Mounted by showrunner Eric Robles, it’s a streamlined, supercharged telling, stripped of the soap operatics that occupied more of the original series than you might remember. It’s a classic kids-versus-monster adventure from which adults are largely absent, which in its own way makes this a superior “Stranger Things.”

Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 is good enough that franchise completists aren’t going to cringe while watching it, and it may be a good way to introduce younger kids to the franchise. But we just wish it was a little scarier, and the character animation a little less weird.

While this animated spin-off makes little sense as part of the established Stranger Things canon, as a stand-alone story with twists aplenty, it’s a witty, vibrant hoot.

“Stranger Things: Tales From ‘85” has its high points. It just seems like maybe the show’s creators aren’t fully aware of what they are.

While Tales from '85 may struggle to justify its own existence, it will be interesting to see if another chapter of the animated show will come into fruition since the finale doesn't completely close out the story.

Who’s the audience for this infantile, animated take on an indelible series? Only diehards and dimwits need apply.

Without the liability of actors whose voices will deepen and heights will shoot up over time, Netflix can continue to exploit this IP as long as its audience desires, looking ever-more-solipsistically inward rather than branching out. I’ll give “Tales From ‘85” this much credit: it’s as creepy and unsettling an idea as this horror-adjacent franchise has produced in years.