Here Are 17 Reasons You're Going To Love "Entergalactic"
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Netflix's latest rom-com, Entergalactic, is an adult animated special that dropped on Friday, Sept. 30. It follows Jabari (Kid Cudi, real name Scott Mescudi), a New York City artist whose career is on the rise. When he moves into a new apartment, Jabari encounters a neighbor named Meadow (Jessica Williams), and the two quickly fall for each other.
As their love story unfolds, Jabari's friends Jimmy (Timothée Chalamet) and Ky (Ty Dolla $ign) offer their support, while his past with an ex-girlfriend, Carmen (Laura Harrier), adds some drama to the story.
Here are 17 reasons why Entergalactic is a flick you won't want to miss.
1.The special coincides with a new album from Kid Cudi.
Scott initially planned to drop his Entergalactic album along with a joint TV series. This eventually evolved into a 92-minute animated special. The album and special were both released on Sept. 30, and the two mark an engaging creative endeavor that was a years-long project for Scott.
"Entergalactic is something that we worked on for three years," Scott said in a Netflix interview. "And we put a lot of love and a lot of heart and hard work into it."
The artist explained to The Wrap on Sept. 30 how he carefully worked on both the visuals and music of Entergalactic to make the two cohesive, yet also unique from visual albums of the past.
"The music element was always a part of it in the first place and this was more so, 'How can I bring the visual and the music and marry the two and it just be the perfect thing, and it not be like what we’ve seen before, like a visual album?'" Scott said.
2.The Entergalactic cast lineup is filled with talented performers.
Entergalactic consists of an impressive A-list cast: In addition to Scott voicing Jabari, Jessica Williams is Meadow, Vanessa Hudgens portrays Karina, Ty Dolla $ign is Ky, Timothée Chalamet voices Jimmy, Laura Harrier plays Carmen, 070 Shake is Nadia, Teyana Taylor portrays a boxing coach, Macaulay Culkin is Downtown Pat, and Jaden Smith voices Jordan, to name a few.
3.It offers an extremely satisfying love-at-first-sight moment.
When Jabari and Meadow first see each other at a party, their eyes meet from across the room, and sparks immediately fly between the two. This electric love-at-first-sight scenario is just what audience members dream of in real life. As Scott's hypnotic song, "Angel," plays and colorful visuals are incorporated into the scene, this is a standout moment from the rom-com.
4.Kenya Barris, the creator of Black-ish, brought his talent to the production.
After Scott followed through on a request to make an appearance at Kenya's daughter's school, the two creatives became friends. They then decided to work together as co-creators and co-executive producers of Entergalactic, which is an artistic collaboration that has broken new ground for animation and music.
"You've never seen animation like this," Kenya said of Entergalactic during a Breakfast Club interview on Sept. 28. "It's the first time an album and a show have ever dropped at the same time. And each track on the album represents a chapter in the show. There's Easter eggs in it, and I really feel like this is a different swing for us."
5.Legendary designer and fashion director, Virgil Abloh, crafted stunning wardrobe statements for the characters.
Unlike many animated shows and films, Entergalactic shows its characters sporting a variety of wardrobe pieces rather than consistently repeating the same outfits. In order to create looks that brought the characters to life, Scott recruited Louis Vuitton's artistic director, Virgil Abloh, to come on board as the costume designer for the project.
"Virgil has been a huge inspiration for me," Scott said in a Netflix clip. "And when it came time to do Entergalactic, I knew that, in order for us to have the freshness, I knew I had to hire someone who was just focused on wardrobe. And who fresher than Virgil?"
"That was such a huge deal because [Virgil is] just culturally so seismic," executive producer and writer Maurice Williams added. "He was so gracious and so caring."
Virgil sadly passed away from cancer in 2021. Scott honored Virgil with the release of Entergalactic on Sept. 30, which was also Virgil's birthday.
"It's Virgil Abloh's Birthday today. I miss my brother so so much," Scott wrote on Twitter. "Entergalactic is for you big bro. We did it Virg. We did it Happy Birthday V."
6.It's a modern, realistic rom-com that's still optimistic about love triumphing in the end.
