As if to apologize for his umpteenth Tumblr megavent over the weekend, EDM lightning rod Deadmau5 just dropped this extraordinary — and extraordinarily Disney-inspired — clip for his recent Bradbury-nodding, fan collaboration track “The Veldt.”
Deadau5 premiered the instrumental version of “The Veldt” three months ago, claiming to have been so inspired by Ray Bradbury’s 1950 dystopian short story of the same name, which serves as an admonition against the dangers of modern technology, that he created the three-minute soundtrack in tribute to the writer, who died June 5 following a “lengthy illness” at age 91. Shortly after the DJ, also known as Joel Zimmerman, dropped the track, he lauded a fan, songwriter Chris James, in another Tumblr rant for “righteously [doing] his homework” (i.e., actually reading Bradbury’s short story) before offering up lyrics for it. Those lyrics, along with James’ vocals, were added to the track for the clip below. Who says EDM has to tour?
The video itself is the first Mau5-sanctioned visual he’s dropped in three years, since 2009’s Rob Swire-featuring “Ghosts N’ Stuff” clip. Commissioned from U.K. production house Qudos Animations and directed by Dr. Manroop Takhar, “The Veldt” is the animated, literal telling of the Bradbury story itself, which follows two children, incidentally named Peter and Wendy, as they become engrossed in the virtual reality world they are able to construct telepathically and enter from their nursery. We won’t spoil the ending, of course (there’s a lot of animated blood and guts — these kids are very obsessed with death), but if you ask us, Qudos might’ve taken some color cues from The Lion King, too — not to mention a little bit from some other recently animated clips.
