Disney magic, the fun and wonder associated with this phrase, is the basis of many people’s core childhood memories. But times have started to change. Amidst the endless controversy surrounding modern-day Disney, a new indie animation studio has risen to fame.
Gilch Productions is home to many indie animation series, including Murder Drones and Sunset Paradise, which came out back in the 2000’s. In September of 2025, their first-ever 2D-animated series, The Knights of Guinevere, was released on YouTube.
Disney veteran Dana Terrance, creator of The Owl House, has joined the ranks of Gilch Productions to create this sci-fi horror series. It is full of callbacks and Easter eggs to past and present Disney properties, and it serves as a commentary on the company’s negative reputation over the years. The pilot episode has been massively successful, gaining millions of views in a matter of days. While big corporations like Disney have started to root and fail, indie projects are starting to fly.
Like many others, I love the classic style of animation, and in recent years, there has been a noticeable lack of good-quality animated series. The Knights of Guinevere is a phenomenal example of what we should be seeing from now onward. The 2D art style of this series allows you to immerse yourself in its fictional world. The colors are vivid, the backgrounds are detailed and full of codes and messages, and the character designs are simple yet detailed enough to showcase each character’s unique personality.
The plot follows the lives of a pair of friends, Andi (Andrea), a park planet tower engineer, and Frankie (Franklyn/Franchesca), a factory laborer. In the world of the series, Park Planet is an amusement park that is eerily similar to a certain animation studio that has taken over our own society and can be found in almost every factor of our lives.
Andi and Frankie’s planet has been irreparably damaged, with most of its citizens being victims of the park in some way. Eventually, Frankie ends up making a discovery that might forever change the future for herself and her best friend.
The Knights of Guinevere has given people the freedom and the space to critique modern corporations and the harm they cause to our everyday lives and to the environment. The action in the series is fun, and in the short amount of content we have as of now, fans have developed so many interesting possible plot points and theories.
Park Planet represents for the viewer all that is wrong with Disney today: its main goal seems to be making as much money as possible and negatively affecting the lives of many people. We see how the endless pollution, and the chemicals used to run a theme park, have destroyed the health and living conditions of those forced to live and work in its shadow.
The current animation space is more complicated and hostile than ever, but indie studios, such as Gilch, are bringing back the original stories that people have been asking for. These creatives are passionate about their shows, and viewers can feel this passion through their laptops. As Disney sees flop after flop, after pumping out passionless cashgrabs, Gilch and other indie competitors are bringing the joy back onto our screens.
I highly encourage supporting these smaller studios in their fight to take back the power that modern corporations have stolen from the creators who truly care about this world and their audiences. Head over to YouTube today, and give The Knights of Guinevere a try.
