''Entergalactic'' (stylized in

all caps In typography, all caps (short for "all capitals") refers to text or a font in which all letters are capital letters, for example: "THIS TEXT IS IN ALL CAPS". All caps may be used for emphasis (for a word or phrase). They are commonly seen in ...

) is an

adult animated An adult is a human or other animal that has reached full growth. In human context, the term ''adult'' has meanings associated with social and legal concepts. In contrast to a "minor", a legal adult is a person who has attained the age of majori ...

music

television special A television special (often TV special, or rarely television spectacular) is a standalone television show which may also temporarily interrupt episodic programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Some specials provide a full range of ent ...

created by American musician and actor

Kid Cudi Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi (born January 30, 1984), also known by his stage name Kid Cudi ( ), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, actor and fashion designer. Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Cudi would move to New Yo ...

, that serves as a visual companion piece to the album of the same name. Initially announced as a

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite television, satellite, or cable television, cable, excluding breaking news, television adverti ...

, in August 2022, ''Entergalactic'' was then redeveloped as a TV special. The special premiered on September 30, 2022, on

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

, simultaneously with the album. Based on the album, which Cudi recorded before

storyboard A storyboard is a graphic organizer that consists of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence. The storyboarding process, i ...

ing the TV special, it was directed by Fletcher Moules. Alongside Cudi, it stars the voices of Jessica Williams,

Timothée Chalamet Timothée Hal Chalamet (; ; born December 27, 1995) is an American actor. He has received List of awards and nominations received by Timothée Chalamet, various accolades, including nominations for an Academy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, a ...

Ty Dolla $ign Tyrone William Griffin Jr. (born April 13, 1982), known professionally as Ty Dolla Sign (stylized as Ty Dolla $ign or Ty$), is an American singer, songwriter and record producer. He first gained major recognition in 2010 for his feature on Ameri ...

Laura Harrier Laura Ruth Harrier (born March 28, 1990) is an American actress and model. She began modeling at the age of 17 after she was discovered by a location scout. She moved to New York City where she continued modeling and was represented by agencie ...

Vanessa Hudgens Vanessa Anne Hudgens (; born December 14, 1988) is an American actress and singer. After making her feature film debut in ''Thirteen'' (2003), Hudgens rose to fame portraying Gabriella Montez in the ''High School Musical'' film series (2006� ...

Christopher Abbott Christopher Jacob Abbott (born February 1, 1986) is an American actor. Abbott made his feature film debut in ''Martha Marcy May Marlene'' (2011). Abbott's other notable films include '' Hello I Must Be Going'' (2012) '' The Sleepwalker'' (2014) ...

070 Shake Danielle Balbuena (born June 13, 1997), better known by her stage name 070 Shake, is an American hip hop recording artist. 070 Shake is a part of the musical collective 070, who have released a mixtape together titled ''The 070 Project: Chapter ...

Teyana Taylor Teyana Me Shay Jacqueli Shumpert ( Taylor; born December 10, 1990) is an American singer, actress, dancer and choreographer. In 2005, she signed a record deal with Pharrell Williams' Star Trak Entertainment imprint. Afterwards, she choreographe ...

Jaden Smith Jaden Christopher Syre Smith (born July 8, 1998), also known mononymously as Jaden, is an American rapper, singer, and actor. He has received various accolades, including a Teen Choice Award, an MTV Movie Award, a BET Award and a Young Artist ...

Keith David Keith David Williams (born June 4, 1956) is an American actor. He is known for his signature deep voice and commanding screen presence in over 300 roles across film, stage, television, and interactive media. He has starred in such films as '' T ...

, Arturo Castro, and

Macaulay Culkin Macaulay Macaulay Culkin Culkin (born Macaulay Carson Culkin; ) is an American actor. Often regarded as one of the most successful child actors of the 1990s, he was placed 2nd on VH1's list of the "100 Greatest Kid-Stars". Culkin rose to prom ...

. ''Entergalactic'' is dedicated to Cudi's deceased friend, American fashion designer

Virgil Abloh Virgil Abloh (; September 30, 1980 – November 28, 2021) was an American fashion designer and entrepreneur. He was the artistic director of Louis Vuitton's menswear collection beginning in 2018, and was given increased creative responsibilitie ...

, who served as a

costume designer A costume designer is a person who designs costumes for a film, stage production or television show. The role of the costume designer is to create the characters' outfits or costumes and balance the scenes with texture and colour, etc. The costume ...

on the project before his passing, with the release date sharing the birth date of Abloh. A

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...

, ''Entergalactic'' uses an art style inspired by that of ''

I Lost My Body ''I Lost My Body'' (french: J'ai perdu mon corps) is a 2019 French adult animated film directed by . It premiered in the International Critics' Week section at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the ''Nespresso'' Grand Prize, becoming t ...

