Web Animation / Ramshackle

2 Following

thesis film

pilot

webcomic

The short follows a trio of orphans - Skipp, Vinnie, and Stone - as they struggle for survival on the streets of Ramshackle, a town of the richest of the rich and the poorest of the poor. When the trio find a baby in the trash, they resolve to raise him, not knowing their companion has a few secrets…

Ramshackle contains examples of the following:

• Abusive Parents: The well-to-do parents force their children to put heavy stock in how they are perceived and the parents of the beauty contest contestants even threaten to disown their INFANT children if they lose.
• Adaptational Badass: In the original thesis video and the webcomic, Vinnie, Skipp, and Stone spend most of their time running away from those they've conned to avoid a beating. In the pilot episode, the Scraps prove that they didn't just get their nickname from being Street Urchins. The finale of the pilot features the kids bashing and blasting their way through dozens of people out for their blood after the rich's classist attitudes turn them into zombies frothing at the mouth.
• Angelic Abomination: Maggot’s true angelic form resembles a typical Biblically Accurate Angel.
• Art Evolution: There is a noticeable refinement of the artwork in the pilot compared to the thesis film four years earlier.
• The Artful Dodger: Downplayed. Skipp, Vinnie, and Stone support themselves by pickpocketing and conning the wealthy. But they aren't the best at it and sometimes resort to eating shoes and whatever edible scraps they can find in the trash.
• Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: After Maggot reveals himself to be an angel, he returns to Heaven.
• Badass Adorable: Vinnie, Skipp, and Stone are a trio of cute little rascals who are actually quite capable in a fight. Vinnie especially gets a chance to show off her fighting skills with a toy sword that turns out to be a knife in disguise.
• Beauty Contest: The trio attempt to earn some coin by entering Maggot into a child’s beauty contest against the children of the town’s elite.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Skipp is by far the sweetest of the main trio, sometimes to his detriment. But he's not a pushover and is just as much of a "Scrap" as his closest friends. When surrounded by a group of rabidly furious rich people, he offers to play them some music. He responds to their hissing by beating the entire group unconscious with his violin.
• Big Brother Instinct: Vinnie, Skipp, and Stone quickly take to caring for Maggot (albeit after Vinnie is briefly tempted to eat him because of how hungry she is) despite their dire circumstances. They shower him with affection and have him participate in their schemes. When the rich inevitably turn on them, all three kids prioritize Maggot's safety.
• Black-and-Grey Morality: As a trio of pickpockets and con men scraping together a living on the streets of Ramshackle, Vinnie, Skipp, and Stone aren't exactly paragons of morality. They don't even flinch when Maggot devours an obnoxious rich person alive or when they murder many of the rich people out to get them in self-defense. But their strong bonds of friendship and the care they show Maggot make them far more sympathetic than the rest of the Upper-Class Twit-laden population of the city. In the ending of the pilot, Maggot declares the trio flawed and hopes to God they never reproduce, but he is touched by the kindness they showed him. So he gifts them a Karmic Jackpot in a can of beans and three cents and smites the rich people out to kill them as thanks.
• Blank White Eyes: The rich get them when they become zombie-like and attack the trio.
• Crapsack World: Ramshackle is depicted as such, where those who aren't wealthy are forced to live in squalor and are persecuted for being "scraps".
• Doorstop Baby: The plot of the pilot centers around a trio of orphan children raising the baby they found in the trash.
• Divine Punishment: Maggot yells "DIVINE JUDGEMENT!" as he eradicates everyone at the pageant for failing his test.
• Eat the Rich: When sending Skipp and Maggot out to distract their marks, Vinnie encourages them to "eat the rich!" Maggot literally eating one of them is the first indication that he's not just a mere baby.
• Even Evil Has Standards: The rich are all portrayed as greedy, stupid, vain, and obnoxious to the core. But when Stone is (apparently) dying from being hit by a carriage, it doesn't take much for Vinnie to stir a crowd into shaming the owner of the carriage into paying for Stone's medical expenses. The con only falls to pieces when an even more crooked rich person shows up and stomps on Stone and Skipp shows up in a Paper-Thin Disguise as "the doctor" meant to treat Stone.
