Discussing Jonathan Djob Nkondo's work, the voice behind the surreal sequence in Gorillaz's new short: 'The Mountain, The Moon Cave, and The Sad God'!
Gorillaz's 'The Mountain, the Moon Cave, and The Sad God' is not only a wonderful addition to the band's wide catalogue of short music videos, but also manages to set itself apart in the sheer meticulous attention to the visuals. It takes on a traditional animation approach to the backgrounds and effects, and while these are also wonderful in their own right, I'd like to bring attention to the middle section of the short that becomes looser and more surreal.
Personally, I was blown away by the transition from grounded luscious backgrounds into the cave section's explosion of colour - the manic energy of it all. When I first saw it the first thing I thought was: 'God, I really hope we get some info confirming the people behind this section, their voice is fantastic'. Usually animators and designers online will slowly trickle out bts shots and WIPs post publishing, so I was keeping an eye out to see if we'd get any info.
Luckily I didn't have to wait long - the new bts on Youtube contains an interview section with Jonathan Djob Nkondo. Not only is he credited as sequence director, but he confirms in the short clip that he solely animated the section, a significant amount of work for what was probably a shorter production. There's a LOT happening, with a lot of bits and pieces and multi-character animations layering on top of each-other. The explanation as to why makes sense - it would likely would be easier to keep it to one person instead of attempting to match the intent between shots when done by other people, especially when said person is used to working independently.
For other animation geeks out there, Nkondo is a talented artist who's worked previously with The Line (an incredibly skilled boutique studio that has also previously done music videos for Gorillaz in the Song Machine era.) on some of their marvel snap ads. More notably, he did character design and animation on episode 1 of Scavenger's Reign, something that aligns more with his personal sense of style imo.
In his personal career, Nkondo is a phenomenal short filmmaker. His short 'Little Taste of Joy' is just one example of the fluid, creative style shown in the Gorillaz video. I absolutely adore the portrayal of human bodies in his work, mixed with the abstract throughout his body of work. There's an emphasis on how malleable and physical they are, contrasted with organic shapes that come alive. If you haven't checked out his work, I highly recommend taking a look through this short, through the rest of his channel, or his illustration work!
(Just wow, the sense of composition and shape is so fantastic.)
Personally I hope this short helps bring more attention towards the visionaries and creatives behind the project! Animation artists also deserve the time people give to researching other creative auteurs!