Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 Revives the Magic of Childhood with Animated Spin-Off

When we last left the kids of Hawkins, they weren’t kids at all. Mike, Will, Lucas, Dustin, Eleven, and Sam had all grown up and moved on from their adventures in the Upside Down, and with good reason. As punctuated by Joyce’s flashback before dismembering Vecna in the series finale, these kids had lost a lot in their battle against a primordial evil—most importantly, their childhood innocence.

So it’s refreshing when, after a foreboding cold open, the first episode of Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 begins with the main kids running out of their houses to gather together and ride their bikes to school through the snow. Returned to youth through vibrant cell-shaded animation, the kids have all the innocence and energy that made us love them in the first place.

An Animated Reset Between Seasons Two and Three

Created by Eric Robles, Tales From ’85 resets the clock, taking place between seasons two and three of the series. By this point, Will had already been trapped in the Upside Down and Eleven exerted herself more than ever before to close it, but the kids begin the series more or less feeling like the worst is behind them.

How Animation Solves a Major Stranger Things Problem

It took nine years to produce the forty-two episodes the show released over five seasons, and the kids had well advanced into adults. Twenty-somethings regularly played teenagers in the ’80s properties that inspired Stranger Things, but the original cast was first introduced to audiences in pre-adolescence, making the suspension of disbelief harder to maintain. In animation, Dustin may have all of his teeth, but he’s not far removed from the adorable tyke of season one, and Eleven certainly doesn’t look like a wife and mother.

New Voices, Familiar Faces: Adjusting to the Spin-Off

This isn’t to say that Tales From ’85 requires no buy-in from the audience. None of the original cast returns to lend their voices to the show, not even the adults. As a result, it does take some time to get used to slightly different voices coming from faces and characters we know well. For the most part, the transitions work with the kids, outside of minor details:

• Luca Diaz is a little less shrill than Finn Wolfhard was as season two Mike.
• Jolie Hoang-Rappaport shows a bit more emotional range than Sadie Sink as Max.
• Braxton Quinney sometimes gives Dustin a southern accent missing in Gaten Matarazzo’s take.

However, Brett Gipson feels like he’s playing a generic cartoon big guy instead of the lovable oaf who David Harbour portrayed.

Why the Animated Spin-Off Works

Rather than harm the series, the adjustments help cement Tales From ’85’s status as an animated spin-off, not unlike cartoon versions of live-action movies from the old days, such as The Real Ghostbusters or Godzilla: The Series. Tales From ’85 tones down the language and violence from the mainline series and puts the kids on a new adventure. As seen in the first episode’s cold open, some manner of contaminated spore is already at work, setting the stage for a mystery that promises to restore the spirit of adventure to the franchise.