Truba Animation reimagines behind the scenes anecdotes from Game of Thrones

Truba, the animation studio behind not one but two of our favourite music videos of 2018 – Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s Honeybee and Feels Like Summer by Childish Gambino – has now created an animated tale imagining behind the scenes of Game of Thrones.

In a new short series by HBO titled Backstories, animators have been tasked with reimagining stories behind some of the channel’s favourite shows which, of course, includes one programme on everyone’s lips: Game of Thrones.

For Truba’s contribution, creative director Greg Sharp, animation director Ivan Dixon and producer Nina Knezevic were tasked with animating an anecdote by Game of Thrones’ executive producers D.B Weiss and David Benioff. As the tale goes, the pair were with Jason Momoa while filming season two of the show, where GoT fans will remember Jason as Khal Drogo. After a few beers with co-star Emilia Clarke, David, confidently tipsy, challenged Jason “to a contest of strength”.

This contest was playground classic, the slap game, where, long story short, David’s hands took too many slaps resulting in them swelling up to a gigantic size. The next morning, with a flight to board back to Los Angeles from filming in Ireland, David’s hands were still double the size. Once his wife caught sight of them they headed to the emergency room where X-rays revealed: “Jason Momoa had squished my hands.”

Reimagining this several seasons later, Truba’s animation style incorporates details from the show as scenes shift from a restaurant through to “a Dothraki tent full of classic Game of Thrones characters”. The studio has also incorporated its signature stylistic tendencies, using consistent colour palettes, detailed close-ups and key expressions from characters which make their animated versions of cast and crew easily recognisable.

“This just goes to show that even the executive producers of Game of Thrones can make really bad life choices, like trying to beat Jason Momoa,” adds Greg Sharp. “I’m a big fan of GoT so it was an honour to recreate the characters and locations in our animation style.” Nina adds: “As a huge fan of GoT, it was an amazing treat to work alongside Greg and Ivan and our talented team of animators to bring to life such a funny set anecdote. I hope other fans will get as much enjoyment from watching it.”