‘Entergalactic’: Kid Cudi and Kenya Barris team up for ‘one of the best animated films released on Netflix’
In a recent interview with Tudum, Scott “Kid Cudi” Mescudi explained his new special, “Entergalactic,” is a singular work: an animated event that shares its name with an album that he is releasing alongside the Netflix title. “Entergalactic” is also a word with a long history for the hip-hop artist and actor, who invented the term, which manages to be both familiar and cryptically inviting. “The title came from my first album, the song that I did called ‘Enter Galactic,’” Mescudi told Tudum. “The song was about me meeting this girl for the first time, and us doing shrooms and making love.”
Mescudi teamed up with “Black-ish” creator Kenya Barris for the new animated project that blends notes of “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” and “Insecure” with tracks from the musician’s new record, resulting in a singular look at the story of two young, ambitious artists falling in love. The animated special hit Netflix on September 30 and has since retained an impressive freshness rating of 94% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.
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Set in New York City, “Entergalactic” stars Mescudi as Jabari, a charming, streetwear-clad artist on the cusp of real success. After a chance run-in with his cool new photographer neighbor, Meadow (“Love Life’s” Jessica Williams), Jabari has to figure out whether he can make space for love in his life. So what exactly have critics been saying?
Kenneth Seward Jr. of IGN Movies calls the project a pleasant surprise and “a dope animated film in its own right.” The premise may be formulaic but “’Entergalactic’ sports a majority Black cast that’s genuine in its representation; though they can be wild and unruly in a given situation, the characters are all simultaneously depicted in a pragmatic fashion.” He continues, “Cudi, in particular, does a good job portraying Jabari as a charming, likable, and an all-around trustworthy individual. Even better, he does it without coming off as cheesy.” The animation is especially praised, as Seward notes, “‘Entergalactic’ is one of the best animated films released on Netflix in some time.”
Cristina Escobar of RogerEbert.com questions how to classify “Entergalactic,” but “on the vibe level, ‘Entergalactic’ totally works. It may not be a movie or a TV show but it’s certainly more than an extended music video.” The animation is praised as it tackles subjects that most animated films tend to avoid. “We get scenes about sex, drug use, and hangovers…and on gender too, ‘Entergalactic’ asserts a progressive point of view. Both Jabari and Meadow are flawed, dynamic people who have to compromise and grow to find happiness—both are equally human. Furthering this feminist perspective, Jabari tells his buddy Ky (Ty Dolla $ign) to ‘Stop saying bitches,’ modeling how healthy masculinity looks when no feminine eyes are looking.” The music is impressive, as expected, but the true achievement is the complexity of the project itself. “Just don’t approach it as a TV show.”
Steven Scaife of Slant Magazine was not impressed by the overall result. “Entergalactic’s main focus is the romance, which goes through the typical motions of lovers failing to communicate and then sprinting through the rain to the sanctified site of their first date.” He continues, “Rather than feeling grounded in its everyday struggles, ‘Entergalactic’ comes across more like a black hole of imagination. A handful of druggy daydreams extol a generic, spacey ‘power of creativity’ reminiscent of commercials for children, and those are the best of the story’s sporadic attempts to take advantage of an animated format.” Scaife concludes that the project might have been better fit for shorter music videos, and it is ultimately a miss.
Richard Roeper of Chicago Sun Times gushed, “One of the things I loved about ‘Entergalactic’ is how the main characters look like their voice actors, to one degree or another. (Weed dealer Jimmy sort of resembles Timothée Chalamet; Carmen is an exact double for Laura Harrier.) It somehow makes them come across as more ‘real,’ more endearing, more wonderful. This is one of my favorite animated movies of the year.”
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