The Amazing Digital Circus is the kind of story that only appears every few years. It's an animation darling, an inspired retelling of I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream, a project that is vastly more than the sum of its parts. It is also a movie — the finale of the web series — that manages to pull an established internet fandom out of their homes and into the seats of theaters. It is an incredible success.

I did not like The Amazing Digital Circus during its initial release. Now I love it. I want to talk about what changed, what the movie has to offer as an ending and as a film, and a little bit about why this series has managed to capture the hearts of so many people on the internet.

The first episode of The Amazing Digital Circus is not very good.

I was a stickler about this for a really long time. Episode 2 is much better, but it's the character writing — not the premise or plot — that does the early episodes a disservice. Pomni herself feels like both a setup and punchline; the script sets up an emotional beat and then pulls the rug out from under her at the last second. In a word, it's mean. It's pointlessly mean, and that starts to feel like "the point" of the show. The characters are being tortured, but not in an interesting or novel way.

Episode 3 finally gives Pomni her first true character beat, and from there the script writing makes an impressive recovery. The characters are given some room to breathe, so there's finally some levity, and that cynical edge from the early episodes smooths out into proper comedic timing and characterization.

If I have a complaint about the web series, it's that the first episode could have been a pilot (which are always weird) instead of a full release. Anything to give the mid-season episodes more time to shine.

That brings me to the film, The Amazing Digital Circus: The Last Act.

This movie is great. It's a proper sendoff and an incredible finale for the series. All of the cynicism of the early script is gone; the movie could have torn the characters down, but instead it works to build them back up. Here we see the culmination of everything that the web series is and what it wanted to be: A character study of flawed and vulnerable people who have to hold themselves together even as their world falls apart.

The Last Act does have its twists, but there is nothing here that will destroy your faith in the characters or in the story. The focus on Jax is especially welcome. Rather than treating the most controversial character of her series with kid gloves, Gooseworx writes a compelling and emotional conclusion to his character arc. It is a welcome addition to the film, and one of the main draws for seeing it in theaters.

By making the story about the characters instead of the show's digital world, The Last Act finally builds the true emotional core of the series and allows it to take center stage. The movie was truly worth the wait.

I do have a complaint about the theatrical release. It's not much of a criticism, but it is worth talking about.

Packaging episode 8 with the theatrical release of the film makes sense; I understand why they did it this way. However, a large section of the film is something that we have already seen, and the pacing of the finale suffers because of it.

Ironically, the movie shares the web series' feeling of very tight pacing. Some of the scenes cover too much ground and others feel cut short, especially in the first half of episode 9. While a fast pace may work for the web series, in the theatrical release I wanted to see a theatrical cut of the story and its characters. I even would have liked to see the movie be longer than its eventual online release — especially if that would have allowed the film to stand on its own on the big screen.

As for The Amazing Digital Circus in its entirety: I am satisfied. The movie was excellent and I believe that it is a perfect ending to the web series. And while the series itself had a rough opening act, the movie provides it with some of that length and pacing that I thought it desperately needed back with episode 8.

Please do yourself a favor and watch the show and the movie. The Amazing Digital Circus is a triumph of the indie animation space. It is rare to find a piece of media that perfectly captures the time in which it was made; I see that this show has connected so many people together because of its themes and its characters, how it lets go of cynicism to give its characters and its world a proper ending.

Sometimes, it feels like being on the internet is an exercise in vulnerability. While we may lose ourselves in the stress of the online space, while we may not always be the people that we want to be, we will always exist just as much on the internet as we do in real life. Those connections, those parts of ourselves are just as real — and it is up to us to make sure that they are cared for. The film understands this and invites us to think about it. It made me feel like I was being understood in a way that other films, other web series have failed to make me feel.

This series and this movie are wholeheartedly recommended. I look forward to the digital release of the movie in two weeks, and I am excited to see more of Gooseworx's work in the future — whatever it might be.