Review: Adult Swim’s “The Elephant”
Overview:
Adult Swim released a special animated event, The Elephant, as December draws to a close. Various animators with a background at Cartoon Network worked on the project. This included Patrick McHale (Over the Garden Wall), Ian Jones-Quartey (OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes), Rebecca Sugar (Steven Universe), and Pendleton Ward (Adventure Time.)
Very little was known about the special beforehand. However, it was reported by Variety that the special would be divided into three acts. Inspired by the surrealist game, “The Exquisite Corpse,” the animators would develop the start, middle, and end. Each one would be made in “isolation,” with the animators not aware of what the others were doing. Sugar and Jones-Quartey reportedly worked as a duo, with McHale and Ward each working on their own parts.
Our Take:
The first short is arguably the most surreal and will leave many viewers questioning what’s going on. However, a storyline seems to unfold throughout the second and third parts. In all three shorts, the brief encounters and friends that the protagonist makes will leave an impact on viewers. Honestly, this can be surprising for viewers going into this expecting three different stories like on some of Cartoon Network’s classic shows.
There are probably multiple ways to interpret what the special is trying to convey. Dan’s interaction with his creation really brings to mind that the story is about the animator’s process. These beings are each creations in some sense, being imagined by someone. They are brief, as all stories come to an end, whether happy or sad. The creations themselves occasionally wonder why someone wants to tell, let alone write, their stories, which reflects a fan’s desire to sometimes get into the creator’s headspace. This is something that any animation fan who has ever tried to contact a show’s cast or crew members can attest to.
The special’s production makes it unclear just how intentional this was, but the overall implication seems to be that each of the protagonists is meant to be an incarnation of the same being. Either that, or the animators tried to retell the same story three different times. However, this actually ties in well with the idea of the special retelling an artist’s process, as stories are often themselves retelling preexisting stories.
There’s also a lot for animation fans to appreciate. Most of the names attached to the project behind the scenes were famous for Cartoon Network, instead of Adult Swim, shows. While many of these shows were experimental in their own right, it can be interesting to see them handle something with a more mature, or at least surreal, nature. The animation is also well-varied, sometimes within the stories themselves, from cartoonish to something that looks straight out of a Japanese anime.
As the special aired on the Friday night before Christmas, it was tempting to think The Elephant would have something to do with the holidays. After all, the name brings to mind the “White Elephant” gift exchange. It also helps that viewers would have had to sit through a number of Bob’s Burgers Christmas specials in anticipation if they tuned in early. Gene and his tinsel-themed disco album did not lie. The holidays are hinted at throughout the story. Viewers get a quick glimpse at a Christmas tree during the first story and the third story sees Dan and his invention walk through a snow-covered town decorated for the holidays.
Overall, the special is a fun one to enjoy before the holidays begin. One even has to wonder if Adult Swim decides to make The Elephant an annual tradition, maybe even with other animators.
