This is the first part of my review on one of my favorite animated series right no “Infinity Train”. I will be doing a full post on each Season/Book of the series and it will be containing spoilers, so if you already watched “Infinity Train” then you’re good but if you haven’t watch it, go look it up, it available now on HBO Max or maybe you can find episodes on the Cartoon Network App.
So, “Infinity Train” is a Cartoon Network show that first was presented to the world back in 2016, with a Pilot that was posted on YouTube and since then the Pilot has over 4.5 million views, that is what made Cartoon Network interested in starting production for a series.
Last year (2019) the first Season or Book, (in the show they’re called Books) was released on the Cartoon Network channel for a week. Each day they showed 2 episodes, each Book has 10 episodes. I personally was really excited for its release and watched it the day it premiered…and I loved it!.
The show is Sci-Fi and action show, each book has a different story but all of them are connected. Today I’ll be talking about Book One, the story follows a girl named Tulip, she wants to become a videogame designer, she’s also a fan of eating raw onions as apples for some reason, and she’s just a nice girl. Tulips parents are going through a divorce wich puts her in a uncomfortable and confusing position, she wants to go to game design camp wich is in Oskosh, Wisconsin. But both her parents can’t take her, so as any other teenager, she decides to go by herself.
But in the way there she encounters a mysterious train with glowing green lights, and she enters it. That’s when thing get weird and complicated, Tulip wakes up in a train full of snow where she meets a funny little robot named One-One. She also has a glowing green number on her right hand. And that is where the story begins.
That was basically a description of the first episode, and let me tell you, if that didn’t get you onboard the I don’t know what will. The show is masterpiece in todays TV animation. The show is dark, touching sensitive themes like divorce, mental illness, and even death, showing a train that is never ending going hundred of miles in a wasteland where all you see is a red sea of nothing. And every train car is its own world, some are a small room full of junk, other are literally countries, some are jungles and other are a fashion show where you have to model in order to move on to the next car…yeah its crazy.
The train is designed for people to overcome their problems and learn what they need to learn, when they’re number goes down to zero, a portal opens and you are free to go home.
But the most amazing thing about the show is how unexpected it is, on episode 9 “The Ball Pit Car” Tulip is having fun with Atticus and One-One in a giant playhouse and then all of a sudden the “Conductor”, (We’ll get to that later), appears and basically destroys the car, turns Atticus into a monster and then leaves like nothing happened. That is my favorite episode of Book One, it really shows not only the struggle of being on the train but also is a turning point for Tulips character development. That’s where she just decides to go after the “Conductor” and end thing once and for all, that’s when we get to see that the conductor is just a woman named Amelia, I mean who would’ve seen that coming, a simple passenger with the highest number in the train, hiding in a robotic suit, controlling everything.
The story of Amelia is one of the most saddest and also understandable back stories I’ve seen, loosing her husband, getting in the train, overcoming the conductor wich is actually One-One, and then try to recreate her life by designing train cars with every location she and her husband have been to. Wow, I mean that’s a lot to put in just 10 short episodes.
The darkness of it all and the action is just amazing, how each character is important is just another key that will reveal itself as the show progresses, to me that’s good storytelling and good character development, Owen Dennis and the whole crew are just really talented. Telling a story like this one is not easy especially when you only have 11 minutes per episode.
Book One is not just the introduction but also the setting for the rest of the series, I love everything about it and I hope you support the show as I do.
