The Forgotten Four

Narrative · Meow Wolf

Meow Wolf’s Convergence Station in Denver is four worlds that collided, built as rooms you walk through. The Forgotten Four is a set of short films hidden inside them. A guest picks the story up in one world, carries it into the next, and the last film pays off everything they've been collecting.

Four worlds, four styles. Each had its own team and its own art director, and each style had to come from its world rather than just look unlike the others — its history, how it was built, what happened to it. We wrote with Meow Wolf's story team so the films and the rooms they play in would say the same thing. Eighteen minutes of animation, about seventy people.

It was too big for one director, so I brought on Elyse Kelly and we directed it together. The films don't exist anywhere else. They aren’t online and they don’t screen — they play in the rooms they were made for, and you have to go looking.

6 short films · 18 min of animation · 2021

Poster for The Forgotten Four: Araceli, Panoa's daughter, walks toward a ceremonial fire in the crystal palace of Eemia — Meow Wolf.

Four styles

Final Frames

In a subway tunnel, young Pam watches a rift open in time and space as Darya appears, huge against the tunnel walls — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
On the frozen tundra of Eemia, Panoa kneels before an ancient machine that she wakes with her song — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
In their C Street lab, Julius rushes forward, hand raised, trying to stop Oliander from [what he's doing] — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
Rune stands over her mentor's body and places the sacred crystal around her own neck — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.

Eemia

Short Film

Concept

Panoa stands small in a vast field of ice in Eemia, beneath swirling ribbons of colored light — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
Giant claws of ice rise from the frozen ground to trap Panoa and Araceli — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
The crystal cathedral looms over a tiny Panoa as she walks off into the icy abyss — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
A young Araceli stands at the altar with her groom beneath the prismatic glass of the crystal cathedral — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
Araceli stands behind the flames of a sacred fire in the crystal cathedral — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
Dark claws of ice rise from the frozen ground to threaten Panoa and Araceli — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
Elders stand on either side of Araceli and the sacred fire before the ceremony begins — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
Panoa stands before the ancient machine, now awake, its [eyes/lights] glowing — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.

Final Frames

Panoa and Araceli stand beside a sacred fire in a dark ice cavern, one resting a hand on the other's head — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
Panoa's face in deep blue, eyes closed, a jeweled chain across her brow — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
Panoa stands under shimmering colored light as flowers from Numina bloom around her — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
On the frozen tundra of Eemia, Panoa kneels before a giant ancient machine that she wakes with her song — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
Shards of rainbow light rise through the darkness of the ice — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
A tiny figure crosses a vast, dark slope of ice beneath the night sky — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
In the shadows, Panoa crouches as a sweep of icy light crosses the floor — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
Panoa kneels as her song rises in a swirl of glowing light and flowers — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
A crowd gathers in silhouette against streaks of rainbow light — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
Araceli's face glows through the flames of the sacred fire — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
The sacred fire blazes in the crystal cathedral as Araceli stands in the shadows beside it — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.

C Street

Short Film

Concept

Darya lowers a glowing headband with electrodes onto her head to help her search for Numina — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
The dim C Street lab, with the glowing tank Darya uses to search for Numina, beneath a color palette — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
A soft pink and yellow cliff above a sea of clouds on the astral plane, where Darya finds Numina — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
Numina rises from violet water in swirling ribbons of color to meet Darya, beneath a towering cliff — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
A "Warning" alert flashes across the lab's control console during Darya's test — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
The faces of the Forgotten Four are pulled and twisted through dimensions in a rush of green light — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
A color line sketch of a crowded C Street — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
A bus flies down from a crackling purple rift above C Street, beneath a color palette — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.

Final Frames

A glowing pink bus flies through a dark, rippling void, its headlights blazing — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
The faces of the Forgotten Four are twisted together through dimensions in a rush of green light — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
Darya stands in the bus's blinding headlights, trying to stop it — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
The four women and Numina swirl together through the astral plane in bright, shifting color — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
A close-up of Panoa, eyes closed, glowing in the soft pink light of the astral plane — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
Darya lies in the glowing tank in the C Street lab as Julius watches over her — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
Dimensions pull together as the bus and Quesa, Pam's cat, are swept into a green wave — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
The faces of the Forgotten Four merge and twist through dimensions — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
Numina rises from violet water in swirling ribbons of color to find Darya on the cliff — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
Glowing figures and passersby crowd a dark C Street at night — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
In their C Street lab, Julius rushes forward, hand raised, trying to stop Oliander — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.

Earth

Short Film

Concept

Quesa, Pam's black cat, lounges on a kitchen counter in warm amber light — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
A dark subway tunnel scrawled with her equations, where young Pam searches for Numina — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
Numina, a glowing green form trailing tendrils, slips through the window of Pam's apartment — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
Silhouettes of the academic committee sit before a tall window, judging Pam's work — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
The same committee, seen from behind in dark silhouette — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
In a subway tunnel, young Pam watches a rift open in time and space as Darya appears, huge against the tunnel walls — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
Pam leans against the counter in her kitchen, hands in her pockets — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
Quesa peers out from beside a lamp, eyes wide at Numina just out of view — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.

