MAKE Unveils Sunny Side Down: A Sci-Fi Parody Micro-Series Set on the Edge of Oblivion

MAKE has announced Sunny Side Down, the latest addition to its MAKE Originals slate. The 2D animated micro-short series combines Spaceballs-esque parody with Cheers-style banter, infused with a heavy dose of 1990s nostalgia.

The series follows Nat, a stranded human waitress with arrogant, mad-scientist tendencies, who spends her shift breaks building an escape device to break free from both the cosmic abyss outside and her dead-end service job inside. Her coworker, Yabba, is a four-armed, ancient line cook who chain-smokes her way through breakfast service and only drops cryptics like she’s allergic to straight answers. Their regulars include a rotating lineup of aliens who refuse to cross the event horizon simply because change is scarier than certain oblivion.

“We wanted to capture that universal feeling of being completely stuck in life and trying to cope with how absurd our lives are, only blown up to a cosmic scale,” says Natalia Poteryakhin, director of Sunny Side Down. “Everyone tells themselves they’ll get out tomorrow. Nat is just saying it while stuck right in the middle of a supermassive black hole.”

The series consists of six self-contained episodes, each running approximately two minutes. Every short sets up a new sci-fi parody based on what poor alien schmuck got sucked into the diner this time. Viewers can expect rapid-fire spoofs of classics like The Matrix, Terminator 2 and Men in Black, striking a balance between existential dread and humor.

The first episode premiered October 22, with new installments rolling out every month. The series is entirely hand-drawn, created without the use of artificial intelligence, and produced in collaboration with DeeDee Animation Studio.

MAKE is a creative studio specializing in short-form, impactful visual content. We have a big passion for short stories, the kind that punch above their weight and live rent-free in your head. Every frame is obsessed over. Every second has a job to do. Short is not easy. It is surgical. There is no fluff here, only tight, expressive work that knows what it is saying and says it with style. Learn more at makevisual.com.