In Entergalactic, Jabari and Meadow's relationship is not without its flaws; the pair experience road bumps in their union and are faced with the fact that they have to make dedicated efforts to keep their romance alive. In the end, however, Entergalactic sends the message that enduring love is possible, even in an era when dating is more complicated than ever.
"I think it’s the same thing that you would want from the best of our romantic comedies, like Harry Met Sally. The idea that love is flawed and characters are flawed and people are flawed but overall if you lean in, it might sound saccharine, love can conquer all," Kenya told Complex on Sept. 30.
"But you have to be willing to have some growth and some arc. It’s a really hard time to be young and in a relationship, to just be in this world in general. It’s a really hard time when you’re trying to make your career, everyone has to be successful, younger than ever. Sometimes you have to leave those things behind in the backdrop and focus on what’s important, and what’s important is that relationship. That’s what we really want and hope people take is that sometimes you find your person, and you got to fight for them," he added.
7.The music of Entergalactic takes you on a journey.
Scott's eighth studio album, also called Entergalactic, is made up of captivating tracks that inspired this animated venture and guide the plot of the special. Audiences are shown Jabari's journey with Meadow in chapters that flawlessly align with songs from the album.
"From the minute that [Scott] played those songs, it was just like an activation," Maurice said, per Netflix. "Like, 'Oh. There is something special here.'"
"I love listening to an entire album beginning to end," Vanessa Hudgens added. "And to see how that was developed into Entergalactic, I was like, 'That is the coolest, coolest thing ever.'"
8.It incorporates a variety of artistic mediums into animation.
Entergalactic is an amalgamation of creative channels like animation, fashion, and music. In this way, the rom-com presents a fresh take on traditionally animated specials, and it gave its lead actors a chance to explore new artistic concepts.
"I felt like these things, ... the culture, the art, the music, all these things were something that we haven't seen in animation, and I just really wanted to do something new and something that people haven't done before," Scott said to Collider on Oct. 1. "Because I was at this place as an artist where I was getting bored with the same old thing, recording an album, dropping two music videos, and then that'd be it. And I just was thinking about, 'How could I do something bigger and give people a new experience?' And yeah, this show was the perfect thing for me at the time."
9.Entergalactic fulfills a longtime aspiration of Scott's.
"I've always wanted to work in animation in some capacity," Scott told Entertainment Weekly on Sept. 26.
The performer realized that Entergalactic was the right fit for his first animated production due to its exploration of the universal theme of love.
"I've just been trying to figure out what I could do differently that hadn't already been done before," he added. "It was really just about, 'How can I find a story that everybody can connect to?' Once I figured out that love was the key tone, everything kind of flowed together."
10.It will get through to your emotions.
The sweet and authentic love story between Jabari and Meadow is easy to get emotionally invested in. Even cast members who were extremely familiar with Entergalactic's plot ended up becoming emotional once they watched the special from start to finish.
"The first time I watched Entergalactic, I cried at the end," Scott said in his EW interview. "And look, I know what the show's about: I've read every script, I'm in the show, I know how it ends. But it was still so powerful that it moved me, man. That's the shit you want to do. You want to make some powerful shit. I know that's going to touch people, in the same way that it touched me, if not more so."
The rom-com has a happy conclusion that will remind viewers that, no matter their relationship history, love can always still be in the cards for them.
"I've attempted to be in a relationship over the past few years and it hasn't worked out," Scott added. "... This story could be someone's reality: People could find each other and it could be perfect. It could be my reality one day. A lot of this is what I hope for in my own life. That's where a lot of the inspiration came from."
11.The director of Entergalactic, Fletcher Moules, created a world of breathtaking visuals.
Fletcher started contributing to the project in 2019 and studied the music and plot of Entergalactic in order to create a world in which viewers would feel drawn to the characters. This led to using a "graphic art style" of animation that resembles the visuals of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse but has its own distinct vibe.
"The number one thing was to make sure the audience connected with the emotion of those characters because it is an emotional story," Fletcher told IndieWire on Sept. 30. "It’s why I went to the very graphic art style — if we made it look illustrated then it suddenly places us into a unique world with movement and expressions you can relate to."
The director added that he designed the animated rom-com "to feel handmade, to see the brushstrokes on the faces, and for the mouth shapes to feel like they were live-action with some animation added in post-production."
