Invincible's animation has drawn complaints since the series debuted on Amazon Prime Video in 2021—here's why.
As Invincible moves toward the back half of its third season, the story twists and turns thanks to Mark Grayson's new dark suit and an aged-up version of his half-brother. However, along with complaints about how long new seasons take to debut, some lamented how the show looks.
Invincible faithfully adapts the original comic book's designs through a more anime-inspired art style. While the designs have drawn praise, the way the characters are animated has been one of the show's downfalls for many fans.
Fan Complaints About Invincible's 'Bad' Animation
As Invincible Season 3 continues its run on Amazon Prime Video, complaints have arisen about how the show's animation looks on screen.
Many of these criticisms are directed towards the animation looking rather stiff overall, with attention only really given to the action sequences.
Despite extra care going towards these moments, some fans still feel as though they are not as dynamic as they could be, especially when compared to some of the crazier visuals from the original comic run.
Ahead are a few examples of critiques from fans on X.
@HenryHarper523 pointed out "the colour design, style, shading, and environmental lighting" as the problems with Invincible besides the animation:
"I think I know what the problem is with 'Invincible,' it’s not just the animation, it’s more so to do with the colour design, style, shading and environmental lighting."
@MatthewBitts asked bluntly if the animation budget was cut or if the studio felt the show was so successful that they would not "need to make it look good" for fans to watch:
Did they… cut the animation budget??? Like, instead of 'oh, a success, let’s invest' they went 'oh, they’ll watch anyways, we don’t need to make it look good'
According to user @DynamoSuperX, the differences between Seasons 1 and 3 were not noticeable until "everyone started doing side-by-side comparisons:"
"I never noticed the difference between S1 and S3 animation of 'invincible' until everyone started doing side-by-side comparisons. I guess I was too busy enjoying the show."
Why Does Invincible's Animation Get So Many Complaints?
While there is no confirmed reason why Invincible's animation looks how it does, some believe the show's budget from Amazon Prime Video is the major culprit. While exact numbers are not confirmed, a report from Deadline in October 2023 indicated that the show had a budget four times smaller than The Boys.
Ultimately, it's likely that the production is not able to afford for animators or studios to refine and detail the material on the screen beyond a certain level. This is why some scenes may look more static or unpolished, as the animators are unfortunately forced to cut corners in certain areas in order to fit the scenes within the allocated budget for the show.
Only two branded animation studios (Skybound Animation and Wind Sun Sky Entertainment) are working on Invincible. Both noticeably lack experience with big-budget animation; in fact, Invincible is the only project in Skybound's history in terms of animation.
Timing is also believed to be a factor in the perceived lack of quality, with many feeling the animation started to fall off in Season 2.
Season 1 had almost three full years between being greenlit (June 2018) and being released (March 25, 2021). Conversely, Seasons 2 and 3 had only two years between them, which does not include the special for Atom Eve (one of over a dozen heroes in Invincible) released in November 2023.
However, according to show creator Robert Kirkman (per Bubble Blabber), the way the COVID-19 pandemic affected Season 1 then carried over to the rest of the series.
In the middle of production, the show's teams of animators in Vancouver, Los Angeles and South Korea "had to switch to remote working almost immediately" once lockdowns were put in place. While this cost the team time, everybody seemed to adapt and adjust quickly to finish the series:
"The actual production of the show was, you know, hit pretty hard. I think, you know, our team in Vancouver, our team in Los Angeles and our team in South Korea were all working in office environments and had to switch to remote working almost immediately. And so there was a huge process of getting animators and designers and production people, you know, set up with the correct tools. We certainly lost a little bit of time, you know, adjusting to that. But once those adjustments were made, you know, I don’t know that I would say it was a smooth process, but, you know, everyone adapted very quickly and rolled up their sleeves and, you know, really brought this show together and got it across the finish line and a pretty spectacular way. So it was a remarkable undertaking. And I wouldn’t say it was easy by any stretch of the imagination. But, you know, everybody came together and fought against the end of the world to make an awesome cartoon."
Speaking further with The Ringer, Kirkman detailed how extensive some of the show's action sequences are and shared how "board artists and character design people, prop design people and vehicle design" and more all make the show happen:
"As far as limitations go, I mean, there’s a difference between having Ryan Ottley draw the most spectacular battle sequence ever over the course of two pages. It’s one big image, and you get to scan your eyes across that still image in the comic and go, 'Oh my gosh, this is the most epic battle I’ve ever seen,' but nothing’s really moving. And then when that comes to adapting in animation, it’s a massive scene with so many moving parts. And you’ve got board artists and character design people, prop design people and vehicle design, environment design, to the people overseas that are actually drawing everything—it becomes a massive undertaking."
He also compared animation to drawing comics while sharing the "big appetite" and "unrealistic expectations" they had for the series when it first got underway:
"So it has taken a little bit of time to wrap our heads around those limitations because coming from the live-action world, I’m like, 'Animation is like comics. There’s no budget. We can do whatever we want.' It’s not exactly true, which is possibly the reason for some of our delays, because we had a big appetite and unrealistic expectations, and those kinds of things take time. But we’re getting a better handle on that, and we’re not breaking our team’s back with unproducible scripts at times."
Finally, during a chat with Screen Rant, Kirkman reflected on the work he and his team put in on Season 1 compared to Season 2.
Personally, he "learned how to write [his] scripts a little differently" so that animation would be easier to render. He also worked out better ways to improve things with notes after not knowing "how animation was made in the first season:"
"I think the directors are doing great work on their individual episodes. I think the overall season packs a lot of cool punch. Animation just takes time, but we're not necessarily working harder on Season 2 than we ever did on Season 1. We definitely did learn a lot about the process of animation over the course of Season 1, though, that is making Season 2 better. I learned how to write my scripts a little differently to be a little bit more animation friendly, I learned how to give notes more surgically, so that I'm actually improving things as opposed to possibly asking for things that aren't necessarily going to show up in the animation because I didn't really know how animation was made in the first season. I think the process is streamlined and improved. Overall, I think everyone's going to agree that Season 2 is definitely an improvement over Season 1 when it finally comes out."
New episodes of Invincible Season 3 are released weekly on Thursdays at 12 a.m. PT/3 a.m. ET on Amazon Prime Video.
