Mere months after the epic series finale, Netflix has released Stranger Things: Tales From ’85, an animated show that winds the clock back to January 1985, shortly after the events of the second season. Developed by showrunner Eric Robles (Glitch Techs) with Jennifer Muro (Star Trek: Prodigy), and animated by Flying Bark Productions (What If…?, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur), it is an unsurprisingly gorgeous show that recaptures a lot of what made the original show great. And there’s the rub: who exactly is this animated, PG take on Stranger Things 2.5 for?
But first, a little more context: Tales From ’85 sees Eleven, Mike, Will, Dustin, Lucas, and Max on the trail of Upside Down spore-infected plants. Joined by burly new girl Nikki Baxter (Odessa A’zion), the party tries to contain the new threat, while keeping Hopper and the government in the dark, in case the latter winds up taking El away. It’s a premise that tightens the focus to the youngest characters (Hopper, Steve, Nancy and Jonathan only make guest appearances, while Joyce is a complete no-show), but otherwise, it’s very much a season of Stranger Things when it comes to pacing, plotting, and structure.
It is a show so beholden to the source material that it can’t help but be as good, complete with the excellent soundtrack choices, and Brad Breeck‘s score bringing all the same feels Michael Stein and Kyle Dixon‘s did. The cast are largely great stand-ins for the originals, especially Braxton Quinney, whose take on Dustin is so accurate that it will make you doublecheck he’s not actually Gaten Matarazzo. And make no mistake, the show really earns its PG rating, with the franchise’s signature violence and intensity mostly intact, something it likely gets away with thanks to the monsters being technically plants, and the significantly lower body count.
Max/Lucas fans are bound to feel well-fed, more of Dustin and Steve is always welcome, and those who loved Will and Robin’s dynamic in the final season should feel similarly about his rapport with Nikki. The time frame also provides us a startling reminder of just how adorable El was, and it never gets old seeing her surprise us by saving the day. Which raises the question: why limit yourself in such a way? Why be so beholden to the continuity of a show that the target audience will probably not have seen? Why not go wilder, make it look less like the source material, lean more into the toyetic influences, and muck around with continuity (eg. have Dart still be alive) more?
Unless we get a revival that weaves it in someday, it’s safe to say Tales From ’85 is not canon, and it’s a shame the show feels so apologetic about that, setting up Nikki’s departure from Hawkins as soon as it establishes her character. The Duffer brothers have spoken a lot about how much they loved The Real Ghostbusters while promoting this show, but it’s nothing like that: this exercise is much more comparable to Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous/Chaos Theory, shows that benefited from a) larger stretches of time and b) many more characters whose fates haven’t been decided by canon.
If this is renewed for a Tales From ’86 etc., the creators will have to keep contriving reasons for Nikki coming back and leaving if they want to build on what they’ve established. (That’s assuming A’zion’s rising profile means she isn’t written out permanently, but then you’d have to introduce more characters who are also constantly moving homes.) And again, how are kids who’ve never watched the original series supposed to get invested with the major status quo shifts that would unfold between each season? Newcomers are already bound to be confused, because this show literally does not start with a recap of what happened on the first two seasons of Stranger Things.
Sure, some might enjoy flying by the seat of their pants, but it’s already a lot to take on, with so many references to the first two seasons despite there never being a true outline of what’s come before. It is such an odd duck of a show, designed to encourage kids to watch a far more graphic series many parents won’t allow them to, and sure, Stranger Things is partly inspired by how many movies kids should not have been watched at their age, but this is ultimately for older viewers, who want more from those early years, and as fun as it is, the tension does run out of steam, because you’ve seen how these characters’ destinies actually pan out in future.
For what it’s worth, there is a series of junior novelizations of the original show that Tales From ’85‘s intended audience can read, or have read to, but that’s a still a high entry barrier for something Netflix wants to be its Clone Wars and Rebels. It feels like the same mentality that leads to Aliens Fisher Price toys or Little Golden Books, because everything has to be a novelty for adult fans and collectors, instead of being actually appropriate for kids. If it had to be in-continuity, then perhaps it would’ve made more sense to follow completely different characters ala many of Dark Horse’s Stranger Things comics.
Ironically, there were reports about an anime show called Stranger Things: Tokyo in the works a few years ago, and despite the setting, that might’ve been a better premise for Flying Bark’s younger-skewing project, while Tales From ’85 could’ve brought Stranger Things (which is indebted to Japanese works like Elfen Lied, Resident Evil, and Silent Hill) full circle as an anime. This resulting show is solid, but it’s not great either, and it’s a shame it’ll remain on Netflix when superior exclusive cartoons like She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (whose source material is referenced in this a lot) have been removed from the service for licensing reasons. Anyway, see you for season two!
