StudioMDHR reached a broad audience when it released Cuphead back in 2017, but the community has further grown with the Netflix adaptation released this year. One Cuphead fan has decided to commemorate some of their favorite Nickelodeon cartoon characters by imagining them in the same art style as Cuphead to an impressive degree.Twitter user CartoonFan18 recently posted four pieces of fan art that put the Cuphead style on classic NickToon shows The Mighty B, My Life as a Teenage Robot, SpongeBob SquarePants, and The Fairly Oddparents. When Cuphead was released, it impressed fans with the "rubber hose" art style used in the game as the 1930s-era aesthetic hadn't yet been used in many games. To fit this classic look, the typically very colorful cartoon shows have been interpreted with dark and dim colors mixed with sludgy green.CartoonFan18's fan art shows each featured NickToon in the Cuphead style effectively, with My Life as a Teenage Robot star Jenny, The Fairly Oddparents protagonist Timmy Turner, and The Mighty B hero Bessie walking around their respective neighborhoods. SpongeBob SquarePants' frame is the only interior as it focuses on his kitchen space at the Krusty Krab, but it still effectively shows rubber hose elements through a smiling oven and take-out window. The background of the My Life as a Teenage Robot fan art shows the trees smiling along with Jenny just like the sunshine in The Mighty B's panel, while Timmy's Fairy Godparents are imagined as happy Disney-style mice in the final piece.
Rubber hose animation has been used for old cartoons like Felix the Cat and several Disney classics popularized in its early years including the original Mickey Mouse. Shows that are more modern and incorporate some level of rubber hose animation include Adventure Time, Ren and Stimpy, and Courage the Cowardly Dog, while two of the NickToons crossed over with Cuphead had rubber hose inspirations. My Life as a Teenage Robot creator Rob Renzetti noted rubber hose as an art style that influenced him, while SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Truth or Square" introduced a 1930s version of the titular Nickelodeon character.
Since CartoonFan18 posted their Cuphead-inspired NickToons art, over 12,000 people have seen it and have celebrated their interpretation of the early 2000s cartoons. Some Cuphead fans took the opportunity to remind others that rubber hose animation was a staple before the game was ever brought to Netflix, and others rejoiced in their favorite NickToon being showcased in a different way. Another artist also juxtaposed CartoonFan18's Mighty B fan art with a Netflix Cuphead screenshot for comparison and the similarities drastically outweigh the differences.
Cuphead is available now for Mac, PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.