Love, Death and Robots’ most beautiful episode was ‘a love letter to Moebius’ - The Verge

Volume 3 of Love, Death and Robots on Netflix features an episode called The Very Pulse of the Machine, and director Emily Dean explains how the story was adapted and its Moebius-inspired visuals.

Volume 3 of Love, Death and Robots covers a lot of ground: haunting alien landscapes, frighteningly realistic sea monsters, cute zombie apocalypses. But, even still, one episode in particular manages to stand out: “The Very Pulse of the Machine.” It’s a beautiful, lonely animated short about an astronaut named Martha (Mackenzie Davis) trapped on Io, a desolate moon of Jupiter, while possibly communing with the Moon as well — or maybe she’s just hallucinating. It’s based on a short story of the same name by Michael Swanwick and features an art style clearly inspired by the late French artist Jean “Moebius” Giraud.

Following the new season’s premiere, I had the chance to talk to Emily Dean, who directed the episode, about how the visuals came about, the challenges of adapting the short story, and why she found herself wandering a beach while wearing motorcycle gear. Also, spoiler warning: we discuss the episode’s ending and what it ultimately means.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

What was your first contact with this short story? Did you know about it beforehand?

I was invited in by Blur Studio to read a bunch of short stories that they were considering for volume two. I read a lot of them, and I landed on “The Very Pulse of the Machine.” And I just fell in love with the story from the get-go.

https://www.theverge.com/23153217/love-death-robots-very-pulse-machine-interview-emily-dean

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