Three wayward souls chase the teenage dream, wholly unsure if it ever existed in the first place. Adorned with corduroy, convertibles, and boldly-colored, foam-cupped headphones, Mixtape is a neon-drenched, stop-motion retrospective examination of teenage angst: the rebellious days of staying out late, shredding down cul-de-sacs on skateboards and stolen shopping carts, and scrambling over any "no trespassing" sign that dares stand in your way. Inspired by coming-of-age classics like Wayne's World and Dazed and Confused, and with a healthy helping of fourth-wall-breaking Wes Anderson wit, it's a reminder of those times when nothing could stop you - or protect you from your underdeveloped frontal lobe.
In those formative years, every song tells a story: a track on dad's car radio on the way home from an ego-bruising defeat, or the cheesy tune that played as you walked away from a demoralizing prom spent in a too-small suit or a hand-me-down dress. Hearing those hits again, even decades later, can transport us back to a pivotal point in our lives: the days we called our worst that we endlessly chase to relive.
Like all good teenage dreams, Mixtape begins in a bedroom with plans made during a few too many near-misses with oncoming traffic. A mission to have a pampered princess break free of her chains to join the friends who give her a life away from her pushy parents. To head to the party to end all parties on the last day of school. Until you're struck with the realization - again - that maybe you just don't fit in.
This is one final chance to rule the roost. You know the sort: one last, gnarly night to cause chaos on the streets and to do all those things you always told yourself you would but never did. A time to feel the midnight wind rush through your hair and live the life the jocks shoved into your faces for three long, awkward years.
After sneaking out, either through a window or, for those with parents who only care if you come home in a cruiser - out the front door - the night is what you make of it. These confused and anxious kids look back on the days that solidified their bonds, with maybe a few imaginative embellishments that nobody can prove otherwise: flying through the skies of a verdant meadow on the outskirts of town, blowing up cars as you shred down the streets, enjoying a psychedelic cacophony of pyrotechnics set off to celebrate their realistically non-existent achievements? Sure, that totally happened!
For these three, totally convinced that their childhood ends right here, right now, it's time to sneak out for one final night of purposefully irresponsible skating, decisively delinquent deeds, and bittersweet car hood deep chats beneath the stars. The sort where feelings and fears finally come to a head, fuelled by a first taste of forbidden fruit, be it dad's secret stash of liquor, a bit of green you've been "holding onto for the right moment", or maybe even a long-withheld kiss that could turn the on-surface cozy dynamic of this friendship circle into a bitter love triangle.
Powered by a totally awesome, generation-defining soundtrack of Iggy Pop, Lush, and The Cure, this is a greatest-hits tour of town that will have anyone feeling as if they're on top of a world that feels so unfairly stacked against them. It's a look back to the times when you felt untouchable - practically invincible - but embarrassingly philosophical. A time when you knew absolutely nothing, but were so sure that you knew everything. When you had the questions and the answers.
In Mixtape, you'll rediscover the feeling of that last night of youth as three wandering souls sit out under the stars to look back and ponder life's big mysteries. Through their juvenile lens, you'll remember when it felt like it was your last chance to do absolutely anything. To do everything. To embrace one long - but never long enough - night where you're free to hit the liminal nighttime roads and feel the thrill of being behind the wheel. You know, before it becomes an essential commute: an everyday, mundane part of the very warm welcome to the rat-race of adult life. To live the last day of a life that's barely even begun.
In this single-player narrative adventure, three friends let their emotions run high one last time to blow off steam and prank the assholes they're certain they're about to leave behind the second the sun rises in the morning: a bully that's made their awkward high school life hell, a neighbor who gave "them punk kids" a hard time for standing on the sidewalk just a little too long, and maybe even the school principal who dragged their asses when they finally stood up for themselves. At the tail-end of their high school days, these all-American heroes are ready to let loose before they lose it all.
All of this is nobody's business. Until it is. Get busted, and their last night together as high school kids could very well be their worst: a reminder that any excuse of "I was in my bedroom all night" ironically goes out of the window when the cops bang on the door or drag you back in a blaring patrol car for the neighborhood to see, straight into the jaws of your "mortified" folks.
Set in that sensitive time of life when you're fully convinced that kids rule the world, Mixtape is the next emotionally-charged narrative adventure from the award-winning team at Beethoven and Dinosaur: the same studio behind The Artful Escape: 2021's beautifully imaginative exploration of a gifted, geeky kid's attempt to take on the world with nothing but a guitar.
It's an amalgamation of the legendary tales that have shaped generations of kids looking to find their place in the world. Of coddled bright lights burning out when it's time to shine and troubled teens who just never had a chance. It's one last opportunity to sneak out. To stay out. To freak out. From Annapurna Interactive, publishers of award-winning artistic narratives like Goragoa, Outer Wilds, and Stray, have your say on the rest of their lives when Mixtape launches on May 7.