Scott has stated how Fletcher's involvement in this journey was "key" to capturing the right look for the characters and their environment.
"Meeting up with Fletch, you know, he was key," Scott said to ComingSoon. "Finding exactly what I wanted with the animation, and we went back and forth for months, just trying to get it right. And he was a really big help. The first mock-up that he did of the character was pretty much spot-on."
12.Scott got to team up with a good friend, Timothée Chalamet, for Entergalactic.
Scott and Timothée have been friends for years, and Timothée expressed interest in being part of Entergalactic when Scott first told Timothée he'd like him to play Jimmy. Once he took a look at the script, the Dune star quickly signed on for the role, in which he voices a weed dealer and close friend of Jabari.
"One thing that I do understand is that whether me and Timmy are friends or not, he's not about to do some shit just because. So it needed to be dope," Scott said to BuzzFeed on Sept. 30. "And it needed to be something that made sense for him to do. After he read the script, he said, 'Yo, this is fire. I fuck with this.' I was relieved. I was like, 'Okay, he truly fucks with this.'"
"It means a lot to me. The fact that he, Jessica [Williams], Laura [Harrier], Vanessa [Hudgens], and Macaulay [Culkin] all wanted to do this ... I'm like, 'Man, this is my idea and they fuck with my idea.' It's super humbling," he added.
13.It paves the way for the future of adult animation.
With its relatable storyline, strong performances, and artistic depth, Entergalactic sets the standard for adult animation. On Oct. 3, Fletcher opened up to Slashfilm about his optimism that Entergalactic might lead to more storytelling in the future which utilizes adult animation and transcends genre.
"What we are aiming to do here exactly is not a genre. We're using animation, our medium, to make something that happens to be the right way to tell this love story, and to put the music into this love story, to visualize," Fletcher said before adding, "I hope there is more of this, and I hope Entergalactic can be a beacon in the rest of the industry, where we're able to see more of this work out there, [and] it doesn't need to be led by large family content or a superhero attached."
14.It depicts a Black love story in animation.
"Early on, I was thinking, 'I really want to tell a Black love story in the animated space.' That was really important for me because we have not seen that," Scott told BuzzFeed. "You don't really see Black love stories all that much on TV in general, live-action or animated. So it was really important for me."
15.Personal details from the actors' real-life looks were used for their characters.
The animation team of Entergalactic analyzed the faces of lead actors like Jessica, whose personal makeup preferences were then incorporated into Meadow's beauty looks.
"Just to speak to the eyeliner community: I’ve been a fan of wearing black eyeliner and then just a little bit of blue on the top since high school," Jessica said, via Netflix Tudum. "I really appreciate that the animators took time to study my face. That was actually a very personal thing that made it into this gigantic project."
16.It's funny!
Staying true to the rom-com genre, Entergalactic not only focuses on Jabari and Meadow's romance, it also features numerous funny moments from its cast. This humor ties the story together, and Jessica elaborated on the jokes included in the script during an Oct. 1 interview.
"What I love most about this story is just seeing these two really funny, warm people fall in love," Jessica told Entertainment Tonight Canada. "I really love the environment. I feel like Vanessa and Laura and Ty, ... everybody's really funny and really just lovely in it. I just think it's funny also, and I'm really into how well the jokes play."
17.Although Entergalactic is animated, its storyline and characters feel just as real as live action.
Entergalactic feels as lifelike as live-action projects for several reasons: it has a vivid style of animation, the characters are dynamic, and it preaches valuable lessons about love and life. One of these is spoken by Jabari's sister, Ellie (Maisha Mescudi), who provides words of wisdom as Jabari navigates how to make his relationship with Meadow work.
"Love is the easiest thing in the world when it happens by accident, but it doesn't get real until you do it on purpose," she says.
Watch Entergalactic on Netflix now!
Kid Cudi Said Timothée Chalamet Agreed To Star In Netflix's "Entergalactic" Before Reading The ScriptTerry Carter Jr. · Sept. 29, 2022
Kid Cudi Discussed The Animated Sex Scenes In His New Netflix Special, "Entergalactic"Terry Carter Jr. · Sept. 30, 2022
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