Development

On July 23, 2019, Netflix announced that Kid Cudi and Ian Edelman would write and produce what was originally going to be an animated music TV series adaptation of Cudi's album Entergalactic. Cudi had previously collaborated with Edelman in 2010, on the HBO series How to Make It in America. Cudi serves as an executive producer alongside Kenya Barris, through their respective production companies Mad Solar and Khalabo Ink Society.^[6]

Kid Cudi originally planned for Entergalactic to be a live-action series, before Kenya Barris convinced him to make it an animated series.^[7] In a November 2019 interview, when speaking on the dual projects, Barris said, "The idea of there's never been an album and a series dropped at the same time, so each song will have a 30-minute narrative that kind of explains what that song is about and it's a love story . . . It's a youthful love story told through Cudi's music."^[8]

In September 2021, Cudi took to Twitter to thank the team that helped bring the project to fruition, and reassured fans they wouldn't be disappointed: "Wait til y'all hear and see Entergalactic. [You] have no idea. I really wanna thank Kenya Barris, Mike Moon, Elizabeth Porter and the whole team for believing in my vision and helping bring it to life. Everything about this show is next level. Ull [sic] see."^[9][10]

In an August 2022 interview with Esquire, Cudi revealed he recorded the music first—"a suite of songs on the beauty of being freed by love"—and worked backward to storyboard the narrative before hiring a writing team to script it.^[11]

On August 25, 2022, it was announced in a press release Entergalactic would instead be released as a television special.^[1] On October 1, Cudi clarified on Twitter: "Its a series but done in a very unique way broken up into chapters not episodes designed for binging! So, it feels like a movie [because] its an hour and a half and can be seen in one sitting but this is a series. Hope that makes sense. The goal is for more seasons."^[12]

Casting

In July 2019, Cudi was cast in the series.^[6] In June 2022, Jessica Williams, Timothée Chalamet, Ty Dolla Sign, Laura Harrier, Vanessa Hudgens, Christopher Abbott, 070 Shake, Teyana Taylor, Jaden Smith, Keith David, Arturo Castro, and Macaulay Culkin were revealed to be the rest of the cast.^[13] On June 8, Cudi revealed his real-life older sister, Maisha, would voice his on-screen older sister Ellie, among other voices.^[14]

Animation, design, and influences

The animation was handled by DNEG Animation in London, which also co-produced the special. A 3D map of New York was downloaded and rebuilt in the pipeline. Influences for the film's design were I Lost My Body (2019) and When Harry Met Sally... (1989).^[15]

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 97% of 30 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.30/10.^[25] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 77 out of 100, based on 10 critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".^[26]

Rendy Jones of Paste wrote, "Entergalactic is as sweet a romantic comedy as it is an ethereal animated odyssey. It's a stylish, colorful love letter to animation and the simplicity of Black love in the modern age. It feels like the lovechild between When Harry Met Sally and Spider-Verse for a Black demographic, who deserve stories like this no matter what medium they're presented in."^[27] Chase Hutchinson of Collider wrote, "A rare gem of an animated work, Kid Cudi guides us on a sublime journey that explores the bond between two people drawn together by love."^[28]

Justin Charity of The Ringer wrote, "It's saucy and cute, which is to say, it's a sharp attitude adjustment for such a dreary rapper and refreshingly effective as such. Netflix's Entergalactic is a feature-length promotional complement to his latest album, but it's also a creative breakthrough in its own right."^[29] Rachel Ho of Exclaim! gave it a 8/10 rating, stating that "the story of Jabari and Meadow may be one we all know very well, but it's the world of Entergalactic that captures the imagination, sonically and visually."^[30]

Joshua Alston of Variety concluded with "what's available of Entergalactic is frequently intoxicating. Director Fletcher Moules doesn't miss a single opportunity to add beautifully animated flourishes to the script written by Mescudi, Ian Edelman, and Maurice Williams. There are sublime musical numbers, for lack of a better term, that let Mescudi's music breathe and crank the visuals to 11. But the shifts between Entergalactic's spacy elements and its grounded moments aren't always smooth, another consequence of the series-to-special evolution. There's much to love about Mescudi's love story, except the fact that there isn't more of it to love."^[31]

Accolades