Animated TV Show

* Book 3-present
* Books 1-2

***Infinity Train*** is an American animated comedy-drama anthology television series created by Owen Dennis, previously a writer and storyboard artist on *Regular Show*, for Cartoon Network.

## Premise

The series is set on a seemingly endless train traveling through a barren landscape; the cars of the train contain a variety of bizarre and fantastical environments. The passengers on the train are people it picks up who have unresolved emotional issues or trauma. As they travel through the train's cars, passengers' adventures give them the opportunity to confront and resolve their emotional problems, represented by a glowing number on their hand that goes down as they confront these issues. Once they resolve their issues and their number reaches zero, a portal opens and they are able to leave the train and return home.

The first season focuses on Tulip Olsen, a girl struggling with her parents' recent divorce. She is accompanied by a small, confused robot named "One-One", and Atticus, the ruler of a kingdom of talking corgis. She eventually uncovers many of the train's secrets and confronts Amelia, a passenger who, instead of resolving her trauma from her husband's death, has usurped the role of Conductor from One-One and tried to take control of the train. Before leaving the train, Tulip persuades Amelia to try to adapt to the changes in her life.

In one first-season episode, Tulip frees her own reflection from the mirror world, and the two part ways. The second season focuses on the emancipated Mirror Tulip ("MT"), now on the run from enforcers attempting to kill her as punishment for abandoning her role as Tulip's reflection. She teams up with Jesse, a new train passenger, as well as Alan Dracula, a silent deer with a variety of powers. She helps Jesse leave the train by learning to stand up for himself, and he returns to the train to help her escape to the outside world as well.

The third season centers on Grace and Simon, the leaders of a gang of rogue passengers who vandalize the train and attack its denizens to keep their numbers high. Traveling with a young girl named Hazel and her gorilla friend Tuba makes Grace more sympathetic to the train's denizens. After Simon kills Tuba, it is revealed that Hazel herself is one of Amelia's creations, and Grace realizes what she thought she knew about the train is wrong. In the end, after fighting off Simon's attempt to usurp control, Grace tries to face up to and mend her mistakes.

## Production

### Conception and influences

Owen Dennis conceived *Infinity Train* in 2010, originally as a film. He was inspired by "the feeling of waking up in an unsettling space" which he felt while on a return flight to the U.S. from China. Claiming when he had "woken up. I looked around, and there were a bunch of people staring into screens in the dark in this quiet room. I thought this was kind of creepy. And it sort of started from there." Like protagonist Tulip, Dennis created video games as an amateur in his teens, including point-and-click adventure games and mods for titles such as *Half-Life 2* and *Unreal Tournament 2004*. He has stated that *Myst* has been one of his primary influences since he was 13, and its influence continued in *Infinity Train*. He also cites *Doctor Who*, Agatha Christie, *The NeverEnding Story*, *The Matrix*, Philip K. Dick, *Star Trek: Voyager*, and *Sliders* as influences, along with novels such as *Nightbirds on Nantucket* and *The Wolves of Willoughby Chase*. Dennis has also described *Infinity Train* as "*Saw* for kids," in that each season is essentially a morality play based around machinery designed to help one overcome personal issues and appreciate life.

### 2016 pilot

Template:Quote box
The pilot was first released on the Cartoon Network App and VOD on November 1, 2016, and released the following day on the official Cartoon Network YouTube channel. The short garnered a million views within its first month of availability and has since gained 5.2 million views as of July 2020, making it the most viewed pilot on the channel while two other originals, *Welcome to My Life* is the second most viewed pilot, and *Twelve Forever* (later moved to Netflix) being the third most viewed pilot. A petition to greenlight *Infinity Train* was made shortly after the pilot was released and garnered over 57,000 signatures. On March 11, 2018, Cartoon Network's official website launched a teaser for *Infinity Train* that confirmed the pilot had been greenlit as a full series and would premiere in 2019.

### Book 1

Template:Multiple image

In July 2018, a sneak peek of the first season was revealed on the Cartoon Network panel at the 2018 San Diego Comic-Con. It was released a couple of hours later on Cartoon Network's social media platforms.Template:Citation needed A full trailer for *Infinity Train* was released in June 2019 which was unlocked by playing the show theme on the *Infinity Train* website. It was later uploaded to Cartoon Network's YouTube channel.Template:Citation needed On July 11, 2019, the show was confirmed to premiere on August 5, 2019. On July 20, 2019, the first episode was shown during the *Infinity Train* panel at San Diego Comic-Con. It was then released on the Cartoon Network app and website later that same day. The first season would be 10 episodes long, with two episodes airing each night from August 5 to August 9, 2019.

### Shorts

From October 18, 2019, Cartoon Network started uploading a series of *Infinity Train* shorts onto their app and YouTube channel called "The Train Documentaries", which focused on One-One showing off a number of cars in the train, including "The Green Car", "Tiny Wizard Car", "The Kaiju Car" and "The Tech Support Car".

### Book 2

A promo after the final episode of the first season confirmed the series would return. On November 22, 2019, the *Infinity Train* website was updated with a new claw machine puzzle. Completing the puzzle leads to a trailer for Book 2. The trailer was then released officially the next day.
Book Two debuted on January 6, 2020.

