Welcome to the Doodleverse, where Coi Leray breathes life into a pastel-hued, petal-headed character named Deysi in the animated short film Dullsville and The Doodleverse and contributes to the soundtrack with award-winning music producer Pharrell Williams and a host of hip hop artists. Pharrell, Coi Leray, and Trippie Redd attended the film’s premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) on Saturday night. Photos and videos to come.

Pharrell, Coi Leray and Trippie Redd were part of the star-studded debut of the 20-minute animated film at TIFF held at the historic Design Exchange alongside Doodles founder, artist Scott Martin, also known as Burnt Toast, Doodles CEO Julian Holguin and the Doodles team. 

The Doodles executives say that this isn’t just the launch of a film, it’s the beginning of a larger project that will have a much longer lifespan. “After meeting with various studios, we decided to bet on ourselves and develop Dullsville and The Doodleverse with an experience that goes way beyond a pilot or film,” said Holguin.

The Doodleverse is a universe of characters created by Doodles, designed to pass the time for animation lovers. The brand itself is part of an ever-expanding universe, like the diverse set of characters in other universes such as Marvel or Disney.

On Saturday night, Sept. 7, the musicians walked the red carpet along with the project’s production team for an by-invitation-only club-style immersive experience where the film was screened via a projection on the walls of the venue. The experience came complete with an audience-sensitive DJ, full-service bar, exquisite catering and cordoned off upper and lower VIP areas. The after-party highlighted musicians from the film’s voice-over and soundtrack of triple-hop beats with a hint of house that made the club kids stand out — they couldn’t keep still — while the artists themselves were sitting two feet away in the VIP area or enjoying an overhead view of the event from the second-floor balcony.

Doodles created three music videos and an animated special that featured artists including Lil Wayne, Lil Yachty, Swae Lee, and Coi Leray leading up to the official release of Dullsville and The Doodleverse at TIFF. The artists created original music that was released on Doodles Records and lent their voices to characters featured in the animated special. 

The song and music video Can’t Hold Me Down by Pharrell Williams, Kyle Richh, Lil Wayne & Lil Yachty is part of the official soundtrack for Dullsville and the Doodleverse.

Anything but dull, Doodles also struck up partnerships with Adidas, created exclusive merchandise and collectibles, some of which were available onsite, as well as digital collecting experiences online. We would expect nothing less, since Doodles started as an NFT company two-and-a-half years ago.

The Doodles experience redefines Saturday morning cartoons with a new set of influencers who are much bolder and a lot more expressive. Its audience is more Britney bitch! than the Mickey Mouse Club from whence she came. 

Animation shows made for children are often watched by adult audiences, but the venue’s expansive space swallowed up the audio making it difficult to hear the dialogue. It was hard to tell if the entire content was made specifically for older audiences. Although, by choosing to work with artists who have more controversial personas like not-so-squeaky clean Lil Wayne, or Coi Leray — who wore a see-through bra under an unzipped leather jacket to the film’s debut — indicates that Doodles is not courting younger audiences for the Dullsville and The Doodleverse film.

Coi Leray posed on the red carpet while holding her date, the effusively tattooed Trippie Redd’s hand and carried a Balenciaga ‘grocery bag’ in the other hand. At first glance one thought she was coming from the supermarket but this bag costs more than 50 cents. The couple were cozy and kept calling each other “baby” on the red carpet. The two were friendly with the crowd but not as playful as Pharrell, who got the executives to pose for the cameras in karate stance.

Photos to come.

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by Cherryl Bird – Toronto, Ontario, Canada
X @ladycbird | Instagram @cherrylbird