Smiling Friends has now reached its end with the end of season 3. The show had a very unceremonious ending that shocked both the fans and the people working on it after the creators, Zach Hadel (Psychic Pebbles) and Michael Kuzack, abruptly ended the show. One of the directors, David Hootselle (Shigloo), explained in a recent video that the decision to end the show wasn’t something that anyone involved with production knew in advance. Although its somewhat unclear what Hadel and Kuzack will do next many of the other creatives who worked on the show are working on other old and new projects.
After Smiling Friends, what’s next?
The previously mentioned Shigloo has since the show ended announced a pilot and even released a trailer for his new project, Shortage Electric. Shigloo started his career by making shorts featuring audio from the Game Grumps and OneyPlays. Both are lets play channels featuring, initially, NewGrounds personalities like Egoraptor (Arin Hanson), and OneyNG (Chris O’Neill). It’s worth noting that Kuzack often collaborated with the OneyPlay’s crew. He also made some videos that went viral like Goofy’s Trial.
The new pilot follows the shortage electric company who works to fix people’s electrical issues. The company has a secret however, they are employing robots which is not socially acceptable and must be hidden from the public.
Norm short
Another new project that has been released is by Aron Fromm, one of the directors of the show and longtime online animator. He is probably most known within the fandom as the guy who directed and produced the smiling symphonies bumper where the smiling friends cast is redrawn in a classic Looney Tunes-style. Shortly after smiling friends end Fromm released his new short film Norm. which is an animated monologue said by the comedy legend Norm MacDonald before he passed. The short is stunningly animated in a fashion that reminds me of the best Disney ever produced. It’s so incredibly smooth, its just a joy to watch.
ZAM
Zack, Aron, and Michael formed the animation company ZAM which according to their website aims to bring back animation to its former glory before it became the corporate and sterilized ordeal it is today. The studio has as of yet mostly worked on shorts and music videos. they have worked with some bigger names like Fallout boy, Megan Thee Stallion, and Adult Swim doing bumpers for Rick and Morty and Smiling Friends.
Outside of that Zach has also appeared in the new Cas van de Pool animated pilot, Gnome Show.
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