Not unlike the spirit of his good friend Terry Gilliam’s Monty Python collages, Heath Ledger’s just-released clip for Modest Mouse’s “King Rat” — featuring all-dancing, cigar-chomping whales and seals with a taste for gingerbread men — trades in an off-kilter animated style that reveals a surreal imagination at play.
The similarities shouldn’t be surprising, either. According to Modest Mouse singer Isaac Brock, Ledger had originally planned to shoot the video using animation from Gilliam, a man the actor considered a close mentor since they first worked together on The Brothers Grimm.
Ledger passed away during the filming of Gilliam’s latest fantasy, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, which the director completed with Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law playing skewed-world versions of the actor’s character.
Parnassus is due in cinemas later this year.
See the clip below.
