Exploding Kittens is unhinged. Starring Tom Ellis and Sasheer Zamata, the Netflix adaptation of the popular game by Elan Lee and Matthew Inman, just landed on Netflix. It tells the story of the epic battle between God and the Devil, well more accurately Godcat and Devilcat. And the battles isn’t so much as epic but deranged as God tries to get his heavenly body back and the Devil tries to prove she’s got what it takes to rule Hell.
Fangirlish spoke with Ellis and Zamata about the new animated series. Right off the bat, Ellis spoke about this jump into animation. Because this is extremely different from what he’s well known for aka the Fox series Lucifer. “I’ve always wanted to work in animation. And I hadn’t really done an awful lot of that in the past. So that was a huge kind of hook for me. And then, reading the script, it was just really funny.”
Exploding Kittens has some of the best lines I’ve ever heard in an animated series. Some are out of pocket lines from Godcat like: “Hmmm, why is my mouth filing with saliva? this trash bird is disease-ridden, yet so alluring. Like a buffet in Vegas. Or Timothee Chalamet.” and “Oh you would love Florida. When I was shaping the continents, I thought it’d be funny to make America look like it had a flaccid penis. Then I filled it base to tip with human garbage.”
Then there’s Zamata. She’s been in the animated space before in Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur and Tuca & Bertie. She went on to explain that she’s felt like “most of my characters have been subdued or calmer at least. And this character was such a fun departure for me because I get to play so much with my voice and the character.” She added that, “The concept of the show is just so wild which is the impetus for a lot of really great shows. And I loved the scripts and was really excited about being part of it.”
Like Godcat, Devilcat has some lines that would make even Deadpool proud. At one point, the lead characters need to go to Hell and Devilcat gives them two options and says, “Either I can enchant a porta-potty that’s been marinating in the sun for two days, or you can walk in through an Imagine Dragons concert.” As for Devilcat’s plans on Earth, she says, “Yes, I’m here on Earth to become evil, but I didn’t intend to incinerate children using magical fireballs. Well, maybe children who cry on airplanes, but no other children.”
Ultimately, Exploding Kittens is a show about taking characters we know, or we think we know, and putting a new spin on them. And in Ellis’s words, “It’s a really funny take on God and it’s a really funny take on cats.”
Watch the full interview with Tom Ellis and Sasheer Zamata below:
Exploding Kittens season 1 is now available on Netflix.
