on The Oatmeal. The story is more Oatmeal than Exploding Kittens, though there is a kitten explosion of sorts at the end. Other of Inman’s comics make appearances, including the glorious rainbow death machine known as the mantis shrimp in the first episode. The series is less an adaptation of the card game as it is of Inman’s body of work, using the game’s name as the draw.

That said, the series is well written, with surprising substance and depth. The cast works, with Tom Ellis playing an erudite Godcat with a hint of imperiousness and haughtyness. Sasheer Zamata portrays Beelzebub as the young daughter in over her head taking over the family business. The Higginses have the tone of familiar annoyance with each other. Suzy Nakamura adds a longing for Abby’s desire for action. The strength of the episodes is being able to go beyond the surface, and ending with an almost literal last-minute cliffhanger that moves the overall plotline along.

While not a great adaption of the card game, Exploding Kittens works as an introduction to Matthew Inman’s The Oatmeal, showcasing both his style and humour to a broad audience. The series is worth a watch