Web Animation / Murphy & Mitzi

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"I animate Murphy & Mitzi, a series of shorts about a cat and a squirrel wreaking pure unsupervised havoc around their hometown, the sprawling early 2000s metropolis of New Lennium City. It's my hope that they'll give you a laugh and call back to your nostalgic memories.'"

— Ajmarekart, on his YouTube channel description

Murphy & Mitzi is an animated comedy web series of comic strips and micro-shorts created in 2019 by Ajmarekart on Twitter, Instagram and BlueSky(also on YouTube and TikTok^note This just because they were uploading his animations without permission there, so he had to... He has stated he doesn't like there, for obvious reasons , but containing only the shorts).

The series features Murphy: a mischievous 12 y/o skater cat with very bad luck who believes himself to be a junior Tony Hawk and a professional hacker, but actually is a dorky kid who is too afraid to perform his "X-Treme Stunts" when girls are around and plays videogames whenever he's not breaking half his bones trying to actually do one of these, and essentially, a good boy that wants to be a bad boy and Mitzi, a sweet although, extremely impulsive squirrel who has good intentions and a kind heart but somehow got kicked out of the Cookie Scout camp after "her hijinx became too much". As both engage in chaotic and reckless activities all around New Lennium City, often causing collateral damage, hurting others and themselves in the process. Or simply provoking an unfortunate event for both.

Along others like [bunny], the mysterious, well, bunny... kid who-the-heck-knows her-name who likes hanging around the sewer who no one knows where she came from or even belongs to and Zoe, a rollerskater, laid-back 16 y/o dog who acts as a bigger sister figure to the duo, often having to keep up with their antics be it on a casual day or at whatever her current day job is.

The series is set in New Lennium City, a futuristic-ish, New York-like like city in the early 2000s, being this era the main attraction of the whole series and a tribute thereof. With the art style irradiating and closely mimicking that of a Y2K cartoon. Full with simple, geometric designs and your good ol' thick outlines.

Currently the series just composes of the mentioned earlier "micro-shorts" which are called that for being less than a minute long, ranging from 5 to 55 seconds of duration, the average duration being 10-25 seconds, posted in a gap ranging from 2 weeks or even 2 months depending on AJ's time for the series, as he works as a freelance animator. And the also ocassional comic strips which are put out more often than the shorts. Not counting the "Thank you" image for the patreons at the end of the month and miscellaneous images the creator does of the series.

Plans are taken in consideration by him to make it a full fledged series in the future.

Murphy and Mitzi contains examples of:

