“The Mountain, The Moon Cave & The Sad God” Is Gorillaz’s Nostalgia and Ode to Analog Practice
Earlier this year, Gorillaz released a short animation titled The Mountain, The Moon Cave & The Sad God. A day after its release, a friend sent a message: “I don’t know why this new Gorillaz animation makes me miss my childhood.” After watching Noodle, Murdoc, 2D, and Russel embark on an adventure in India, it became clear that the animation operates as both nostalgia and a record of deeply familiar visuals. The Mountain, The Moon Cave & The Sad God reads as an ode to the classic animation The Jungle Book.
With each release, Kong Studios (the fictional studio owned by the band’s members) has consistently documented the absurd journeys of the quartet. This time, Murdoc, Russel, 2D, and Noodle arrive in Mumbai with the help of four fake passports provided by one of Murdoc’s business associates. The band is portrayed as having abandoned their dream of becoming global pop stars. Amid the dense Indian mountains, they begin to question their own existence and the meaning of life, all wrapped in a mystical process of music-making.
Named after three tracks from Gorillaz’s latest album, The Mountain, this animation was produced using a hybrid method: original hand-painted visuals combined with digital touches, physical props enhanced through lighting tricks, and “vintage” optical film effects. Analog and digital practices converge into a work that feels remarkably authentic–one that actively triggers the viewer’s memory. In an era saturated with artificial intelligence, the artists behind The Mountain, The Moon Cave & The Sad God celebrate creative labor rooted in human craftsmanship, something that feels increasingly rare and deeply missed. Another point, then, for nostalgia.
The animation’s directors, Max Taylor and Tim McCourt of The Line, explain that every visual component captures the feel of Western animation from the 1950s and ’60s. “From the start to the finish, we recreated every step of the process, mirroring how it would have been done in the analog way, so the final effect is that you feel that it’s something tangible and real,” Taylor said.
The initial concept for The Mountain, The Moon Cave & The Sad God came from Gorillaz co-founder Jamie Hewlett. The artist envisioned reviving classical animation practices such as cel painting techniques that were later photocopied, a process popularized by Disney animation in the late 1950s. “One thing we liked about the era was when they started Xeroxing or photocopying onto the cel, which gave the quality of the cel a different look,” McCourt explained. Taylor added that pencil lines were used to ensure the final result retained a photocopied feel, followed by color treatments with speckled textures and soft shadows. Although the animation was not created on actual celluloid, the team replicated its grain by layering scans of real film over the scenes.
“Within the film, there are lots of optical effects where we filmed live-action components,” McCourt elaborated. “We then emulated the double exposures they would have done back in the day on film. As far as the grain, dirt, and noise, it’s scanned film, blank film overlaid to give the final image that real film texture.”
Live-action footage and physical props also play a crucial role–most notably the storybook featured in the animation’s opening sequence. The creative team collaborated with one of the last remaining traditional bookbinders in London, Wyvern Bindery. Behind the beautifully composed opening frame lies an old book rigged with piano wire, whose pages open as if by magic. Their “analog” experimentation did not stop there; even seemingly minor elements were treated as opportunities for hands-on exploration. For the glowing golden mountain logo that appears in the animation, the team constructed it from sheets of black acrylic. It used a complex rostrum camera setup to create a smoke effect beneath the surface.
Painted backgrounds offer another example of this experimental approach. The practice reinforces an impressionistic sensibility, emphasizing depth through foliage rendered as clusters of faint dots. The project’s art director, Eido Hayashi, pushed the team to find a balance between authentic artistic practice and production efficiency. The solution was to paint base layers manually, then add details digitally. The result? The process becomes almost impossible to detect–yet the texture in every frame is strikingly beautiful, as if transporting viewers into the pages of a storybook.
Another essential element central to every Gorillaz animated release is character design–a defining trait of the UK-based band. The Mountain, The Moon Cave & The Sad God presents Murdoc, Russel, 2D, and Noodle in a more grounded form. The creators also pay tribute to children’s tales like The Jungle Book through the character of a young boy who opens the story, before transitioning into Noodle.
Perhaps this is why The Mountain, The Moon Cave & The Sad God feels so profoundly nostalgic, evoking a longing for childhood, for a warmer past. Every visual element in the work returns us to a time when analog practices, imperfections, and expansive experimentation were celebrated.
