My Chemical Romance are pulling out all the stops to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their landmark third album, The Black Parade. In addition to an expanded edition with bonus tracks that dropped last week, on Thursday (Oct. 29) the emo rockers dropped a stunning seven-minute short film directed by visual artist Lauren Tsai titled Prelude to the End featuring an all-star voice cast.
The stop-motion and hand-drawn animated film set to the turbulent opening track from The Black Parade concept album, “The End,” follows the story of Astrid (voiced by Tsai), a student at a repressive New England boarding school called the Paper Academy who tumbles into a garbage chute in search of her beloved sketchbook after the school’s strict headmaster confiscates it.
Along the way, Astrid gets support from her sister (voiced by Phoebe Bridgers) and a friend (voiced by Billie Eilish), and gets berated by a strict Japanese teacher (Hideo Kojima) and the school’s iron-fisted dean (John C. McGinley).
The visually lush short is a sequel of sorts to Tsai’s 2025 animated short The Dying World Part One: Forgetting — which also starred wide-eyed protagonist Astrid — that debuted at the Annecy Festival last June. The artist and actress, who has appeared in shows including Legion and Rooster, also directed the animated video for “Cool About It,” the 2023 Boygenius song from the all-star trio featuring Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker.
After being reminded by the dean about the school’s three rules: “Don’t get hurt,” “No delusions” and “All trash is taken care of,” Astrid is warned that if she does get hurt she will never heal because she is “sick.” A dejected Astrid pokes a hole in her hand out of frustration and then hurtles into a trash chute in search of her sketchbook. She lands in a trash world where she gets tethered to a giant crow and takes flight before a rogue stuffed animal shoots them out of the sky and lands her back in a grim reality at the school.
A press release explains that the short “explores the relationships we all hold with our creations, youth and the unwavering determination to become and express our truth, the latter of which in particular is a key, recurring theme throughout My Chemical Romance’s catalog.”
Tsai created her own original animated fan videos for MCR songs as a kid, and in a statement she said the short film is the realization of her lifelong ambition to work with the group. “It was an absolute dream to work on this project for The Black Parade and The Dying World,” she said. “I deeply respect MCR and Gerard’s creative legacy. It has been an honor for him to find inspiration in a world that I’ve created, in the same way I have always admired the worlds that he has built throughout his career.” The short also features a live recording of Pascal Dusapin’s Flying River, Violin Concerto performed by the Utopia Orchestra at the Foundation Louis Vuitton.
With MCR riding higher than they ever have during their first go-round from 2001-2013 thanks to two years of sold-out stadium shows celebrating The Black Parade, the band are likely contenders for a high chart placement on the Billboard 200 album chart dated Nov. 6.
The film will screen before the upcoming final dates of the band’s five-night residency at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on Friday (Oct. 30) and Saturday (Oct. 31).
Watch Prelude to the End below.