'' and '' Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse''. Billed as a "television event", it received critical acclaim for its animation, visual style, music, and story.

Plot

Jabari is a charming,

streetwear Streetwear is a style of casual clothing which became global in the 1990s. It grew from New York hip hop fashion and Californian surf culture to encompass elements of sportswear, punk, skateboarding and Japanese street fashion. Eventually hau ...

-clad artist on the cusp of real success. After a chance run-in with his cool new photographer neighbor, Meadow, Jabari has to figure out whether he can make space for love in his life.

Voice cast

Scott Mescudi Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi (born January 30, 1984), also known by his stage name Kid Cudi ( ), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, actor and fashion designer. Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Cudi would move to New Yo ...

as Jabari * Jessica Williams as Meadow Watson, Jabari's love-interest. *

as Jimmy, Jabari's friend and drug dealer. * Tyrone Griffin Jr. as Ky, Jabari's friend. *

as Carmen, Jabari's ex-girlfriend. *

as Karina, Meadow's pregnant best friend. *

as Reed, an art dealer and Meadow's friend. *

Danielle Balbuena Danielle Balbuena (born June 13, 1997), better known by her stage name 070 Shake, is an American hip hop recording artist. 070 Shake is a part of the musical collective 070, who have released a mixtape together titled ''The 070 Project: Chapter ...

as Nadia *

as Jordan, a local skater. *

Mr. Rager "Mr. Rager" is a song recorded by American musician Kid Cudi, taken from his second studio album, ''Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager'' (2010). The song was officially released via Music download, digital download, on October 25, 2010, as ...

as Boxing Coach, Meadow and Karina's boxing instructor. * Arturo Castro as Len, Jabari's co-worker. *

as Downtown Pat, a local skater. * Maisha Mescudi as Ellie, Jabari's older sister. *

Francesca Reale Francesca Luisa Reale (born August 23, 1994) is an American actress known best for her roles on the Netflix series ''Haters Back Off'' and '' Stranger Things''. Early life Reale was born and grew up in Los Angeles and received a BFA in acting at ...

as Sydnie *

Luis Guzmán Luis Guzmán (born August 28, 1956) is a Puerto Rican actor. His career spans over 40 years and includes a number of films and television series. He has appeared in the Paul Thomas Anderson films ''Boogie Nights'' (1997), ''Magnolia'' (1999) an ...

as Huge Mover

Production

Development

On July 23, 2019,

announced that

and Ian Edelman would write and produce what was originally going to be an animated music TV series adaptation of Cudi's album '' Entergalactic''. Cudi had previously collaborated with Edelman in 2010, on the

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

series ''

How to Make It in America ''How to Make It in America'' is an American comedy-drama television series that ran on HBO from February 14, 2010, to November 20, 2011. The series follows the lives of Ben Epstein (Bryan Greenberg) and his friend Cam Calderon (Victor Rasuk) as t ...

''. Cudi serves as an executive producer alongside

Kenya Barris Kenya Barris (born August 9, 1973) is an American film and television writer, producer, director, and actor. He is best known as the creator of the ABC sitcom ''black-ish'' (2014–2022). Early life Barris was born in Inglewood, California, th ...

, through their respective production companies Mad Solar and Khalabo Ink Society. In September 2021, Cudi took to Twitter to thank the team that helped bring the project to fruition, and reassured fans they wouldn't be disappointed: "Wait til y'all hear and see ''Entergalactic''. ouhave no idea. I really wanna thank Kenya Barris, Mike Moon, Elizabeth Porter and the whole team for believing in my vision and helping bring it to life. Everything about this show is next level. Ull see." In an August 2022 interview with ''

Esquire Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title. In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentlema ...

'', Cudi revealed he recorded the music first—"a suite of songs on the beauty of being freed by love"—and worked backward to

the narrative before hiring a writing team to script it. On August 25, 2022, it was announced in a press release ''Entergalactic'' would instead be released as a television special. On October 1, Cudi clarified on Twitter: "Its a series but done in a very unique way broken up into chapters not episodes designed for binging! So, it feels like a movie ecauseits an hour and a half and can be seen in one sitting but this is a series. Hope that makes sense. The goal is for more

seasons A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pola ...

Casting

In July 2019, Cudi was cast in the series. In June 2022, Jessica Williams,

, Arturo Castro, and

were revealed to be the rest of the cast. On June 8, Cudi revealed his real-life older sister, Maisha, would voice his on-screen older sister Ellie, among other voices.

Animation, design, and influences

The animation was handled by DNEG Animation in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, which also co-produced the special. A 3D map of New York was downloaded and rebuilt in the pipeline. Influences for the film's design were ''

'' and '' When Harry Met Sally...''.

