The dark days of winter will be lit up for animation lovers thanks to a one-of-a-kind event, Adult Swim’s The Elephant, premiering as an ad-free experience on Friday, December 19 at 11 p.m. ET/PT on Adult Swim, streaming the next day on HBO Max.
The project was originally announced at this year’s Annecy Festival.
The project comes from the minds and artistic hands of the creators of some of Cartoon Network’s most celebrated series: 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) have reunited to push the boundaries of conventional storytelling — resulting in an animated adventure so mysterious, even they don’t know what it’s about.
Adult Swim’s The Elephant is described as a rare creative experiment in which each of the three-acts are made in isolation. With Sugar and Jones-Quartey working as a duo and McHale and Ward overseeing their own separate parts, the special is guided by “game masters” and Adventure Time alums Jack Pendarvis and Kent Osborne for a storytelling experiment that unfolds as a collaborative surprise, ultimately merging into a single, unexpected narrative.
The project is produced for the Adult Swim network by Titmouse (Invincible Fight Girl, The Legend of Vox Machina, Scavengers Reign).
Adult Swim will debut a behind-the-scenes documentary, Behind the Elephant, alongside an encore airing of the special on December 20 and on HBO Max, offering a rare look into the creative process featuring interviews and footage from the production. The documentary highlights the unique challenges and discoveries that made the project a truly original experience — for both the audience and the creators themselves.
