The Templates

Template:Episode updated V.2"The Templates"^[1] is the sixth episode of the fifth season of the animated television series Lovely World and the 195th overall episode. The episode first aired in the United States on the children's programming network Children's Avast Television on December 6, 2014. It was directed by Jake Nicholson and written by Blake Thomson. The series centers on the main character, Edward, and his friends Michael, Leo and Kamila, who embark on new adventures in search of sources to extend their "worlds", discover new species, and strive to achieve their own objectives.

In the episode, following the events of the last episode, the group decided to rest when they heard a voice, which was a man trapped down underground, and if he pressed the TNT, the entire structure would explode. In addition, the previously mentioned "bad villagers" have returned to assault the group.

Blake Thomson, who previously directed the episode "To The Woods," began working on a sequel and engaged filmmaker Jake Nicholson to create the episode. The explosion's special effects took nearly three months to complete, and there were complications with the animation. The episode received mixed to positive reviews from critics and was watched by over 1,716,905 million households and 2,233,810 million viewers.

Plot

The group felt that lounging next to a river would be better because there were no other people around and they wanted to take a break from the tragedy and trauma they had encountered in the previous days. Leo and Kamila were asleep one night when they heard someone sobbing and shouting, which scared them at first. After some time, it becomes evident that a young adult was kidnapped from a hidden organization, and that the villager chose the template in which they were imprisoned.

Worse, the young adult is going to tread on a large button, which, if pressed, will shatter the entire template into pieces and most likely kill them all. Fearing for their life throughout the episode, the gang decided to take any opportunity to gain admission in order to save the young adult. They are finally able to escape and rescue the adult. However, they discovered that the template has "evil villagers" who surround them, resulting in a huge brawl. The entire template detonated when one of the bad villagers fell through the hole and pressed the button.

This time, the "bad villagers" are killed, while the entire gang is spared. The young adult shows thanks to them, but is more concerned about his abducted town, believing that the "bad folks" had destroyed the whole village. As the episode concludes, the company resolves to visit the young adult's hamlet.

Production

When developing the episode "To The Woods," which was at the time dealing with enormous controversy over its finale, Blake, who directed the episode, began to explore a notion for a sequel in May 2014. After writing the episode script, he came up with the idea of the "bad villagers" trying to find the gang hiding in the forest. However, that premise was abandoned when the previous episode's climax was changed and a sentence was added at the end. Blake didn't want to make the same mistake as in the last episode, so he started taking notes on other episodes while writing the story.

He was motivated to finally create an episode in which the party discovered an imprisoned villager within a template. To obtain a sense of the episode's environment, Blake decided to explore YouTube for films set in the desert. Having previously known them, he chose to conduct study on the temples, which served as the basis for the following fiction. The desert backdrop was inspired by Desertville, a ghost town, and after the creation (beginning of the animation process) of "To The Woods," Blake engaged Jake Nicholson to direct the episode with him. Because the episode was developed around the same time as Avast was determining release dates for the fifth season's next episodes, "The Templates" was scheduled to air on December 6, 2014.

The air date was not intended to be postponed, and as a result, the time required to produce a full-length episode on a regular basis was reduced to five months, as opposed to the typical eight to 10 months. Blake engaged graphic designers Tyler Barker, Ollie Davidson, Nicholas Shaw, Callum Bates, Hamza Pugh, and Paul Parks to create the special effects, and they chose to use genuine explosives. The explosions were originally supposed to take place on a grass field, but owing to safety concerns, the crew chose a location with stone and concrete.

The formal event occurred in September of that year, two months before the scheduled air date. Following that, the crew officially gained an understanding of the impact of the explosions, including shaking, debris, and fireballs. Because the special effects were "hyper realistic," it produced problems for the computers that the animators worked on, resulting in crashes and hours of lost labor. To address these concerns, the team chose to animate the special effects, with the only apparent special effects outside of the animation being smoke and debris. The episode was apparently completed on December 1, five days before its debut date.

Broadcast and reception

"The Templates" first aired in the United States on the children's programming network Children's Avast Television on December 6, 2014. The episode was watched by over 1,716,905 million households and 2,233,810 million viewers, a decrease from the previous episode "To The Woods", which had 2.4 million viewers.

"The Templates" received mixed to positive reviews. Critics complimented the visual effects and narrative, while others questioned the sluggish pace and hasty animation. David Turner gave the episode a 6 out of 10, noting that while it wasn't as excellent as "To The Woods," and that he hated portions of the writing, it still "had a feeling of wonder and a touch of dread within to pull the audience together." Turner also stated that the episode's special effects were "by far one of the greatest coming from a Lovely World episode" and applauded some of the animation. Natasha McDonald appreciated the narrative and special effects, noting that "for a cartoon episode, the special effects look realistic as hell," but she questioned the slow pacing, adding that "by the time the group had actually saved the man", she was bored. Sebastian Hawkins, who gave the episode 5 out of 10 stars, criticized the animation, claiming that "in terms of the previous episodes, it nowhere near as great or good comparing to them" and blaming Avast. Despite this, Sebastian commended the voice acting, stating, "Some of the man's performance gave me shivers."

Natasha McDonald appreciated the narrative and special effects, noting that "for a cartoon episode, the special effects look realistic as hell," but she questioned the slow pacing, adding that "by the time the group had actually saved the man", she was bored. Sebastian Hawkins, who gave the episode 5 out of 10 stars, criticized the animation, claiming that "in terms of the previous episodes, it nowhere near as great or good comparing to them" and blaming Avast. Despite this, Sebastian commended the voice acting, stating, "Some of the man's performance gave me shivers." Henderson criticized the pacing and animation style, describing it as "mid at best." Ruby Gallagher gave the episode a "D-," citing poor script, animation, and pace, noting "the episode was one of the weakest and among his least favorite episodes from the fifth season."

Notes