• Adults Are Useless: Meryl barely does anything to discipline her daughter Mitzi, such as allowing her to steal cereal in a store or letting her set things on fire.
• Affectionate Parody: Of Thick-Line Animation cartoons from the 2000's if they were allowed more edge than what was normally allowed.
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Delia towards Murphy at times, from pulling up on a helicopter to his window just to see her son wake up and remind him to brush his teeth to calling him out on live TV for not giving her a Mother's Day present.
• Anachronism Stew: Combined with a Series Continuity Error. "Stocking Up" takes place during the COVID-19 Pandemic, but the main characters are still kids, despite the comics showing that they would be adults by that point.
• Anachronistic Soundtrack: In "Sound Styles", "3 Small Words" and "Almost Dead" can be heard, despite having been released after 2000. While it isn't implausible for "3 Small Words" to be around when Murphy and Mitzi look like they are still twelve, since it was released in 2001, by the time "Almost Dead" was released, the two would be in their late teens.
• Animal Jingoism: A Downplayed example between Murphy and Zoe. They are more akin to Vitriolic Best Buds than outright enemies.
• Art Evolution: Character designs have received a heavy overhaul between the earliest 2019 shorts and the present. Especially noticeable with Murphy, whose fur gradually changed from light gray to dark brown and who gained a double Ear Notch and an overall sharper head profile with spiky protrusions instead of whiskers.
• Art Shift: This usually tends to happen with the monthly "Thank you" images for patreon with one of them from February of 2023 being in the style of Rocky & Bullwinkle and one from February of 2024 being in the style of Ed, Edd n' Eddy as the two examples.
• Backported Development: After most of the characters were redesigned, so were their past and future selves, as evident from the flashbacks and flashforwards.
• Beach Episode: A number of shorts and comics released in summer take place on the beach.
• Bedouin Rescue Service: At the end of "Turbo Bounce 2000", a disclaimer appears, stating that Murphy and Mitzi were rescued by aliens after winding up in outer space.
• Big Applesauce: New Lennium City is a pretty clear pastiche of New York City, complete with blatant counterparts of both Central Park and Times Square.
• Black Comedy: Despite how wholesome the series normally is, there's a plentiful of this, but some cases are more explicit than others.
  • Murphy's grandmother Maxine is always seen holding the urn containing her husband's ashes.
• A Bloody Mess:
  • In "What's Up Ketchup", Murphy walks in on a ketchup-covered Mitzi holding a broken bottle. He decides not to ask any questions.
  • In "Roadkill Overkill" Murphy and Mitzi use ketchup and many chalk outlines to make it look like a mass murder spree had occurred in one part of the city.
• Butt-Monkey: Nearly every short or strip has Murphy get hurt in some way. Mitzi too, sometimes.
• Bystander Syndrome: If Murphy faces a near death situation, expect Mitzi to do nothing about it.
• By the Lights of Their Eyes: in “Falling in Fall”
• Canon Discontinuity: Might be the case for "An Unfortunate Meat-ing", if this tweet is anything to go by.
• Carnivore Confusion:
  • In "Not So Thankful", [bunny], of all characters, is shown eating turkey.
  • Lampshaded in "An Unfortunate Meat-ing". Murphy and Mitzi visit a fast food restaraunt, but leave when they notice a bull and a hen looking angry at them. They then go to a vegan restaraunt instead, but find a sapient cabbage and a carrot glaring at them in the exact same manner...and then the former draws a gun.
• Comic Trio: Murphy (Schemer), Mitzi (Follower) and Zoe (Complainer).
• Continuity Cavalcade: The 5th anniversary short is mostly a clip show of every Murphy and Mitzi animation Ajmarekart has made up to that point, and features a lineup of pretty much every character in the series to date, even those who had yet to make a physical appearance outside their bios.
• Cool Big Sis: Zoe tends to act like one towards the titular duo.
• Crapsaccharine World: Don't let its futuristic cartoon aesthetic fool you; New Lennium City is a place where disaster is just around the corner and assault is common.
• Deadly Distant Finale: The series hasn't ended yet, but in the shorts and comics that show the characters' future, Murphy, Mitzi and Zoe are shown to have died in their eighties or older (and at least Murphy's death wasn't of old age).
• Dragged Off to Hell: Happens to the titular duo in "Grave Danger". Vivian did it.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • In the series' earlier comics and animations, the characters' designs were generally less developed, and Vivian was not yet introduced.
  • In "Dangerous Streets", Mitzi hits Murphy with a bat for no reason at all. In later shorts, which estabilish her as an overall Nice Girl, it would be hard to imagine her deliberately hurting any of her friends, as she looks worried whenever Murphy is hurt.
