Manly – Jesse & Justin Moynihan

Last week I was talking with some friends this week about the release of The Midnight Gospel today on Netflix (from Duncan Trussell, Comic and Psychedelic Wanderer and Pendleton Ward, Creator of Adventure Time) and I wanted to show them this epic little short I found years ago. I struggled to remember the name of this cartoon, googling wildly:

PSYCHEDELIC CARTOON SHAPES PYRAMID LAZER VIOLENCE FIGHT TESSERACT

…to no avail But since I did finally find it I’ll share it here.

It’s another cartoon related in tone and content to Adventure Time from Jesse and Justin Moynihan, which is no surprise as Jesse worked as a storyboard artist on Adventure Time.

The writing is silly and broad. It’s awkward bro-speak thats good for a laugh. Almost written as if a child did a take on sci-fi fantasy stuff and just didn’t know about or bother with appropriating the typical science jargon. Its endearing like that. Feels very related to Adventure time though its a little more violent and grown up. A good stoner psychedelic carton

‘Why you being all mystery-ish?’

When You Die – MGMT

I hadn't realized MGMT had a new record from this last year, but came across this one through suggestions on youtube. And I like even from a simple storytelling perspective of repeating ones day, and weird dream logic, before all the visual effects. And the effects are great. As close as I have seen to how psychedelia actually works, applying patterns. 

People have come a long way with algorithms to apply art styles to an image, or that one terrifying one which puts faces and legs all over everything and eyes and turns things into many faced frogs. eek. And this use, is one of the best I've seen in video. 

And I always love when I see something where I'm not entirely sure how its made. Well done.

Directors: Mike Burakoff & Hallie Cooper-Novack

VFX Supervisor: Jamie Dutcher