Amazing Digital Circus is an indie animated series on Youtube. Its produced by Glitch productions. There are 8 episodes so far, with one more releasing later. The 8th and 9th episode are getting a special release in theaters. Its being done through Fathom Events, which runs “special movies” a lot. These are often reruns of older movies. Like, around here they run Ghibli movies every few months.

The whole event is kind of a big deal because Glitch is an indie Youtube based production house. That they got a theatrical release was big. Its been incredibly popular and getting a wider release, which is even bigger. Because they are not a big studio.

As for the show, its a deceptively complex series that feels vaguely like a kids show, but gets pretty deep on a lot of issues in a metaphorical sort of way, and sometimes more direct. The core plot, the main character, Poni, suddenly finds herself trapped in this virtual Digital Circus world. Its run by an AI entitiy that controls everything. There are several other people whom she meets who have already been trapped there for an unknown amount of time. No one remebers their real names and some details about their real lives. The mystery of how they are trapped there gets unraveled while they do little adventures.

Its on Youtube for free if you want to watch it.