‘Entergalactic’ Animated RomCom, Album Drop From Kid Cudi, Kenya Barris Make For Netflix ‘TV Event’

Media ‘Entergalactic’ Animated RomCom, Album Drop From Kid Cudi, Kenya Barris Make For Netflix ‘TV Event’ David Bloom Senior Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. I’m a media/tech/entertainment writer, podcaster, speaker and analyst Following New! Follow this author to stay notified about their latest stories. Got it! Sep 29, 2022, 12:59pm EDT | New! Click on the conversation bubble to join the conversation Got it! Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin (Entertgalactic image courtesy of Netflix) Jabari is a street artist and comic book creator, newly moved into a suspiciously awesome Manhattan apartment (think Friends or Sex in the City suspiciously awesome).

An ex spots him bicycling past a nearby sidewalk cafe. Later, they have a drink, and more, but Jabari prefers to dive into Manhattan as a bachelor with a new pad while pursuing a new creative gig in a “bright, white, and light” workplace. Then he meets an interesting new neighbor with her own nascent creative career and fab apartment.

That’s the setup for Entergalactic, the “television event” debuting Friday on Netflix as an animated, feature-length (but not a feature or an episodic series, Netflix spokespeople repeatedly remind) show from creator/star Scott Mescudi and executive producer Kenya Barris (writer/producer of Black-ish and its many spinoffs, Girls Trip) . The same day, an album of all the show’s excellent music, plus four more songs, will drop from prominent hip hop producer/artist Kid Cudi, who, technically, is the same person as Scott Mescudi. Key Art for ‘Entergalactic’ from Kenya Barris and Kid Cudi.

(Image courtesy of Netflix) The story line doesn’t break a lot of narrative ground: guy meets girl, guy has minor complications with ex and loses girl, guy and girl(2) figure it out. But this one comes from Black creators and characters, featuring specific sensibilities and cultural touchstones that don’t get enough run in mainstream media. Throw in superb animation and music, and it’s a different take on a familiar genre.

The “television event” is definitely for grown-ups, a brisk romantic comedy featuring ample and relatively explicit sexual scenes and conversations, plenty of pot smoking, and strong language. MORE FOR YOU How To Become A Translator CNN’s John Berman: Arizona ‘Sham Audit’ Proves Donald Trump ‘Even Bigger Loser Than The First Time’ ‘Cut Him Off, Cut Him Off Now!’ Newsmax Anchor Ends Interview When Guest Criticizes Donald Trump The show has a loaded cast, led by Mescudi and Jessica Williams, but also featuring Timothee Chalamet, Vanessa Hudgens and Keith David. The show itself was built in an iterative process around each of the tracks that Mescudi created, he said, as he thought about stringing together songs in a narrative throughline.

“The music kind of was informed by the story, and what I wanted to tell,” Mescudi said. “I had to piece the story together before we even went in and started writing the scripts, because I wanted to be the narrator throughout the show. I would sit and think about, ‘Okay, there has to be a moment when he sees Meadow for the first time.

What does that sound like? When they make love for the first time, what does that sound like? Their first unofficial date, I guess, when they’re walking in the rain, what does that sound like?’ And I just pieced all these moments together. ” As Kid Cudi, Mescudi has been a distinctive presence in seemingly every corner of hip hop, including producer, singer, DJ, and composer for film. But he’s also had a long string of acting performances as Scott Mescudi, with significant runs on shows such as How to Make It in America , Westworld , and We Are Who We Are .

Mescudi said he was tempted to structure the show more from the standpoint of TV than music, but pulled back to what’s made him famous. “Ultimately I approached it like I was making any other album that I’ve ever made, and all that every album I’ve ever made has been about (is) feeling,” Mescudi said. “I didn’t want to just say, ‘Oh, I’m doing this with this TV show component.

Let me start thinking about it like a producer and do all these other things. ’ It’s like, ‘No, let me stay footed in the artistry, and just work from that perspective,’ you know?” About that animation. I told Barris its super-saturated colors, fractured imagery, and often trippy scenes reminded me of “Impressionism meets street art.

” Barris quickly agreed: “Exactly right. That’s what we call it. ” Williams ( 2 Dope Queens podcast co-host, Love Life ), who voices the neighbor/love interest Meadow, had never done animation work before, but said she was attracted by the opportunity to work with big-name creators such as Mescudi and Barris.

“I had to trust that their vision would would play out well, which I think it does,” Williams said. “And I just had to be interested in the mind of Kid Cudi and want to do that, which was 100% why I did it. And I think Meadow is a really great character because she’s warm, she’s strong, she’s independent and thoughtful.

And I think it’s really cool to see someone who looks like her in animated form falling in love in New York City. ” Unlike Mescudi and Williams, this wasn’t Barris’ first turn in animation, having done an animated episode of Black-ish among some smaller projects, “but not at this level. ” “I really feel like this is as collaborative process as I’ve ever been” part of, Barris said.

“And I really feel like I am lucky enough that at the time, I was on a (Netflix) deal, and I could help shepherd this through because it was . . .

one of the things I’m most proud about that I’ve ever done. ” Barris said he loves “the lack of boundaries that you can have in animation. ” The project was initially conceived as a live-action project, but executives involved in the process pushed to have it become an animated project.

That decision was important. Barris said animation can have a more timeless quality to it, name-checking Bambi, Heavy Metal and the fact that his own children are still watching 2016’s Moana on heavy rotation. “When you take music and animation, it can last forever,” Barris said.

“And we also felt like the idea of what we could do in terms of using New York as a character. And using modern culture and fashion and things like that in a way that the budgetary restraints wouldn’t be there, we could do some things that really felt proprietary and special. And I think the idea of the music coming together with everything else makes it a, excuse me, it’s such an immersive experience.

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