Gorillaz have unveiled their new hand-drawn animated short film.

Based on the group’s forthcoming album, ‘The Mountain’, The Mountain, The Moon Cave and The Sad God premieres this Friday (27th February) on Youtube. The film title references three tracks from the new record, slated for release on 20th March. Check out a trailer for the film below.

A special early screening of The Mountain, The Moon Cave and The Sad God is set to take place at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Austin, Texas on Thursday (26th February), alongside a special venue-exclusive documentary about the making of the project. Find out more here.

“The Gorillaz went in search of something, but something was searching for them, at the top of… The Mountain,” the trailer teases. “A journey that should have been a dream soon became a nightmare. They wanted to shoot a movie, but now, they are the movie. There is no way down… The Mountain. At the top of The Mountain, they are at the bottom of the food chain. Don’t go up… The Mountain. It’s a jungle out there.”

Serving as the follow-up to Gorillaz’ 2023 LP, ‘Cracker Island’, ‘The Mountain’ was recorded mainly in London and Devon, as well as in various locations across India, including Mumbai, New Delhi, Rajasthan and Varanasi.

The animated outfit – led by musicianDamon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett – have been teasing singles from the album since last year, most recently dropping the fifth and sixth tracks, ‘Orange County’ – featuring Bizarrap, Kara Jackson and Anoushka Shankar – and ‘The Hardest Thing’, which features Tony Allen.

Other previously released singles include ‘Damascus’, with Omar Souleyman and Yasiin Bey, ‘The God Of Lying’, with IDLES, ‘The Happy Dictator’, featuring Sparks, and ‘The Manifesto’, featuring Trueno and late D12 member Proof.

Reports of a Gorillaz movie have been circulating since 2021 when Albarn revealed that after “many incarnations”, writing had begun on a full-length project with Netflix. However, the movie was later cancelled in 2023.

Watch Gorillaz perform their debut self-titled album in full in London here.