The Legend of Vox Machina

The+Legend+of+Vox+Machina

Cole Stork

The Legend of Vox Machina is an animated adult series on Amazon Prime Video. The series is produced by Critical Role Productions, Titmouse Inc. and Amazon Studios. The Legend of Vox Machina is an animated retelling of the web series Critical Role. Critical Role is a live-play Dungeons and Dragons(D&D) game. If you are unaware of what D&D is, it is a tabletop role-playing game where you play with a group of others throughout an adventure designed by the Game Master. Critical Role began in 2015 as a continuation of a home game for a group of famous voice actors who happened to be friends. After four years and two campaigns of creating this live play game, Critical Role decided they wish to create the animated series recreating the first campaign they had played lived. The name of the party the cast played as in the first campaign was Vox Machina which means voice machine in Latin referencing their primary careers as voice actors this is where the name of the show comes from. When deciding they wanted to create this show they launched a Kickstarter to raise funds for a 22-minute animation called Critical Role: The Legend of Vox Machina Animated Special. The story was to be set just before the streaming portion of the campaign started in a completely new story. The cast projected a cost of 750,000 dollars for a single 22-minute animated short, fulfilling the other campaign rewards, and the fees associated with a crowdfunding campaign. Not knowing how long this would take to raise, the campaign length was set at 45 days. Within an hour of launch, the Kickstarter had reached more than 1 million dollars. At the end of the first full day, all of the announced stretch goals had been unlocked, and the total had reached 4.3 million dollars. With four 22-minute episodes funded in the first 24 hours, additional stretch goals were added, expanding the project into an animated series. The first two episodes would cover the pre-stream story arc. The subsequent episodes would adapt the fan-favorite arc, from the Vox Machina campaign. By March 18, 2019, eight 22-minute episodes had been funded. Finally, on April 4, 2019, the last published stretch goal of $8.8 million, pushing the total length of the animated series to ten episodes. A secret 10 million dollar goal was unlocked. This goal was of Travis Willingham being forced to go through a haunted house. The final total raised by the Kickstarter when it closed on April 19, 2019, was $11,385,449 with 88,887 backers. When the campaign closed, it was one of the most quickly funded in Kickstarter history and was the most-funded Kickstarter for TV and film projects. The episodes are being released in three-episode drops. The first three were released on January 28th, 2022 and so far the first six have been released. The first six were given to critics before the initial release and they received 100% percent of Rotten Tomatoes with not one critic having a negative experience. The next three-episodes release this Friday and everyone should tune in and see the masterpiece that is The Legend of Vox Machina.