Final Frames

Quesa, Pam's cat, glows in green light as hands pick her up beside a windowsill of plants — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
Hands reach toward one another through rays of green light — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
At night, Pam sits in a chair holding Quesa in her darkened apartment — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
In a subway tunnel, young Pam watches a rift open in time and space as Darya appears, huge against the tunnel walls — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
Darya reaches toward the bus as it bursts through rays of green light — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
Pam looks up from the driver's seat of the bus, worried, as Quesa watches beside her — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
Numina's glowing green tendrils slip through the window of Pam's dark apartment — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
Pam lies awake with her face on the pillow as Quesa peers down at her — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
The academic committee sits in silhouette before a tiny Pam, judging her work — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.

Ossuary

Short Film

Concept

A pencil and color sketch of the great library of Ossuary, its arched, bone-like ribs rising toward a crystal at the center of the dome — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
Rune's work table in a pink-lit alcove: an open book before a tall, shell-shaped chair, with a magnifying lens on a stand — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
In an amber cavern, a scrap of paper prophecy circles a tower of crystals rising from the floor — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
Color studies of glowing crystals and tall, banded cavern spires, with painting notes — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
A rough sketch of the same cavern, its dripping columns studded with crystals — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
Rune, in a hooded robe set with crystals, stares in shock as swirling purple and pink light surrounds her — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
A layout of Rune at her table, with rough figures of the elders around her and camera framing marked over the scene — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
Another view of the great library, its curved shelves lit by glowing crystals beneath a towering central spire — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.

Final Frames

A tower of crystals glows with sparkling light in the amber cavern of Ossuary — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
Rune fits a glowing crystal in a stone column in the dim cavern — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
Streaks of yellow and violet light burst from the crystal tower as a rift opens — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
The four women from convergence appear as shards of light and swirl above the floor of the cavern — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
Rune reaches into a wall of shimmering pink light and removes and ancient book — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
Rune, in a long robe, stands in front of a column swirling with glowing crystals and falling streaks of light — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
Rune places the sacred crystal, inherited from her mentor, around her neck — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
Oliander's shadowy form tears through time and space in a rush of violet light — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
Oliander's dark claws surge through a crowd of pale, ghostly faces — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
A burst of violet light erupts above Rune's table and its stacks of books — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
The great library's central spire rises in the dark, its oval openings glowing teal — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.
A violet tear opens across the darkness of the cavern in front of young Rune — The Forgotten Four, Meow Wolf.

Numina

Compilation

Numina is one of the worlds at Convergence Station and also a character — a living universe that doesn't experience time in order. She has no film of her own, but she appears in all four, which is less travel than presence: for Numina, they were never separate moments.

Motion Tests

Concept

Finale

Convergence Station / Denver CO

The Panopticon at Convergence Station, Meow Wolf. Photograph courtesy of Meow Wolf

Credits

Directors
Jason Carpenter · Elyse Kelly

Producer
Holly Stone

Art Directors
Sam Bass · Anna Bron · Naghmeh Farzaneh · Matt Reynolds · Danski Tang

Design
Rachel Reid · Hannah McNally · David Navas

Boards
Danny Aviles · Sam Bass · Anna Bron · Naghmeh Farzaneh · Matt Reynolds ·Sara Spink · Danski Tang

Lead Animators
Anna Bron · Flora Caulton · Joumana Ismail · Aira Joana · Christine Le

Animation Team
Sam Bass · Hannah Brewerton · Lalita Brunner · Sanjana Chandrasekhar · Sofia Diaz · Tash Dupker · Michelle Ku · Leana Leon Yonan · Kat Michaelides · Rohan McDonald · José Goyo Moreno · Kiana Naghshineh · Margaret Neely · Hannah O’Brien, Sarah Rothenberger · Andreia Serrano · Inari Sirola · Sara Spink · Dena Springer · Sabine Volkert · Holly Warburton · Andrew Whyte

Editors
Elyse Kelly · Dan Fipphen

Original Music
Kyle Dixon · Michael Stein

Sound
Boom Box Post · Skillbard

Meow Wolf

Executive Producer
Michael Becker

Creative Direction
Chadney Everett · Tristan Love

Creative Producers
Alethea C. Avramis · Cathleen Sutherland

Writers
James Longmire · Joanna Garner · Eric Anthony Glover · Billiam Rodgers · Tyler English-Beckwith · Collin Stapleton

Client
Meow Wolf

Location
Convergence Station, Denver

Full credits for all six films, including the seventy-person crew, are at credits.meowwolf.com.

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