Strange Planet

Strange Planet has the potential to be one of the most human animated series we’ve seen this year, despite the fact that none of the characters are actually human.

Bright, sweet and cheerful, if unusually concerned with mortality, it is, as satire, highly affectionate — keen to human frailty but understanding, hopeful, more engaged with our possibilities than our limitations.

While entirely suitable for kids, the gentle but sharp humor of “Strange Planet” addresses all kinds of issues that make us grownup humans feel like lost little children most of the time — or like the unformed beings that, if you want to be honest, we really are.

Most of this, though, hits the level of wry amusement and not much more, not unlike the experience of reading a comic strip, smiling, and saying, “I get it,” without actually laughing. But the softer humor is buoyed by a reliable level of sweetness.

It’s a sweet, well-observed, and funny show that will appeal to those interested in celebrating the strange, ineffable things that connect us.

The wry simplicity of "Strange Planet," in its single frames or quadrants, strains when asked to support a 20-odd-minute premise. But it also becomes a different animal, exploring, say, the invention of air travel and its effect on the mind of "beings," as the whole race is called.

Plain-spoken sentiments give purpose to the beings’ endearing — though inconsistent and occasionally overdone — vocabulary, and give the show a unique gravitas. More often than not, “Strange Planet” is cute and delightful. But when it settles in to its more ephemeral musings and universal thoughts, it’s more than just cute: It’s funny and it’s warm … like a cozy pair of fabric foot tubes right out of the tumble heater.