REVIEW: ‘Entergalactic’ Is More Than A Vibe

Animation as a storytelling medium in the United States is often relegated to the same Disney-Pixar style and pigeonholed into children’s stories. However, with Netflix’s embrace of adult animation and the recent revolutionary animators at Sony has changed the standard for animation beyond the expected aesthetic, the path is set for Entergalactic. That isn’t to say that the film is in the same vein as what’s out there already, it isn’t, even with the natural comparisons between its vibrant and hyper-stylized animation and Into the Spider-Verse. However, Entergalactic isn’t about a superhero or vampires or gods, it’s a slice-of-life romance. It’s small in one aspect but large at the same time as it explores love and the choices we make.

Created by, staring, and featuring a soundtrack from Kid Cudi (aka Scott Mescudi), Entergalactic is a story itself is all about love and life. The story is all about Jabari (Kid Cudi) as he attempts to balance a surprise love life and success in creating his comic for a major publisher. Finding the latter brings Jabari a step closer to the former when moving into his dream apartment and introduces him to his new neighbor, photographer it-girl Meadow (Jessica Williams). A look at love and New York, the television event is divided into chapters that build on each other over the course of the special.

Entergalactic may have whimsical elements like Jabari flying through spice on his bike, but that element is just used to show the character’s daydreaming. While everyone will be talking about the animation, its Entergalactic‘s narrative, and how Cudi has managed to use his music to enhance it. In some scenes that feature ambient sound or unintelligible talking, Cudi’s verses tell the audience what we’re seeing, how the story is progressing and help us track when Jabari is daydreaming while high and when he isn’t. While I wouldn’t call this a visual album, Kudi’s tracks matter more within the context of the story we’re seeing unfold than they would on their own. And the film is enriched by the music, more than it would be if it only relied on dialogue.

Additionally, Entergalactic’s choice to showcase sexual intimacy by animating the sex scenes is a choice that showcases the beauty of two people connecting and helps drive home the film’s third act. We get to see sex throughout the film, shown and mentioned as quick moment of enthralled passion but for Meadow and Jabari, it’s pure intimacy. Thoughtful, romantic, but passionate nonetheless. An important piece of the story, sex in Entergalactic is all about substance and not just style.

My only critique is that at times, the visually stunning animation isn’t hitting its full potential because of what seems to be a smaller amount of frames composing each shot. A stylistic choice that makes things slightly slower, at times it can make scenes feel choppy and more suited to be stills shared than flowing animation. That said, this is an element that while jarring in some moments doesn’t overtake the beauty and vibrancy of the film.

When you add in the fact that such a magical aesthetic is being used to tell a grounded and simple romance story, it’s breathtaking. Often stories about life aren’t given the experimental or hyper-stylized vibrancy that other animated projects are. Showcasing life through a magical lens, Entergalactic exceeds in showcasing the importance of life’s small moments and how the banal can become fantastical when looking at how it all connects our present to our future, or how we make choices that alter our paths. By using dreams as a vital part to expressing Jibari’s anxieties, hopes, confusion, and peace, the art style excels and expands the intimacy of a slice-of-life narrative.

Entergalactic is an inspired, original, and extremely intimate look at life and success. It’s everything I didn’t know I needed from adult animation.

Entergalactic is streaming on Netflix September 30, 2022.