by Charles Kirkland Jr.
An experiment in animation and social media comes to fruition with the creation of Burnt Toast’s series
Dullsville and the Doodleverse.
In the town of Dullsville, imagination has been monopolized by the sinister corporation Dream Pump
Industries. Hap, a creative thinker and hopeless inventor, and his cat Mello try to fit into a life of dry toast
brunches, cubicle labyrinths, and monotonous efficiency. After a fateful incident involving a Dream Pump
Industries delivery truck, the duo are plunged into the Doodleverse, a reality-shattering world where
imagination holds no bounds – to dangerous extremes. Hap must overcome his self-doubt and harness
his creativity to find a way home, but life in Dullsville will never be the same.
Directed by Doodles Co-founder Burnt Toast (Scott Martin) through his creative studio Golden Wolf, the
animated special had a special debut party during the Toronto Film Festival (TIFF) with a 360-degree
rollout, a story of its own. Dullsville and The Doodleverse leverages the creative capacity of Golden
Wolf, Pharrell Williams, and the entire Doodles team. The experience bridges Doodles’ iconic style with a
bold cinematic format. Voice actors for the series include Lil Wayne, Lil Yachty, Coi Leray, and Swae Lee.
For years, Burnt Toast has been building his brand in the digital world. When the artist began selling
NFTs, his reputation and career soared. He has leveraged the following of music superstars like Steve
itsAoki into his ability to create a studio, Doodles, where his NFTs can come to “life”, being animated. The
pinnacle of this combination of music and animation appears to be having music superstar Pharrell
Williams as a producer.
Dullsville and the Doodleverse is an ambitious animation project. The animation, based on Toast’s
NFTs is vibrant, bizarre, and weirdly interesting. It is modern and created for the current
generation of abstract thinkers.
Grade: B