Over a few years ago, television animators Tara Billinger and Zach Bellissimo funded a Kickstarter for their own indie animated pilot for a potential series they have in mind called Long Gone Gulch. Set in the old west, the short follows local town sheriffs Rawhide and Snag, the sheriffs, who try their best to keep their name as sheriffs. Made over the span of several years and only now finally getting completed and released this month, the pilot has proven to be a pretty decent contender for a full fledged series, although I only say that as having just seen this single short, which despite being good, is pretty by the numbers.
Now given how long this took Zach and Tara to put together, since no indie animated short has a straight ahead deadline until it's almost complete, the hard work and effort is all up on display. For starters, the brisk and lively animation feels on par with the newer animated Disney cartoons airing right now, in addition to some fun character poses and some breathtaking backgrounds. From an artistic standpoint alone, the overall world of Lone Gone Gulch is so believable that you could easily get wrapped into it. The voice acting is also quite good, especially with veteran voice actors E.G. Daily and Danny Cooksey lending their talents to Rawhide and Snag so well, in addition to the supreme Eric Bauza, Myke Chilian and Erin Fitzgerald collaborating efficiently for their individual characters. Beyond that, some of the visual gags, including a very humorous stare off sequence and subtle jab at the critiquing process of cartooning, give off the best laughs than some of the dialogue even. So there's no denying how much love and craft was put into this short.
That being said, if not for this being a passion project of two industry people, it might not have been all that distinctive from your typical TV cartoon. For one thing, aside from their distinctive personalities of the law-abiding sheriff and the rebel, Rawhide and Snag are fairly simple as far as protagonists go. Perhaps they will be expanded upon in future planned storylines, but when your premise is about the highs and lows of these two standard trope characters, then it's pretty easy to figure out what will go down in the plot. Also, most of the humor falls flat with a lot of forced character interactions and some mediocre meta banter, which has become so commonplace in the media that it's no longer meta anymore; it's just annoying. Finally, despite Eric Bauza giving it his all, the villain Mako was pretty forgettable and not that different from any other menacing cartoon villain, and even some of his henchmen feel like outdated stereotypes more than threatening foes. I understand wanting to make the villain in recent cartoons more relatable, but so far, Mako doesn't ring as all that intriguing.
However, despite my gripes with the pilot, that does not mean I'm against Long Gone Gulch overall. While this might not have started off with the most engaging story or characters yet, that's not to say it can't grow into something truly special, especially with the talents of industry animators and voice actors helping out. In a day and age where it's become easier to fund your own passion projects, Long Gone Gulch stands as another testament to how far animation is growing in getting people pumped up for fresh material. So it's only a matter of time before we get more adventures with Rawhide and Snag beyond the horizon.
