[media-credit name=”Screenshot from ‘Final Space'” link=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Yco11ZQ0UE” align=”alignright” width=”300″][/media-credit]

Maybe you know Olan Rogers. If you don’t know his name, you might know his wild stories and animated way of telling them. Or maybe you know him for his short sketches. Or maybe you haven’t heard of him before. But now you have! So let me tell you about him.

Known for some of his more popular videos like Ghost in the Stalls and The Lion’s Blaze, Olan’s really made a name for himself around YouTube. He makes short films and sketches with his friends like Jake Sidwell and Thomas Gore.

One thing’s for sure: he loves to laugh and make others do the same (seriously, his laugh is contagious). He also used to be a part of a (now defunct) group called Balloon Shop along with Gore. The YouTube channel featured comedy sketches, posted from 2007-2010 before the group decided to stop. Through all his videos over the year Olan’s been honest and hilarious, every step of the way. He’s always striving to create something and tell a story.

Back when Olan first started his channel, he tried out an animated series called Gary Space around 2011. The series died off, but Olan still showed interest in it. As he continued to make live action shorts and enter film festivals, he started talking about the idea of rebooting Gary Space into a full fledged cartoon. And thus, Final Space was posted, April 5, 2016.

The cartoon Final Space is a 7-minute cartoon pilot that uses its time to flesh out and explore some of the new story. The short is still overflowing with Olan’s unique sense of humor (and his tendency to use the word ‘crap’).

The pilot is all about Gary, and gives a really good taste of what he and his story are like in just 7 minutes. It opens on Gary in a near-destroyed spaceship, recounting some of his adventures as he faces his almost-certain doom. The computer’s voice chimes on, notifying the crew that the ship will destruct in four minutes.

“Can you…change that to something more cheerful?” Gary asks.

“Like what Gary?” The computer answers.

“Uh. Cookies. Act like your baking a big batch of cookies.”

“Gary. The cookies will be done in four minutes.”

We’re introduced to his fellow crew members, like KVN (pronounced Kevin) the robot, or Avocato the humanoid cat. It’s both humorous and emotional, even for just those few minutes it has. Final Space takes all the time it’s given and absolutely goes for it.

It gives you enough information about the world of Final Space that you’re interested, but leaves you with questions so that you want more (seriously, I hope somebody picks this cartoon up). These seven minutes show you the show can be lighthearted hilarious while still having depth and seriousness in its story.

And you know what? I really like this cartoon. And I really hope someone picks it up, and I really hope if someone picks it up, Olan and Jake keep writing it. Because they’re a great tag-team, and their brand of humor is uniquely hilarious. Jake’s music is great. The cartoon is really well polished, the sound design is great. You can tell Olan and Jake love what they’re doing.

The cartoon would be such a refreshing story to see explored. Yes, it takes its influences from other cartoons today, but its showing a lot of promise to be different. I’d love to see Olan and Jake’s brand of writing on TV and streaming.

So, after all this talking about it, here it is! Final Space. Directed by Olan Rogers, animated by Studio Joho with music by Jake Sidwell. What do you think about it? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!

If you want to contact me, I can be reached via Twitter @ejLadd or by my email, [email protected].

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