So once upon a time, Brian Hazen (ShallotHare) was on a Skype call with friends when he noticed everyone else's icons were ducks. Some of them looked like penguins in his mind, so he ended up drawing a sketch of a penguin and set that as his icon, only for him to get kicked from the call. Brian would eventually see a show idea in that sketch, and so this show came to be.
Painquin is a Flash-animated cartoon brought to you by the same guy who made Object Terror and The Tale of El Nudelo. Its Pilot, fittingly titled "Ice Cold Pilot
", came out in late 2017, and it had the same art style as the aforementioned series.
On July 1st, 2021 a second version of the pilot called "Icy N Illegal Immigrant" was released, which has a revised art style and a retooled plot from the original episode.
The show follows the daily (mis)adventures of a duo of Funny Animal artists; the titular Painquin, a red penguin from the artic, and Mike, a gray fox. After Painquin travels illegally to Florida in order to meet with Mike, both find themselves with the police on their tails, and have to learn to live with one another in order to avoid jail time and deportation.
View the full playlist here.
Painquin provides examples of:
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Pinquin is a pinkish-red penguin. Counts for most of the other penguins seen in "Icy N' Illegal Immigrant" as well, as they have colors that real life penguins don't tend to have.
- Broken Pedestal: Mike was a respected and beloved online artist celebrity, but after he rudely turns down a fan requesting him a simple smiley face and punching Painquin's lights out when he outshines him on his own convention, all of his fans turn on him and put his tantrums on the internet, ruining his reputation.
- Clear My Name: After the aforementioned incident in the convention (and being mistaken for Painquin's getaway driver by police), this has become Mike's side of the main storyline.
- Fully-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Most of the characters, including Mike, wear full clothing.
- Funny Animal: Everyone on the show.
- Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Painquin wears a yellow hoodie...and nothing else.
- The Illegal: Painquin becomes this in the second version of the pilot, thanks to him getting to Florida by sneaking into the cargo of a ship. Him getting caught and becoming a runaway becomes the main storyline for the series.
- Toothy Bird: Painquin has teeth despite being a penguin.
- Red Is Heroic: Painquin, the red penguin, is the main protagonist...
- Red Is Violent: That being said, he's more of an Anti-Hero that always chooses violence first.
- Ruder and Cruder: Icy N' Illegal Immigrant has the same plot as Ice Cold Pilot... With significantly heavier profanity (for contrast, the worst swear in the latter episode was "damn", whereas the former had a disclaimer about an Atomic F-Bomb). There's also bigger Black Comedy, such as when Painquin lays an egg and after using it as a weapon, he apologizes to his "unborn child".