Visual albums are great vehicles for bands and artists to promote their discography, using the songs from new releases to soundtrack feature length productions. This has resulted in some incredibly well done, artful and impactful projects such as Prince's Purple Rain, Beyonce's Black is King, and Pink Floyd's The Wall. The most recent release of this genre, and the one that is rather interesting, is Kid Cudi's animated special Entergalactic. Released to Netflix on September 30, and created by Scott "Kid Cudi" Mescudi and Kenya Barris, Entergalactic shows the incredible and untapped promise of modern adult animation. It's a story in six chapters that follows Jabari (Mescudi), a street artist who just scored a job at a comic studio, who meets and immediately falls for his new next door neighbor, a photographer named Meadow (Jessica Williams), and must juggle his new love with an old flame (Laura Harrier) and his creative ambition.

This is a story that could've been easily told in live action, but the choice to animate this film with a vibrant color pallette and a New York City setting reminiscent of Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, was one that shows what mature animated features have been missing for a very long time, and something we need more of.

RELATED: Scott “Kid Cudi” Mescudi & Jessica Williams Talk ‘Entergalactic’ and Creating a Cool Animated Melting Pot of Music, Fashion & Art

Animation: Not Just For Kids

Thankfully, the archaic idea that animation is just for kids is something society has evolved, or is evolving past. However, the reputation of adult animation in general is somewhat polarized; there is a stereotype that for animation to be mature, it needs to be explicitly for adults. This is usually done one of two ways: The first is to make it as explicit as possible, with sex, violence, and/or a sick sense of humor, which can either be done really well, or poorly to the point of becoming incredibly juvenile. The second way, the way that receives more critical acclaim, is to use animation to tell somber, traumatic life stories, sometimes historical, other times autobiographical but always tugging at the heartstrings. There is, of course a place for films like these, that spectrum of The Haunted World of El Superbeasto and Waltz With Bashir, but there is another option that unfortunately can go overlooked.

Sometimes real life can feel like a cartoon, when you go inside your own mind and perceive the world around you. Sometimes no world-changing dramas are necessary to tell a compelling story, even in animation. There are films that balance the portrayal of life and political turmoil simultaneously, such as the brilliant animated film Persepolis, however films with just the former are few and far between. Mary and Max, $9.99, and Anomalisa are all brilliant claymation endeavors that explore the connections between people and the meaning of life, but Entergalactic gives us something that we've yet to truly receive in animation: The joys of adulthood.

Being an adult sometimes sucks; it's full of inconveniences, and financial struggles, and personal conflicts that make you pray for the halcyon days of childhood. But at the end of the day, there is a reason we were so excited to become independent adults back then, because as stressful as it can be, being an adult is also really fun. Entergalactic masterfully portrays the lives of creative young adults in a big city, the excitement of a career opportunity, the magic of a new romance, going bar-hopping with friends, eating a perfect burger, putting on some good music and kicking back at your apartment. It shows the simple pleasures of living an independent life, and in a sea of movies about the oppression marginalized people go through, seeing a predominantly black cast of characters casually winning at life is such a breath of fresh air.

The Animated Lives Of Artists

This film, while the sex, swearing and casual drug use makes it explicitly for grown-ups, is one of the most positive, life affirming features to come out this year. It's an homage to modern positivity, almost wholesome in its morals of finding love and meaning. It's a romantic movie, both romantic in that it's a romance, but also romantic in its optimistic perception of life.

There's always a pressure, when making films for adults using a medium that's pigeonholed for kids, to show the grittiness of reality. Whether it be conflict on a global scale, or a single person's existential crisis, with very muted colors and a lack of elements that could make the film seem "too cartoony." So what's great about Entergalactic is that is does not try to hide the fact that it's a cartoon, and leans heavily into the freedom animation gives the creatives behind the film.

Exploring new love in New York City is something that has been done many times in live action, and it would make sense for Mescudi to make a live action visual album as many have done. The choice to make it an animated film not only accentuates the stunningly curated soundtrack both inside and out of the Entergalactic album itself, but also presents the inner world of the protagonist. Jabari is an artist, and the whole film is about the nature and the careers of artists in large, metropolitan areas. The struggles to conform to consumerist standards, or stepping out of one's comfort zone to promote their work, so we see the world through the eyes of the cartoonist, with his own character, Mr. Rager (Keith David), coming to life on the walls. The emotions Jabari feels, the stories he's told, are all shown in various styles of animation, the explosions of color when you lay eyes on someone you instantly fall in love with, how riding a bike fast down the road feels like you're flying, there are some amazing sequences in this film that are bright and bursting with color, which goes to show the vibrancy New York City has to offer.

There have been some spectacular pieces of animation directed toward adults in recent years, Hollywood dramas like Bojack Horseman, comedic celebrations of friendship like Tuca and Bertie, or surreal discussions of philosophy like The Midnight Gospel. Netflix especially has been winning in this regard with projects like the aforementioned series and hidden gems like Cut Along The Dotted Line. Entergalactic takes adult animation a step forward from this, hitting the stride of Tuca and Bertie in its mix of positivity and depth. This film is a cut above many adult animated films by giving it light, allowing animation to be colorful, allowing the character designs to be softer, showing the beauty of the characters and the world around them.

Entergalactic is up there with the great visual albums of the 21st century, it's what "adult animation" should mean, and hopefully others will take inspiration from it in the future.