  • Zoe was originally a 14-year-old until she was aged up slightly in 2021 where she is currently a 16-year-old according to one of her bios from 2021.
  • Dialogue was present in some of the earliest shorts, which was usually spoken in the gibberish from Animal Crossing but also being fully voice acted on occasion.
• Flash Forward: A few shorts and strips show what the characters are up to in the mid-2000s, 2020s and 2070s.
• Extreme Omnivore: [bunny] has a habit of eating sand.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: In the third panel of "A Life Well-Lived", depicting the titular duo's adulthood, their wedding photo can be seen, though partially obscured.
• Furry Confusion: "ValentineDay.WMV" features edited photos of non-anthropomorphic cat and squirrel, right next to anthropomorphic versions of said animals.
• Furry Reminder: "Animal Nature" is built on this: Murphy (a cat) distracts Zoe (a dog), steals her fries and then runs up a tree to escape her. Zoe growls at Murphy, he hisses at her, and then Mitzi (a squirrel) pops out of the tree's leaves, her mouth filled with nuts. In fact, occasional furry reminders are implied to be the norm for New Lennium City's residents by the short's description.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Both played straight and averted. Mitzi occasionally exclaims "golly", but "god", "hell" and "damn" are given a pass when used and not censored, unlike F and S-bombs.
• Grave Humor:
  • In "A Life Well-Lived" strip, Murphy's coffin is marked with words "The future is now, old man".
  • "Annoying 'Till the End" short ends with a shot of Murphy, Mitzi and Zoe's tombstones, which read, respectively: "He died as he lived — sick as hell", "A Heart As Warm As Fire" and "Patient and Cool Until Her Last Sigh".
• Hypocrite: Although the bull and hen couple mentioned above glare at the heroes for eating at the restaraunt serving cow and chicken meat, there's no indication as to why they are attending the same restaraunt if they are opposed to eating their kin's meat.
• Interspecies Romance:
  • It's implied that, unlike his ex-wife, Buck is not a squirrel.
  • The bull and hen from "An Unfortunate Meat-ing", while not outright stated, are still implied to be on a date.
  • A few Flash Forwards show a glimpse at Murphy and Mitzi's married life.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
• Implied Love Interest: At times it's hinted that Mitzi sees Murphy as more than a friend: she actually likes [bunny]'s ship art and WMV of the two of them, "Hallow-Window" has her lick out a heart shape on his window, and the comic "A Life Well-Lived" drops the subtlety by showing her Happily Married to Murphy in the future .
• Laser-Guided Karma: More times than not, Vivian ends up getting her comeuppance for antagonizing Murphy and Mitzi.
• Married in the Future: The titular duo are shown to have gotten together by 2020 in a Flash Forward webcomic.
• Losing Your Head: Turns out losing her head and spine is not a huge concern for [bunny].
• Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: [bunny] looks adorable and means no harm, but her empty eyes, which she has a habit of staring into people's souls with, and status as The Voiceless drive most people away.
• No Cartoon Fish: Anthropomorphic fish are apparently not a thing in this series.
• No Full Name Given: Every character only has their first name known, even though Meryl implies that at the very least she (and by extension, Mitzi) has a last name, and Ajmarekart claimed it's possible that "Murphy" is the male lead's last name rather than first. The only character to have a full name listed is Doe Remi, real name Roxanne Roe.
• Non-Mammal Mammaries: The chicken from "An Unfortunate Meat-ing" appears to have them.
• Right-Wing Militia Fanatic: Mitzi's father Buck ran off to live in the woods shortly after she was born. He now carries a shotgun to protect himself from the government and modern technology.
• Ruder and Cruder: Implied to be one for 2000's cartoons that used to air on Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon. The violence censored swearing and black comedy are used to contrast with their much cleaner inspirations and to be funny reflections on the cartoons that 2000s kids grew up on with the sense of humor we have as adults.
• Running Gag:
  • Murphy and Mitzi committing involuntary manslaughter in the first half of the series. It happens mutliple times and it only gets bleaker as the gag continues.
  • Murphy constantly dies or gets injured.
• Sadist Show: And how! This series is about an egocentric cat whose friend is a Lethally Stupid Idiot Houdini, they both cause chaos everywhere they go, and almost every citizen is either an idiot, jerk or both.
• Santa's Naughty and Nice List: in “Merrphy Christmitz”
• Ship Tease: So much between Murphy and Mitzi that it probably warrants a separate page:
  • Mitzi occasionally appears to show romantic interest towards Murphy, such as licking out a heart shape on his window or throwing flirtatious looks at him in shorts like "Explodreaming" and "Post-Valentine's Danger".