Music

Kid Cudi's eighth solo album '' Entergalactic'' doubles as a

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...

for the TV special. The album consists of original songs performed by Cudi, of which the TV special is based on. Additionally, a

film score A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to ...

composed entirely by American record producers

Dot da Genius Oladipo Omishore, known professionally as Dot da Genius is an American record producer and audio engineer from Brooklyn, New York City. He first gained recognition in 2008 for producing "Day 'n' Nite" by American musician Kid Cudi, with whom he ...

and

Plain Pat Patrick Reynolds, professionally known as Plain Pat, is an American music executive, record producer, songwriter and disc jockey (DJ). He is perhaps best known for overseeing American musicians Kanye West and Kid Cudi, during their respective e ...

, was released on October 14, 2022, by Netflix Music, LLC. *All music composed by Dot da Genius and Plain Pat, except where noted.

Release

On September 15, 2021, Cudi revealed that the series, and the album, is set to premiere in 2022. In September 2021, Cudi released a short trailer in promotion for the Netflix series, which revealed the music would be produced by his longtime collaborators

and

. On April 24, 2022, Cudi wrote on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

: "''Entergalactic'' is gonna be something really fucking special. Minds will melt. This cast?? The MUSIC?? Listen. ouheard it here first. Remember this tweet. Stay tuned for more news in June!" On June 8, Netflix unveiled the "first look" at ''Entergalactic'', in a trailer that also revealed the cast. On June 10, the first original song created for the series, titled "Do What I Want", was issued on streaming platforms as the album's first official single. On July 12, Cudi revealed on Twitter, the official trailer for the show will premiere in August, featuring two new songs, with one of the songs set to be released as the second single. On September 12, Netflix unveiled a new trailer for ''Entergalactic'', which included the aforementioned single, " Willing to Trust".

Reception

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which uses a weighted average, ''Entergalactic'' has received a score of 77 out of 100 based on 10 critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Rendy Jones of '' Paste'' wrote "''Entergalactic'' is as sweet a

as it is an ethereal animated odyssey. It's a stylish, colorful love letter to animation and the simplicity of Black love in the modern age. It feels like the lovechild between ''

When Harry Met Sally ''When Harry Met Sally...'' is a 1989 American romantic comedy-drama film written by Nora Ephron and directed by Rob Reiner. It stars Billy Crystal as Harry and Meg Ryan as Sally. The story follows the title characters from the time they meet ...

'' and ''

Spider-Verse "Spider-Verse" is a 2014 in comics, 2014–2015 in comics, 15 comic book storyline published by Marvel Comics. It features multiple alternative versions of Spider-Man, alternative versions of Spider-Man that had appeared Spider-Man in other medi ...

'' for a Black demographic, who deserve stories like this no matter what medium they're presented in." Chase Hutchinson of

Collider A collider is a type of particle accelerator which brings two opposing particle beams together such that the particles collide. Colliders may either be ring accelerators or linear accelerators. Colliders are used as a research tool in particle ...

wrote "A rare gem of an animated work, Kid Cudi guides us on a sublime journey that explores the bond between two people drawn together by love." Justin Charity of The Ringer wrote "It's saucy and cute, which is to say, it's a sharp attitude adjustment for such a dreary rapper and refreshingly effective as such. Netflix's ''Entergalactic'' is a feature-length promotional complement to his latest album, but it's also a creative breakthrough in its own right." Rachel Ho of ''

Exclaim! ''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features in-depth coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly Exclaim! print magazine publishes 7 ...

'' gave it a 8/10 rating, stating "the story of Jabari and Meadow may be one we all know very well, but it's the world of ''Entergalactic'' that captures the imagination, sonically and visually." Joshua Alston of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' concluded with "what's available of ''Entergalactic'' is frequently intoxicating. Director Fletcher Moules doesn't miss a single opportunity to add beautifully animated flourishes to the script written by Mescudi, Ian Edelman, and Maurice Williams. There are sublime musical numbers, for lack of a better term, that let Mescudi's music breathe and crank the visuals to 11. But the shifts between ''Entergalactic''s spacy elements and its grounded moments aren't always smooth, another consequence of the series-to-special evolution. There's much to love about Mescudi's love story, except the fact that there isn't more of it to love."

Accolades

Future

On October 1, 2022, Kid Cudi revealed via

that while ''Entergalactic'' was "like a movie", its purpose was closer to that of a

television pilot A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie), in United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television network or other distri ...

, revealing that he intended to produce "more

" ("hour and a half"-long films) making up an ''Entergalactic'' series, per the project's original announcement as being a television series. In December 2022, Cudi revealed ''Entergalactic'' would just be a stand alone special, however unveiled he is working on a new animated project.https://twitter.com/KiDCuDi/status/1605523393108881408

References

External links

* * *
Entergalactic
' at

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

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