Creative animator Julian Glander brings his unique sensibilities into the film world with a bizarre, collaborative kaleidoscope of his vibrant imagination. Boys Go to Jupiter is unlike any other animated film before it. Inspired by his Floridian roots, Glander has crafted a movie voiced by several of his close friends, having brought most of them onboard the project through simple Instagram direct messages. Nearly three years later, the completed feature truly speaks for itself. Between surrealist musical interludes, ridiculously cute alien characters, offbeat humor, and Lego-esque campy and colorful visuals, Boys Go to Jupiter molds Earth into an otherworldly beauty that must be seen to be believed.
Four friends are just living life, chilling on the beach during winter break, as a weird pulsating blob washes up onto the shore. When they try to figure out what it may be, the thing burrows deep underground into a huge hole, setting off the spark of change that will alter the course of their kiddie lives as they know it. The oldest in their crew, Billy 5000 (Jack Corbett), has already been drifting apart, more concerned about ways to make money than in lounging about and beatboxing as life passes by. Billy has figured out a rad hack for his Grubster gig that earns him crazy amounts of money just by delivering food to people, then converting his money through the app. Billy’s planned goal of earning five thousand dollars continues even as another strange creature, a tiny blue donut-shaped alien named Donut, battles for his heart and attention.
Glander has a lot of fun with the weirdness of being a delivery driver, forcing Billy 5000 to encounter countless odd, seemingly throwaway characters along his journey. Weird customer requests are a thing in any service line of work, but there’s something particularly bonding about a job that still keeps its workers going door to door. A little farmer woman who lives next to a golf course happily accepts a bag of food she didn’t order as compost, but only after packing up Billy 5000 a full sack of colorful golf balls she no longer wants to see in her yard.
All who show up are strangely rendered and uniquely realized, ranging from a man who lives inside The World’s Largest Hot Dog really trying to push his product, to a religious neighbor sporting cross-earrings whose hair looks like runny cottage cheese. Even those who pop up only for a gag—such as a woman and child inside a car who cause multiple accidents, yet we never see their actual faces—receive wildly original, distinct looks. Minute details including billboards, signs, and actions occurring in the background show an impressive attention to detail.
As for the rest of the actual plot—emerging between the ebb and flow of a weird Tampa winter season and its denizens—the Dolphin Groves family juice company comes into the fray. Billy 5000 arrives to deliver onion rings to former classmate Rosario Dolphin, who now goes by Rozebud with a z. Immersing herself in botany and a greenhouse, Rozebud (Miya Folick) is set to inherit her mother’s company after retirement, but she wants no part in the weird corporate entity. Rozebud takes Billy 5000 behind the scenes, showing him experimental hybrids that Dr. Dolphin (Janeane Garofalo) has been cultivating in her obsession to stay relevant. After slipping away with a hybrid lemon that sprouts other fruit from its moldy spores, Dr. Dolphin sets her minions off to retrieve both the lemon and the strange Donut creature that Billy 5000 has befriended.
If any of this sounds extremely random or nonsensical, while one could certainly view Boys Go to Jupiter in this way, its charms burrowed deeply into my funny bone. The lore we eventually learn about the creatures and Dr. Dolphin somehow fits, in an obviously preposterous manner. Vocal work fits every creature, human, and everything else to an astonishing degree, also including the voices of Julio Torres, Grace Kuhlenschmidt, Elsie Fisher, Sarah Sherman, and many more. The music and sounds remain as surreal and low-fi as the rest of the movie, giving it a dreamlike quality.
What could be a total mess in the hands of someone else thrives on the vine of Julian Glander’s creativity. Glander plays with perspective, zooms in on coffee pouring into a pot, renders stunning spin techniques and vortexes of color from nothing. The adorable little Donut hatched from his mind eventually gets its own song, a cutesy highlight of the entire film. Garba (Tavi Gevinson), the “demon worm” may not be as cute as Donut, but both instantly put a smile on my face. For the subset of young-to-mid-adult stoners that consume Adult Swim content like it’s going out of style, they may discover a new favorite that surpasses much of what they can find on that network in the first place. The strong vision of Glander and the inherit oddball specificity of his childhood origins combine Boys Go to Jupiter into an animated gem and instant cult classic.
Boys Go to Jupiter premiered at 2024’s Tribeca Film Festival.
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