Adult Swim's Most Ambitious Animated Special Is A Must-Watch On HBO Max

Adult Swim's "The Elephant" was brought to life like a creative séance, with four visionary storytellers challenged to see what stories might emerge from deliberate isolation. Animation mainstays Rebecca Sugar ("Steven Universe") and Ian Jones-Quartey ("OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes"), Pendleton Ward ("Adventure Time"), and Patrick McHale ("Over the Garden Wall") were brought in to crafted a chapter of a three-act project in isolation, working with their own teams and without knowledge of how the others' stories would unfold. What should have been a total disaster instead birthed a surprisingly fluid narrative that serves as yet another reminder that Adult Swim is the one channel still putting the pursuit of artistic exploration at the forefront of decision-making.

Inspired by the surrealist drawing game known as the Exquisite Corpse, "The Elephant" was conceived as both an experiment and an act of faith. Vishnu Athreya, SVP of Content Strategy and Current Series Production at Warner Bros. Animation, assembled the creators and set the rules: each team would claim a section of the story — the head, the body, or the feet — then build outward, completely unaware of what the other teams were concocting. The only connective tissue came from "game keepers" Jack Pendarvis and Kent Osborne, who were tasked with gently guiding continuity without revealing spoilers.

Each seven-minute segment carries the unmistakable imprint of its creator(s), but is wholly unique from the shows that audiences synonymously associate them with. Somehow, despite the obstacles, the thematic through line effortlessly continues the conversation of what came before; circling shared themes of identity, existential curiosity, and the fragile relationships that define us. If you believe in human ingenuity in the face of AI threatening to snuff out the last vestiges of what makes life worth living, "The Elephant" is an absolute must-watch.

I was invited to an advance screening with Ward, Sugar, and Jones-Quartey in attendance to help explain how it all came together. "We didn't know what the setup or payoff was," Sugar added, acknowledging the anxiety baked into the process. "We knew we'd all have strong opinions about style and execution. The question was: how do you make something cohesive when not being cohesive is the point?" The rules of the project were simple: the character must die, the character must be from the exquisite corpse game they all played together ahead of time, and each act has a different creative team (including animators, musicians, etc.).

All of the participants admitted they feared the final result might not work at all, but "The Elephant" stands as a rare achievement as an internationally produced animated experiment during a time when studios, networks, and streamers are more risk-averse than ever before. Each team assembled its own collaborators, partnering with animation studios from across the globe, including Titmouse (U.S./Canada), Remus and Kiki (U.K.), eMation (South Korea), Rudo (Argentina), Dinamita (Colombia), and Patricio Bauzá and Beto Irigoyen (Mexico). 

The musicians invited along are also very diverse in sound, including Dolphin Hyperspace, Jeff Lu, and The Blasting Company. It gives each segment a homegrown, personal touch that reflects each team's sensibilities. "It feels like 'Liquid Television,'" Jones-Quartey remarked, referring to MTV's legendary animation showcase from the 1990s. He and Sugar both studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, where many "Liquid Television" animators taught, and their segment is certainly inspired by that era. But as creatives who have worked together in the past, the core four's work on "The Elephant" shows how well they understand each other.

"The Elephant" represents precisely the kind of artistic risk a network like Adult Swim was built to champion. As a late-night animation block housed within a network foolishly believed to be "just for kids," Adult Swim has long operated as a countercultural space that resists homogeneity and privileges experimentation and creative autonomy. Recent successes like "Common Side Effects," "Smiling Friends," and the terminally wholesome "HAHA, You Clowns" underscore the breadth of expression the block continues to defend. "The Elephant" is its unapologetic embrace of animation as a collaborative and ideological art form; a medium which is at its most powerful when it reflects the fractured, contradictory nature of lived experience. This shouldn't be a radical thesis, but in our currently hellenic timeline, it is.

All four of the creators have expressed interest in seeing this experiment continue, and even proposed the idea of serving as mentors to the next batch of artists tasked with the challenge. It's not only a fantastic idea and a way to use the name recognition of the original four to entice audiences who may not be as familiar with the folks behind their favorite animated shows, but it also continues the network's tradition of seasoned pros helping to foster the talent of the next generation. "The Elephant" proves that when institutions make room for collective risk-taking, the results can be sensational. While it will certainly be a little too odd for the casual viewer, for those willing to give themselves over to the story "The Elephant" is telling, the experience will be unlike any other.

"The Elephant" and the excellent making-of documentary, "Behind the Elephant," are available to stream on HBO Max.