Welcome To My Life Review

While Cartoon Network has already announced what new shows are coming for their 2017-2018 lineup, we still get 1 or so that didn't make the cut from the CN pilots line (or what the network calls "minis"). Welcome to My Life is one of them, and it's one of the most unusual CN pilots I've seen in recent memory.

As the title suggests, Welcome to My Life is the story of Douglas, nicknamed T-Kesh, as he tries to live a normal life as a high school student. Thing is, T-Kesh comes from a family of monsters, and in a world where monsters and humans try to co-exist with each other, being the only monster at his school brings a string of challenges.

What's unique about Welcome to My Life is that it's being presented in a style of a documentary, as T-Kesh gets interviewed about his life throughout the day. In a way it's similar to We Bare Bears, in which the bears try to fit into human society. Welcome to My Life is a bit more realistic, as it is a young kids drama. But still has a light-hearted tone, nonetheless.

The animation style of Welcome to My Life is similar to what we've seen in The Amazing World of Gumball, combining realistic backgrounds with animation. I like that the voices coming from the interviews are done in such a manner as though you are watching a raw camera feed, making it a near realistic interview. Another I find it interesting that creator Elizabeth Ito and her family provided the voices of the main characters. Elizabeth plays the unseen reporter interviewing T-Kesh, played by Elizabeth's family member Doug, while T-Kesh's parents are played by Elizabeth's real-life parents.
A number of people who worked on the current lineup of CN Originals have also contributed to this pilot, such as Ian-Jones Quartey and Steven Sugar from Steven Universe; Mike Roth from Regular Show; and Nick Cross from Over The Garden Wall.

Perhaps the most surprising is that, if you follow through the end of the credits, the pilot was actually produced in 2015, and it's only now that Cartoon Network has made the short available online. So it stands to question what other unaired pilots the company has in their archives.

Welcome To My Life is such an unusual cartoon in terms of its genre and tone from what we are used to from Cartoon Network. I really can't recall anything like it from the channel before. In any case, it's uniqueness is what I like about it. I can see why it's something that would not be made into a full series, but I wouldn't mind seeing this as a mini-series. You can check out Welcome To My Life on the official Cartoon Network channel on Youtube.