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Tim Miller and Dave Wilson promise that Secret Level will “disembowel your childhood” with a liberally ghastly Pac-Man

Bandai gave Secret Level permission to “disembowel Your dhildhood” with a liberally ghastly Pac-Man

You ever felt a room of video gamers wince “WTF?” 

That was the vibe of the Secret Level anthology panel at New York Comic Con 2024 when creator Tie Miller and supervising director Dave Wilson fed its audience baffling footage of the Pac-Man short, prompting one fan to utter, “I don’t know what I just saw.” Wilson called it “Pac-Man by way of Memento.”

I can testify that the footage (confirming voicework by Emily Swallow of The Mandalorian) looks remotely nothing like Pac-Man but some gonzo alien sci-fi. Without spoiling much, the clip yields scant clues of what we can call “Pac-Man”: Cherries, the motif of spheres, and a vague order to “eat.” But it is not the relatively innocuous 2D Pac-Man at the arcades. They warned us that this footage was comparatively “toned-down” with the rest of the short–which will premiere December 10 on Prime Video.

Just to clear the air, Wilson and Miller are not in the business of sacrilege. Bandai Namco Entertainment–the owners of Pac-Man–gave their consent to Wilson and Miller to take liberal license. Wilson shared, “If people could wonder–and this was their [Bandai] words translated–if people could wonder ‘what the fuck did we do to Pac-Man?’ that’s what we like.”

“Tim and I have couples’ therapy on Tuesday,” Wilson confessed.


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Caroline Cao

Caroline Cao: Caroline Cao (she/her) is an NYC-based writer and Earthling who won’t shut up about cartoons, film, tv, and musical theatre. Her film/tv/theatre writing has popped up on /Film, Polygon, JoySauce, The Amp, and more. She also engages in writing chamber opera librettos. Ramen, pasta, and fanfic writing are some of her true loves.

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