And now for something completely different.

So different that it left us actual WTF'ing and scouring the internet trying to figure out what it is.

What is it?

We'll do you the courtesy which its producers didn't and tell you straight up - it's a perversely long advertisement for Epic's online game, Fornite - which we found as a nine minute video on the Universal Pictures YouTube channel with this title and description:

Universal Monsters - We Will Be Monsters

An original, animated short-form mini-series, We Will Be Monsters, directed by Rick Famuyiwa (of the Mandalorian), created by Universal Pictures in partnership with Epic Games.

The description in its IMDb.com entry is slightly more transparent:

Animated shortform miniseries featuring updated versions of Universal's classic monsters in the online video game Fortnite.

Four episodes long though according to this IMDb.com user review only the first was released as intended last Halloween and then the remainder released together like this.

Their theory is that it was an aborted campaign for new Fortnite user skins. Only one skin from this "series" is available in the game - Bride of Frankenstein.

Whatever the original intent, this is a great example of how not to blur the line between reality and fiction in advertising.

The recent Batman NBA promo? That was a little bit cool.

This? A waste of viewer time.

Universal Pictures make films.

You spend nine minutes watching something on their YouTube channel only to learn that it's an ad for a game.

Forget dislike. YouTube needs a slap button.

As content goes, it's decent but was never going anywhere that most viewers would have expected or appreciated.

Interestingly the animation and visual effects were made in Australia by Sydney's Plastic Wax.

[ Main Image: We Will Be Monsters. Credit: Universal Pictures via YouTube. ]

References

Blazehehg (February 26, 2022). User Review of We Will Be Monsters. IMDb.com.

Fortnite [@FortniteGame] (February 26, 2022). Reanimated and reimagined. Twitter.

IMDb.com. We Will Be Monsters. (viewed March 2, 2022)

Universal Pictures (February 26, 2022). Universal Monsters - We Will Be Monsters. YouTube.

Wikipedia. Plastic Wax. (viewed March 2, 2022)