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.
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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

People
Cast
Writing
- Meredith KecskemetyStaff Writer
Production
- Eugene SonCo-Producer
- Jennifer MuroCo-Producer
- Ashley JohnsonExecutive Producer
- Ben KalinaExecutive Producer
- Brandon AumanExecutive Producer
- Chris PrynoskiExecutive Producer
- Laura BaileyExecutive Producer
- Liam O'BrienExecutive Producer
- Marisha RayExecutive Producer
- Matthew MercerExecutive Producer
- Sam RiegelExecutive Producer
- Sharon PryoskiExecutive Producer
- Taliesin JaffeExecutive Producer
- Travis WillinghamExecutive Producer
- Tony SalamaProducer