Hasta La Ideas

Illustration duo Mrzyk & Moriceau’s music video for The Avalanches’ track Subways features a collection of colourful characters embarking on a surreal underground journey (+ movie).

The video is divided into nine parts, each revolving around one of nine different characters riding a rainbow-coloured subway. Individuals include a poodle clown, a pair of high-fiving rats, and an apple-headed man walking a worm.

Mrzyk & Moriceau based the characters on figures from popular culture and films, including a man with long red legs modelled on Saturday Night Fever’s Tony Manero, and a purpled-haired individual apparently inspired by musician John Cale.

The film follows their journey through a surreal subway inhabited by hot dog rollercoasters and disembodied figures. The illustration duo also created an unusual cast of fellow passengers, which includes everything from swearing cats to bearded nudists.

“The concept was to create a full 2D cartoon inspired by Sesame Street,” the pair explained. “An old school, grainy and fully handmade cartoon, as if it had been created in the 70s.”

The film took just over a month to complete. Mathematic Studio in Paris created the final animation, based on storyboards by the pair.

Surreal animation also featured in French band Toybloïd’s If You Dare music video, which features hallucinatory images based on road trip films from the 1960s and 70s.

Animator Anna Ginsburg took a psychedelic approach for Scottish musician Steve Mason, creating a collection of unusual helmeted characters for his Planet Sizes video.

The Subways single is available for download and appears on the Wildflower album, which came out earlier in the year.

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