### Book 3

On July 6, 2020, Book 3 was officially announced with a release date of August 13, 2020.  Unlike its predecessors, it aired on HBO Max instead of Cartoon Network. Dennis revealed in a reply to a tweet that *Infinity Train* was originally planned to air on HBO Max from the beginning, but due to the streaming service's delay from its original 2019 launch date, the first two seasons were aired on Cartoon Network instead. It was later revealed at San Diego Comic-Con that the book would be titled *Cult of the Conductor*. Book 3 was released in batches, with the first five episodes debuting on August 13, the next three on August 20, and the final two on August 27.

## Credits

**By type**

Cast

* Dee Bradley Baker as Ghoms / Monster Atticus
* Kimberly Brooks as Additional Voices
* Bill Corbett as Perry the Parasite
* Antonio Raul Corbo as Additional Voices
* Jeremy Crutchley as Glad-One / Additional Voices
* Rhys Darby as Randall
* Jenna Davis as Lucy / Additional Voices
* Robbie Daymond as Jesse Cosay / Additional Voices
* Diane Delano as Tuba
* Owen Dennis as Sad-One / Terrance/Toad / Additional Voices
* Samuel Farci as Young Simon 1
* Jacob Farry as Additional Voices
* Justin Felbinger as Nathan Cosay
* Keith Ferguson as Additional Voices
* Mark Fite as Andy Olsen / Additional Voices
* Ron Funches as Khaki Bottoms
* Reagan Gomez-Preston as Mikayla / Additional Voices
* Grey Griffin as Additional Voices
* Naomi Hansen as 5 Year Old Tulip
* Lena Headey as Amelia Hughes/The Conductor / Additional Voices
* Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Grace Monroe / Additional Voices
* Ernie Hudson as Atticus
* Ashley Johnson as Tulip Olsen / Lake/Mirror Tulip/MT / The Steward / Additional Voices
* Lindsay Katai as Additional Voices
* Wayne Knight as Marcel
* Nea Marshall Kudi as Sashay
* Phil LaMarr as Additional Voices
* Kyle McCarley as Simon Laurent / Additional Voices
* Ben Mendelsohn as Special Agent Mace
* Scott Menville as Additional Voices
* Justin Michael as Additional Voices
* Alfred Molina as Chandelier
* Kate Mulgrew as Samantha/The Cat
* Laraine Newman as Additional Voices
* Edi Patterson as Additional Voices
* Matthew Rhys as Aloysius / Alrick Timmens
* Lily Sanfelippo as 6 Year Old Tulip / 8 Year Old Tulip
* Brooke D. Singleton as Young Grace 1
* Kari Wahlgren as Additional Voices
* Audrey Wasilewski as Megan Olsen
* Bradley Whitford as Agent Sieve
* Rick Zieff as Additional Voices

## Gallery

*Click here to view this page's gallery.*

## References

1. ↑ Tracy Brown (August 8, 2019). "‘Infinity Train’ tackles issues many kids shows avoid. The creator is proud of that". https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2019-08-08/infinity-train-owen-dennis. Retrieved August 31, 2020. "It’s a kids’ mystery-horror-comedy-science-fiction show,” Dennis told The Times."
2. ↑ Animation Magazine (August 4, 2019). "Animated People: Owen Dennis' 'Infinity Train' Steams Ahead". *Animation Magazine*. https://www.animationmagazine.net/animated-people/animated-people-owen-dennis-infinity-train-steams-ahead/. Retrieved August 5, 2019.
3. ↑ Template:Citation
4. ↑ Template:Cite tweet
5. ↑ Owen Dennis (December 8, 2016). "Oh, Hey, Hello. - YYYEEEEEAAAAAHHHHH!!!!". http://oweeeeendennis.tumblr.com/post/154199062042/yyyeeeeeaaaaahhhhh.
6. ↑ "Cartoon Network's Infinity Train: Why Isn't This a Show Yet?!". October 3, 2017. https://cartoonbuzz.net/2017/10/03/cartoon-networks-infinity-train-why-isnt-this-a-show-yet/.
7. ↑ "Infinity Train". March 2, 2018. Archived from the original on March 3, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180303072823/http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/infinity-train/.
8. ↑ Dade Hayes (March 8, 2018). "Cartoon Network Rolls Out Largest-Ever Slate, Deepens Creative Bench". https://deadline.com/2018/03/cartoon-network-rolls-out-largest-ever-slate-deepens-creative-bench-1202316509/. Retrieved September 1, 2020.
9. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `rollout`
10. ↑ Radulovic, Petrana (2019-07-20). "Infinity Train trailer and first episode arrives at the SDCC station right ahead of release". https://www.polygon.com/2019/7/20/20699402/infinity-train-trailer-release-date-sdcc-2019.
11. ↑ Template:Cite tweet
12. ↑ Template:Citation
13. ↑ Cartoon Network. "Infinity Train: Book Two (Official Trailer)". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9livZeXARWU. Retrieved 24 November 2019.
14. ↑ Template:Cite tweet
15. ↑ "Third Installment of Animated Anthology Series Infinity Train will Premiere Exclusively on HBO Max This Summer". https://pressroom.warnermediagroup.com/us/media-release/hbo-max/third-installment-animated-anthology-series-infinity-train-will-premiere-exclusively. Retrieved 6 July 2020.
16. ↑ Template:Cite tweet
17. ↑ Comic-Con International (July 24, 2020). "HBO Max And Cartoon Network Studios: Infinity Train Comic-Con@Home 2020". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amDDTsLhkLY. Retrieved September 9, 2020.
18. ↑ Template:Cite tweet