As if the prospect of an imminent new album from Gorillaz wasn’t exciting enough, the band has released a teaser for an accompanying short film — and it’s something that looks like it’s come straight from the vault of animation history.
The 30-second teaser for The Mountain, The Moon Cave and the Sad God debuted on the Gorillaz YouTube channel February 20, a week ahead of the film’s full release… which also happens to be the same day that The Mountain, the next full Gorillaz album, drops. With a hand-drawn animation style that hews closer to the Hanna-Barbera classics of the 1960s than the recent glossy aesthetic of recent albums and videos — a sense emphasized by the film grain and dramatic, scratchy voiceover— it’s a break from what fans might be expecting from the virtual band led by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett as they prepare for their ninth album.
Take a look at the first teaser for The Mountain, The Moon Cave, and the Sad God below:
The eight-minute The Mountain, The Moon Cave and the Sad God will debut on the Gorillaz YouTube channel at 8 AM Pacific, 11 AM Eastern, on February 27, following an exclusive premiere February 26 at Alamo Drafthouse theaters.
The Mountain, the album, will be released February 27.