• Every Car Is a Pinto: Parodied in the thesis short. The trio are being chased by two thugs in a car. Stone throws a Molotov cocktail at them and misses. The car explodes anyway, lampshaded by a Written Sound Effect that reads "BOOM! (for no reason.)"
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: The three Scraps, and their new recruit Maggot, can be sorted among the temperaments:
  • Skipp is Sanguine, the most outwardly cheerful, friendly, and optimistic member.
  • Vinnie is Choleric, the hot tempered defacto leader.
  • Stone is Melancholic, the quiet, moody, and cynical member of the Scraps.
  • Maggot is Phlegmatic, silent but willing to go along with the Scraps' antics, and a kindhearted angel who rewards the Scraps for their kindness to him.
• Freudian Trio: The main Scraps make up such a trio.
  • The scrappy and fun-loving Vinnie is Id.
  • The sweet-natured Skipp is Ego.
  • The aloof and snarky Stone is Superego.
• Gender-Blender Name: Vinnie is more of a name you're expect from an Italian mobster than a girl.
• Honor Among Thieves: The Scraps are a trio of True Companions who show a lot more human decency than the upper elite. When they find Maggot in the trash, they decide to take him in despite their circumstances instead of handing him over to the orphanage.
• Karmic Jackpot: For passing Maggot's Secret Test of Character, Skipp, Vinnie and Stone are awarded with three cents and a can of beans. It doesn’t sound like much, but it’s enough for the trio.
• Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: The Scraps attend the pagent in nice outfits, which means when everything inevitably goes wrong, they wind up doing a lot of fighting in those nice clothes.
• Molotov Cocktail: Stone's weapon of choice.
• Medium Blending: Maggot's angel form is in CGI unlike the rest of the pilot being in 2D.
• Odd Name Out: Skipp and Stone have names that go together, and Vinnie sticks out between them.
• Orphanage of Fear: They never actually show the orphanage in the pilot, but based off Vinnie’s comment that “the orphanage is no place for children”, it isn’t good.
• Our Angels Are Different: Maggot's true form resembles an CGI Ophanim with Maggot's head, mouth stretched out massively, within it, covered in eyes, including a main eye in the mouth, also possessing six wings like a Seraphim.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Maggot gives one to the upper class citizens of Ramshackle after revealing his true nature.
  Maggot: My eyes opened to Ramshackle's true nature, that which I deem unworthy. You are a town sunken to the depths of depravity, lavishing in its gluttony and wearing its greed with pride.
• Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: Vinnie, Skipp, and Stone enter Maggot into a baby pageant in hopes of getting $10 to buy food. But they learn that the winner would be subject to constant paparazzi, contract signings, and exploitation with no chance of living a comfortable life. They then forfeit the prize in order to protect Maggot.
• Secret Test of Character: Maggot’s true identity is that of an angel who disguised himself as a baby to test the moral character of Ramshackle. While flawed, the trio passed his test due to their kindness, while the classist wealthy do not and are vaporized.
• Slave to PR: The rich are portrayed as universally vain and obsessed with appearances. One woman brags about how she replaced all of her daughter's playtime sessions with beauty pageant rehearsals and fusses over the miserable girl's appearance. Another threatens to disown her two-year-old child for having a crooked bowtie in her hair despite the child being clearly too young to have put it on herself.
• Shout-Out:
  • In the thesis short, while running through the town, the kids compare their situation to the “One Jump” number of Aladdin.
  • As Maggot returns to the heavens, he tells his friends to “live long and prosper.”
• Stage Mom: Baylee's mom expects her clearly miserable daughter to win the contest and takes measures like replacing her playtime with extra pageant rehearsals.
• Tall, Dark, and Snarky: Stone is the tallest of the kids with dark hair, mostly pale skin, and a snarky attitude.
• Two Guys and a Girl: Vinnie is the only girl in the trio.
• True Companions: The trio may snark and bicker amongst each other but at the end of the day, they stick together through thick and thin.
  Vinnie: Losers like us, we're all we've got on this bitch of an earth, so we gotta stick together.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: The Scraps don't really question the sight of Maggot devouring a woman alive in front of them.
• Wretched Hive: The titular town is inhabited by homeless people who are mocked by the rich and wealthy for being poor and have to live on the streets to survive.