  • In "DDR", Murphy and Mitzi assume Sonic and Amy's poses respectively in a few frames. The two characters have similar tensions despite not being a canon couple. In another frame, the two are in a partner dance pose, and Murphy is actually seen smiling, as opposed to his usual attitude.
  • And that's not going into how "A Life Well-Lived" confirms that they will become an Official Couple - and spouses - in the future.
• Shipper on Deck: [bunny] ships the titular duo pretty aggressively, much to Murphy's embarrassment, while Mitzi doesn't seem to mind.
• Shoulder Teammate: Mitzi's preferred way of travelling is on Murphy's shoulders while he's skateboarding.
• Shouldn't We Be in School Right Now?: The instances when the school-aged characters are actually shown attending school can be counted on one hand.
• Shout-Out:
  • In one short, Murphy is seen in the Peter Griffin death pose after he's injured.
  • In "Candy Cigarettes", Murphy is dressed up as Shadow the Hedgehog while Mitzi is dressed up as Sandy Cheeks dressed up as a fish in a bowl.
  • In "Claws and Effects", a plush of Sonic can be seen in the video.
  • In "Jelly of the Sea", Mitzi gets the idea of making jelly, after remembering SpongeBob did it once.
  • Murphy recording himself doing stunts and implying he's done this to look cool/did multiple of them and getting injured doing them is one to Mac's Project Badass.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Murphy has at least two:
  • He doesn't exactly get along well with Meryl, Mitzi's mother. The fact that he keeps trying to get free treats from her, got her clothes wet once and even insulted her own mother probably didn't help.
  • Similarly, any time he and Vivian share the same space, they'll both waste no time making it clear how much they hate each other.
• Skewed Priorities:
• Sleep Cute: The titular duo, with Zoe sandwitched in-between them (and also asleep), in "Sleepy Subway". [bunny] chose to kill the moment, even if with good intentions.
• Speaking Simlish: Whenever the characters talk in some shorts outside of the comics, they speak using voices courtesy of Animal Crossing. Averted when it comes to some of the comic dubs.
• Take That!:
  • One Patreon strip involves an older Murphy wasting all of his graduation money on an Xbox 360 and a copy of Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), then venting out his frustration on YouTube.
  Ajmarekart: Murphy's got a lot to say about terrible voice acting in video games about cartoon hedgehogs.
  • "Candy Cigarettes" calls out those who still sell or give out to kids the titular confectioneries in spite of their controversial nature.
• Tempting Fate: Murphy and Mitzi celebrating the New Year 2020:
  Mitzi: Golly, I sure hope this year is painless!
  Murphy: What could happen that we haven't seen already?
• Totally Radical: Delia once went to the skating park with her son to shred to the max, while wearing the mondo wicked safety pads, of course. Eventually Murphy begged her to stop.
• Turn of the Millennium: The series takes place in the 2000s and invokes the common aesthetics of the era.
• Uncertain Doom: A few shorts end with a character or several (usually Murphy) about to meet their end (i.e. get run over by a car, eaten by a shark or fall out of a window), but cut off before it happens.
• Unexplained Recovery:
  • The titular duo is subjected to "eternal damnation" in "Grave Danger", but seem to be free of it by the next short, with no explanation given. This wouldn't have been so bad had the series had Negative Continuity rather than the somewhat loose one it has.
  • Colin, who was killed in his first appearance, reappears in the 5th anniversary short (though to be fair, said short's canonicity is up to debate).
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Murphy and Zoe tend to be at odds over the former's behavior, but are close friends nonetheless.
• Wax Museum Morgue: An example involving chocolate instead of wax is Implied in an Easter-themed strip. Meryl makes a chocolate model of [bunny], and when Murphy asks if [bunny] herself is inside, Meryl denies it at first, but then recalls being under influence while making the model, and that she hasn't seen the girl since it's been finished.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Colin gets killed after only 6 seconds of screentime. The description of the short depicting his funeral lampshades this by calling him an "extremely important" character.
• Where the Hell Is Springfield?: It's never clarified where exactly New Lennium City is, but there are implications that it's meant to be the in-universe equivalent of New York City.
• With Friends Like These...:
• World of Funny Animals: All characters seen so far are anthropomorphic animals, with no humans to be seen (apparently, they are considered cryptids in this universe, though they still appear in works of fiction, like the Sonic the Hedgehog series). "Cucumber Catastrophe" Lampshades this by showing a section titled "Are humans real?" on a website Mitzi is reading.
• Would Hurt a Child: In "X-Treme Acro-cat-ics", when Murphy accidentally breaks into Chanel's home, she literally throws him out of the window without remorse.