Bendy VS Cuphead is the 66th episode and Season 3 Finale of DBX, featuring Bendy from the Bendy and the Ink Machine series and Cuphead from the Cuphead series in a battle between rubber hose indie game mascots. Cuphead was voiced by Nick Cramer.
Exhibition
A black and white title card reminiscent of old cartoons appears.
"CROSSOVER
CLASH"
The scene opens on Cuphead strolling while happily whistling through Inkwell Isle until he trips over on a blob of ink. Suddenly, the blob of ink turns into Bendy, who happily introduces himself by offering a handshake. Cuphead, looking at Bendy suspiciously, goes to shake his hand back, but then pauses when he thinks about how Bendy looks like the Devil, being reminded of how him and Mugman were hurt by him. Now angry, Cuphead raises his fists in preparation for battle.
Announcer: This match will get red hot! And begin!
Cuphead hits Bendy in the head with a Peashooter shot, causing his head to spin.
WALLOP!
Cuphead begins firing Peashooter shots at Bendy while running toward him. Bendy frantically jumps around to avoid the projectiles before he jumps into a bush. As Cuphead searches for him, Bendy spots a small plant alongside a sack of "ACME QUIK GROW" and becomes inspired. While Cuphead is still searching, Bendy suddenly appears behind him, riding a giant, monstrous plant while holding a cowboy hat, shocking Cuphead.
Cuphead narrowly dodges as the plant tries to slam him with a stalk before trying to impale him with another. Bendy commands the plant to slam down with another stalk, which glows pink, indicating Cuphead to jump up and parry slap it. Now high up and level with Bendy, Cuphead fires an EX Attack, hitting Bendy and launching him into the sky and out of the animation cel, leaving a giant hole in it. Now in his plane, Cuphead follows after him through the hole.
From inside the studio in Bendy's universe, different to Cuphead's, Bendy rips through the projector screen and crashes into barrels, cans, and boxes of ink. Cuphead jumps through the tear and waits for his enemy's next move. Absorbing all the nearby ink, Bendy bursts out of the pile of objects now transformed into Ink Bendy, roaring and shocking Cuphead.
Ink Bendy punches Cuphead into a wall next to an emergency fire axe. Quickly recovering from the punch, Cuphead grabs the axe and eagerly runs towards Ink Bendy and attempts to hit him, but Ink Bendy splits into two and causes Cuphead to miss. Cuphead trips over a pipe and falls to the floor as Ink Bendy approaches him. The two then look up, both noticing the pipes about to burst as ink leaks out of them.
Ink Bendy sees the main valve with a wrench on it, with a note that says "DO NOT TOUCH! - TOM". Then, he looks back at Cuphead and reaches out to him. Scared, Cuphead throws the axe at him, but Ink Bendy dodges it, causing the axe to hit the wrench and revolve around the valve multiple times, tightening the pressure. As the pipes are about to burst, the ceiling suddenly collapses with a mass avalanche of ink falling onto Ink Bendy, crushing him. Unharmed, Cuphead watches as Bendy's hand goes limp under the ceiling rubble, and smiles triumphantly as it melts. However, his victory is short-lived, as Bendy's ink mass slides out of the debris and transforms into a tall inky figure behind Cuphead, becoming Beast Bendy.
Cuphead looks behind him and is grabbed by Beast Bendy, who pins him against the wall. As Cuphead helplessly struggles, Beast Bendy rips his head off, with his now decapitated body reaching for his missing head. Bendy proceeds to drink all of Cuphead's insides from his head, killing him and causing his body to disintegrate. He then drops the empty cup head, which shatters as it hits the ground.
We then see a Cuphead-styled game over screen, which shows that Cuphead was just about to win.
Trivia
Production
- The connections between Bendy and Cuphead are that they are both the mascots of 2017 indie games inspired by rubber hose cartoons. Both also relate to demons in ironically opposite ways (Cuphead made a deal with the Devil and fights against him, while Bendy is a demon himself).
- Due to Joey Drew Studios Inc.'s official deal with Rooster Teeth for importing home consoles for Bendy and the Ink Machine, this animation is considered official for the franchise but bears no canonical connections to the Bendy universe.
- Starting with this episode, the "HERE WE GOOO!!!" announcement would be dropped from the beginning of the fight.
- Four years after this episode's release, Brandon Yates would make a track for the matchup called "Ink-Dulgence" as part of his "What If?" commission tracks.
- This makes it the third DBX episode to receive its own commission track after its release, after Ness VS Sans and Aigis VS Noel Vermillion.
Easter Eggs
- To pay tribute to the cartoons that inspired the featured characters, this battle is given a title card that has the alternate name "Crossover Clash".
- In Cuphead's world, the overworld building for Hilda Berg's "Threatenin' Zeppelin" boss level from the background is seen twice.
- The design of the monstrous plant that Bendy grows is based on the plant creature from Atrox-C's "Toontober Day 5 - Plant" DeviantArt drawing, who is known as the "Cat-Eating Plant".
- For one frame, Bendy's eyes change from his regular appearance to one similar to his insane look from the fan-made "Welcome Home" music video. Its creator, SquigglyDigg, has even noticed this detail herself, and the animators of this episode have confirmed that the reference was intentional.[1]
- Cuphead's color scheme changes when he enters Bendy's universe, with his gloves going from white to yellow, his skin going from gray to white, and the brown of his shoes and the red of his pants, nose, and straw becoming more subdued. However, this is not an error, but an intentional reference to the color inconsistencies found in Cuphead, which in of itself is a reference to how many cartoons in the 1930's had posters where the character's shoe and/or glove color would be slightly different from the original.
- The scream Ink Bendy and Beast Bendy makes is the exact reused beta scream used for Ink Bendy's alpha model in Bendy and the Ink Machine's earliest prototype.
- The pressure gauge mentioned by Thomas Connor and Wally Franks' duo audio log in Bendy and the Ink Machine's Chapter 3 is seen in the workshop, along with a note from Thomas reading "DO NOT TOUCH. - TOM".
Errors
- While Bendy is given top-billing in the episode's title, the "Crossover Clash" title card gives Cuphead top-billing instead.
Other
- At 8.4 million views, this is currently the highest-viewed DBX episode on YouTube.
- This is currently the only hand-drawn episode of DBX.