Adult Swim Unveils New Animated Short: Snooze Quest

Adult Swim has just released their latest SMALLS animated short, Snooze Quest, created by the talented Victoria Vincent (aka @vewn). The SMALLS initiative showcases short-form animated works from emerging creators globally, with fresh content debuting weekly on Adult Swim’s YouTube channel.

Vincent, who boasts over 1.5 million subscribers on her YouTube channel, is recognized for her previous SMALLS shorts, including Mask Dog and Bobo the Monkey. Additionally, she has contributed as a director on Netflix’s animated series We the People and served as a background designer for Adult Swim’s Lazor Wolf.

Created over a span of five months, Snooze Quest employs a vibrant, slightly chaotic collage animation style—an understatement, to say the least. The narrative follows PJ, who finds himself entangled in a sniper revenge plot during a sleepless night. And when we say sleepless, we mean it. “I produced it by sitting at my desk for 10 hours a day drawing pictures until it was done,” Vincent explains. “Thankfully, my friend Lewis Tarver assisted with the inbetweens. I couldn’t have done it without him—he’s fantastic and makes his own short films too.”

A Personal Narrative Behind the Animation

The story draws from a deeply personal and unsettling experience. “A few summers ago, I was at a flea market when a shooting occurred,” she recounts. “Although I wasn’t an eyewitness, we were all put on ‘lockdown’ in a nearby clothing warehouse until the police deemed it safe to leave. We sat there, quietly panicking, wondering if we were about to be targeted by an active shooter, all while staring at our reflections in a rack of sparkling holographic disco shorts. Half an hour later, the police let us out. I never found any news coverage about the incident—it was as if it never happened. For a year after, every time I passed tall buildings, I would have intense, panicky visions of a sniper aiming at me. I believe the narrative of Snooze Quest is a manifestation of those emotions and my attempt to process them.”

Vincent has created over 20 animated shorts, most set in familiar environments: cities, apartments, and bathrooms. “Everything looks the same,” she admits, “and honestly, I’m tired of drawing these backgrounds.” In search of inspiration for something fresh, she “tried to convince myself that I was innovating with the collage style, for my own sanity. I suppose it worked because I didn’t have a complete mental breakdown. A win is a win.”

Reflections on a Filmmaking Journey

With a somewhat fatalistic view of her career thus far—especially regarding her solo filmmaking endeavors—Vincent shares that her biggest challenge was confronting some harsh truths about a solitary life dedicated to creating animated shorts. “I used to believe that making short films was a stepping stone, and that eventually, someone with deep pockets would notice my work and say, ‘This girl should make a real movie!’ and hand me 10 million dollars to create the greatest film ever, making me the female equivalent of Stanley Kubrick.”

“But recently,” she continues, “I’ve come to realize that’s not how it works. I could very well be stuck in my bedroom forever, producing these tedious short films alone and sharing them on social media for the rest of my life, never achieving anything ‘big’ or ‘important.’ This disillusionment has led to a significant lack of motivation during this process. However, I think I’ve learned something valuable from navigating through it, or at least found a way to accept my reality, because I’m still actively working on new short films, even if they never transform me into Kubrick-but-a-girl.”

Source: Adult Swim