Award-winning author Lavie Tidhar has a new project, and it’s not a book. Mars Machines is a seven-part animated series created by Tidhar (who wrote it) and Nir Yaniv (who animated and scored it). It stars an endearing pair: a cranky toaster and his persnickety coffee pot friend. As the synopsis explains:
A grumpy toaster and a fastidious coffeepot uneasily cohabit in a kitchen on Mars. Their owner is gone, out on a case. The toaster used to be a spaceship, the coffeepot a burglar working for the Robo-Pope. Beyond the window ice-meteorites fall, and the enigmatic Dr Novum haunts their dreams, trying to get into their hidden shelter – and their minds. When a new answering machine turns out to be Bianca, a secret agent from Earth long on the trail of the inhuman Novum, their worlds collide.
Mars Machines was created “at the height of the Covid-19 epidemic,” a press release says. It stars Russell Wilcox as Buddy, Digger Mesch as Toaster, and Anne Wittman as Bianca. Tidhar, Yaniv, and these three actors (along with a larger cast) also created the short film Loontown, released last fall. Co-creator Tidhar is an award-winning author whose work includes Osama (winner of the World Fantasy Award), Central Station, and The Circumference of the World.
The trailer is below; the first episode is available now on YouTube and at the series’ website.
