Posted: 9/11/25 at 11:20am
https://youtu.be/dyQg302D1tE?si=OD6g8AIxEivjT4tu
Somehow this completely escaped me until this week. A 30-minute cartoon based on The Emperor's New Clothes that aired on HBO in 2018, featuring Jeff Daniels, Tim Heidecker, Alan Alda, and Allison Pill, with songs by the late great William Finn.
The animation is trash, the voice acting is iffy, and it looks like it was thrown together quickly and sloppily, but the songs are surprisingly catchy and well-written (if unevenly sung). It's kind of cool that Finn was able to lean into his style as much as he did for a kid's project.
As far as I can tell, this is the last musical project that William Finn worked on in his lifetime. It may not be perfect, but it's nice to hear a few more tunes from one of my favorite composers.
