Kiff Review

Kiff is a musical comedy animated series by Lucy Heavens and Nic Smal. They are known for their work in the animation industry, either script writing, storyboarding, or voice acting. This post will have spoilers.

The plot of Kiff focuses on a young flying squirrel named Kiff Chatterley (voiced by Kimiko Glenn), who is friends with a mellow bunny named Barry Buns (H. Michael Croner) in a magical land, within the mountains, known as Table Town. Both go on adventures in and around the town.

Like other Disney series airing this year, Kiff is aimed at kids and families. This is clear from the format, similar to many episodes of Amphibia, Milo Murphy’s Law, and Phineas and Ferb. Each 22-minute episode is divided into two 11-minute segments. In typical Disney fashion, there is a musical number in almost every episode.

Apart from the animating powerhouse of Disney Television Animation, a well-known animation studio, Titmouse, is producing the series. The same studio is known for series such as Cleopatra in Space, Star Trek: Lower Decks, The Midnight Gospel, Q-Force, Inside Job, Pantheon, My Dad the Bounty Hunter,  The Legend of Vox Machina, Fairfax, and Chicago Party Aunt.

Many of the voice actors in Kiff are well-experienced. Glenn previously voiced Paperstar in Carmen Sandiego, Katherine-Alice in Welcome to the Wayne, Tomiko in Elena of Avalor, and Nomi in Dogs in Space, to name a few roles. Deedee Magno Hall, who voices Deer Teacher in the series, is best known for voicing Pearl in Steven Universe. Furthermore, James Monroe Iglehart and Lauren Ash, who voice Kiff’s parents, prominently voiced characters in series such as Tangled, Helluva Boss, Elena of Avalor, and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power.

Keen listeners might recognize Rachel House, voice of Barry’s mother, or Nichole Sakura, voice of Barry’s sister. Both had prominent voice roles in Moana and OK K.O.!: Let’s Be Heroes. Personally, I was familiar with voice actors Katie Crown and Rhys Darby because they voiced characters in Cleopatra in Space. The former also voiced Ivy in Amphibia. Furthermore, Darby voiced a variety of characters in Milo Murphy’s Law, We Bare Bears, Welcome to the Wayne, Star vs. the Forces of Evil, and Infinity Train. It was great to hear Vella Vowell, who voices Candle Fox, again. I remembered her impressive voice acting as Princess Mermista in She-Ra and the Princesses of Power and as the No Tattoo Barista (which later turned into a CBD Monster) in the lesser-known Magical Girl Friendship Squad.

Kiff also snagged the well-regarded Eric Bauza and Tom Kenny. From my years of watching animated series, I was familiar with Bauza as Scoops in Ollie & Scoops, as well as Kenny for two roles: Ice King in Adventure Time and Yancy Fry in Futurama. In this series, Bauza voices Reggie and a scrupulous TV producer named Roy Fox, while Kenny voices multiple characters in the series. Josh Johnson, a stand-up comedian, voices Barry’s brother, Harry.

The show’s animation is expressive and colorful. However, it pales in comparison to Amphibia, The Owl House, or Adventure Time. In some ways, Phineas and Ferb is put together better, as is Milo Murphy’s Law. All in all, the show is a bit funny, but not laugh-out-loud funny. Drama is more a strong suit for the series than comedy.

The first twelve episodes of the series are double-episodes. They introduce viewers to the characters, allowing you to get a feeling for their lives. More than anything, they make it clear that Kiff is not serialized like Steven Universe, Tangled, or Milo Murphy’s Law (especially the second season). Instead, each episode seems in its own world, without being connected to another. If some rumors are correct about upcoming Hailey’s On It! and Iwaju, it appears that Disney series are moving in the episodic direction and away from serialization. This is evidenced by the fact that the recently aired Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur uses serialized storytelling.

Kiff has some elements reminding me of the Futurama episode openings, like fake adverts at the beginning of each episode. At the same time, the series is different than what has come before since the show creators, Heavens and Smal, who voice characters in the series, are from Cape Town, South Africa. As a result, their life-stories are undoubtedly integrated into the series itself. Furthermore, the show’s directors include animators for Black Dynamite, 6Teen, and Amphibia, with this career experience enhancing the show even more.

The series emphasizes the importance of acceptance, friendship, self-worth, and notoriety. The latter is shown in the extreme by Roy Fox, who makes trashy reality shows in order to profit from people’s misery. In a manner similar to the focus on education in many anime series, Kiff seems to imply that education is important to achieving your dreams and that school shouldn’t be skipped, no matter what. This stands diametrically opposed to what is shown in Birdie Wing: Eve, one of the show’s protagonists, is a terrible student, but remains at the premiere golf academy because she is a sports star.

There are many other themes focused in Kiff. For instance, the episode “Career Day,” when Kiff and Barry get a part-time job at city hall, implies that mass records destruction is fine as long as you cut through the “red tape.” This contrasts with commentary about overly technical bureaucracy in Hilda and Futurama, to name two series. Such a negative theme in “Career Day” is offset by episodes which accentuate family togetherness and honesty.

As a person who has reviewed media with libraries and librarians in pop culture since July 2020, and with a MLIS degree, it should be no surprise one of my favorite episodes of Kiff was “Club Book.” In the episode, Kiff learns the value of quietness in the library after turning the library into a club scene. I thought it was interesting that the librarian, voiced by Aparna Nancherla, is made more relatable than most. Her character, Miss Moufflé, somewhat bucking stereotypes, while reinforcing them at the same time, as she shushes people but also likes souffles.

Similar to other series, the value of libraries as a place of knowledge and learning is affirmed in Kiff. In some ways, the episode reminded me of the “Quiet Riot” episode of The Replacements, in which the show’s protagonist, Todd, causes the shushing librarian in charge of the school library replaced by a rockstar. However, he later regrets his decision, resulting in the original librarian returning to her job.

Currently, Kiff is almost half-way through its series order of 30 episodes. It is hard to know where the series will go from here. Even so, I am more optimistic about this series than Hamster & Gretel, which has fallen flat, despite the fact that Dan Povenmire is the show’s creator. Instead, the series has episodes somewhat mimicking absurdity and, even hilarity (to an extent), which are present in Phineas and Ferb. The latter, in fact, was recently renewed for more two seasons.

Even so, Kiff will probably never measure-up to the strength of four-season animated magical comedy powerhouse of Phineas and Ferb, a series even mentioned in an episode of Better Things, a comedy-drama by Pamela Adlon, who voiced some characters in the series. Despite this, Kiff will chart its own path, perhaps different than what has come before. After all, both creators are said to be a “brilliant creative team.”

Although Disney has recently removed release dates from the upcoming Tiana and Moana series, clearly Kiff is part of a trend by the company to feature more diverse series. This year is bound to bring series such as Iwáju and Hailey’s On It!, while there are others in production such as Cookies & Milk and Primos.

It is further possible that Disney is producing Molly Ostertag’s Neon Galaxy, a series reportedly about a trans princess. In any case, diverse series are on the horizon for Disney, especially more than HBO Max, a network which has been struggling to find its corporate identity since David Zaslav became CEO of the Warner Bros. Discovery conglomerate. It is said that the streaming service has Iyanu: Child of Wonder and Lumberjanes in production.

The first 12 episodes of Kiff are currently airing on Disney+ and all twelve episodes have aired on the Disney Channel. Four new episodes will air on the Disney Channel on April 1st and later be added on Disney+.