Television series

The Legend of Vox Machina

Adapted from Critical Role's live D&D campaign, this animated series follows a foul-mouthed band of misfit mercenaries who stumble into saving the world while barely managing to save themselves. It's raunchy and violent early on, packed with bar jokes and blood, but it sneaks up on you — by season two you're crying over arcs you didn't see coming. Good for fantasy fans who like their quests messy.

TVMaze rating7.9

If you liked this

Arcane: League of Legends2021

This is what happens when a game tie-in decides to be genuinely great: two sisters torn apart by class war, animation that reinvents itself every episode, and an emotional gut-punch of a season that never lets the spectacle outrun the heartbreak.

But It's grim and political where Vox Machina is loose and silly — expect court intrigue and heartbreak, not jokes about bar tabs.

Arcane: League of Legends poster

The Witcher2019

Monster hunts, morally grey mercenaries, and a slow-burn found family — if you liked watching a mismatched crew stumble into world-ending stakes, Geralt's path scratches the same itch with more brooding and better swordplay.

But The plot gets tangled across timelines and seasons, and it takes itself far more seriously than Vox Machina ever does.

The Witcher poster

Castlevania2017

Dark, blood-soaked, and surprisingly tender, this is animated fantasy adventure with the same DNA — a ragtag band against ancient evil — but dialed toward horror instead of comedy, with fight choreography that genuinely thrills.

But There's far less humour and far more gore; it's a grimmer, more violent watch than Vox Machina's barroom warmth.

Castlevania poster

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Critical Role2015no page yet

It's the literal source: this is the home D&D campaign, played by the same voice cast, that Vox Machina adapts and polishes into 26-minute episodes.

This is the actual game the show is animated from — real actors, real dice, real story, unfolding live and unscripted over hundreds of hours, with all the mess and magic that a script can't fake.

But Episodes run three-plus hours, the production values are a webcam and a table, and continuity errors are part of the charm.

More like this (8)

Our Flag Means Death2022

Swap swords for cutlasses and you've got the same ramshackle crew energy — a hopeless band of pirates who shouldn't work as a team but somehow, gloriously, do, with just as much heart under the jokes.

But It's a slower burn, more romance than swordfight, and the fantasy elements are basically nonexistent.

Our Flag Means Death poster

The Dragon Prince2018

Netflix's answer to the same brief — banter-heavy quest fantasy with a found-family core — just aimed a little younger and a little gentler, with a genuinely inventive magic system and real emotional stakes.

But It's made for a broader, younger audience, so don't expect the drinking jokes or the R-rated violence.

The Dragon Prince poster

Disenchantment2018

Matt Groening's fantasy kingdom is packed with the same drunken-misfit spirit — a princess, an elf, and a demon stumbling through quests, cracking jokes, occasionally growing up a little.

But The jokes land less consistently than the plot, and early seasons take a while to find their footing.

Disenchantment poster

Willow1988

Long before Vox Machina, this is the template: a reluctant band of oddballs — a farmer, a swordsman, a sorceress — squabbling their way through a fantasy quest that's equal parts silly and sincere.

But The effects and pacing show their age, and the humour is far gentler and less crude than you're used to.

Willow poster

Guardians of the Galaxy2014

Same engine, different galaxy: a foul-mouthed crew of misfits forced together by circumstance who become an actual family, held together by killer needle-drops instead of tavern songs.

But It's space opera, not fantasy, and Marvel's house style means the edges get sanded smoother than Vox Machina's.

Guardians of the Galaxy poster

Shrek2001

The granddaddy of fart-joke fantasy with a soft heart underneath — proof the mix of crude humour and genuine sweetness Vox Machina trades in has been a crowd-pleaser for decades.

But It's family-friendly and toothless by comparison, with no blood, no swearing, and none of the real stakes.

Shrek poster

Time Bandits1981

Same structural trick as Vox Machina: a squabbling crew of small-time thieves played for laughs, until the story quietly turns serious and the stakes become cosmic and irreversible.

Terry Gilliam's fable about a rag-tag gang of dwarves stealing through history has the same lopsided charm — bickering, greedy, hilarious misfits who stumble into something far bigger than a treasure hunt.

But It's stranger and darker than it looks, with a genuinely upsetting ending that swerves hard from the comedy.

Time Bandits poster

Cowboy Bebop1998

Both run on the same engine — a found family of misfits whose jokes are a defence mechanism against loss — just swap swords and dragons for spaceships and blues.

A bounty-hunting crew of oddballs drifting between jobs, cracking wise, hiding real grief under the banter — Cowboy Bebop is the moody, jazz-scored cousin to Vox Machina's tavern-brawl energy.

But It's slower, more melancholic, and episodic rather than quest-driven — closer to a mood piece than an adventure serial.

Cowboy Bebop poster

People

Cast

Writing

Production

Recommended by