Photo Credit; Gorillaz / Reuben Bastienne-Lewis
To mark the release of new album The Mountain, that was just released on Friday via the band’s own new label KONG, Gorillaz has shared a new eight-minute short film titled The Mountain, The Moon Cave & The Sad God. Directed by Jamie Hewlett and THE LINE studio, the animated epic follows the adventures of band members Noodle, Murdoc, 2D and Russel as they journey across India, and explores album themes from the journey of life to the thrill of existence.
The film sees artist and Gorillaz co-creator Jamie Hewlett return to the purest form of his art to bring a detailed and beautiful intricacy to his distinctive, yet ever-evolving style. Directed by Hewlett, along with Max Taylor and Tim McCourt of BAFTA-nominated London-based animation studio THE LINE, the film was made across 18 months and thousands of artist hours, a hand-crafted homage to the golden era of 2D animation reimagining the world of Gorillaz through a classic cinematic lens. Hewlett collaborated with THE LINE on a vision to reinterpret Gorillaz through the visual language and timeless aesthetic of 1960s animated features. The result is a richly textured short film that honours the animators who paved the way for today’s studios. The process was steered by a determination to honour traditional craftsmanship with a hybrid analogue-digital workflow favouring hand-painted backgrounds, real materials, practical effects and period-accurate limitations over contemporary shortcuts – a true celebration of 2D animation and human creativity.
Circumstances now find Murdoc Niccals, Russel Hobbs, 2D and Noodle in India, having made their way to Mumbai with the help of four fake passports courtesy of a New York business acquaintance of Murdoc. The band has turned its back on international pop stardom, with our heroes now immersed in the rhythms of mystical music-making, as they navigate the mountainous terrain of this thing called life.
