Monkey: Journey to the West - new video and remix competition

A short film for Monkey Bee - the single from Journey to the West has made its debut.

Created and directed by Jamie Hewlett (the man behind Gorillaz and Tank Girl), Monkey Bee is a mixture of Chinese 1970’s spaghetti western, meets Korean horror movie, meet’s the much beloved original Monkey TV series.

Fans of Hewlett’s numerous Gorillaz videos should enjoy his first live action outing. Conjuring up images of legendary battles and adversity, we find Monkey trying to cross the volcano fields of Princess Iron Fan. Monkey needs her magic fan in order to cool the hot molten fields but the Princess refuses and an epic battle ensues, throwing first trained assassins and then a colossal army of volcano soldiers his way in a desperate attempt to thwart his journey.

Shot on 35mm film over three days in London, Monkey Bee stars members of the Journey to the West live opera cast. A team of modellers, animators, compositors and vfx artists have since worked for 8 weeks to combine the live action, animation and special effects, and deliver the first Monkey film:



A Monkey Bee video remix contest is also being held, with the makers of the film offering a trove of clips, backdrops, green screens and visuals straight from the editor's suite so you create create your own version of the Monkey Bee film. More details about the competition here.

monkeyjourneytothewest.com
Monkey youtube