# Mystery Skulls Animated
Mystery Skulls Animated is a series of fan-turned-official animated music videos made by animator Ben Mangum (Mystery Ben) for the songs of indie pop musician Luis Dubuc, aka Mystery Skulls. Starting with the October 2014 clip for Ghost, the videos launched a huge Tumblr and DeviantART fandom built around Lewis the Skeleton and the Mystery Incorporated-styled ghost-hunting crew.
## Origin
The project grew out of an earlier viral hit. In May 2012, Ben Mangum uploaded The Turntable Turnabout, a fan animation of Ace Attorney characters Phoenix Wright and Miles Edgeworth dancing to the Mystery Skulls track Money[4]. Luis Dubuc noticed the clip, sent Mangum a thank-you shirt, and later met him in person to talk about a possible official collaboration[5].
In December 2013, Dubuc commissioned Mangum to make an animated video for the single Ghost[5]. A separate live-action video directed by Josh Thomas premiered through Vice's Thump channel in early 2014, but Dubuc kept the animated version in production. Mangum eventually pulled in collaborators Isaiah Kim and Blake Hudson and pushed to finish the clip in time for the release of the debut album Forever, uploading Mystery Skulls Animated: Ghost to YouTube on October 26, 2014[6].
- **Platform:** YouTube (source) / Tumblr / DeviantART (fandom spread)
- **Creator:** Ben Mangum (Mystery Ben)
- **Date:** 2014
## Overview
Mystery Skulls Animated is a trio of independently produced animated music videos set to songs by Luis Dubuc's electronica project Mystery Skulls, animated by Ben Mangum under the alias Mystery Ben[3]. The visual style borrows heavily from Hanna-Barbera's Scooby-Doo, right down to a Mystery Machine-style van, then mixes in sci-fi robotic elements and neon-lit ghost hunting[1].
The trilogy is made up of Ghost (2014), Freaking Out (2016) and Hellbent (2018), each landing roughly two years apart and each following the same core cast of characters as the story of Lewis the Skeleton and his former friends unfolds[2]. The look, the recurring band of characters, and the ambiguous heartbreak-and-revenge plot are what turned a music video into a full fandom rather than a one-off animation.
## How It Spread
The Ghost video moved fast. Within a week of its upload it drew more than 750,000 views and over 25,000 likes on YouTube[3]. BuzzBands LA highlighted it on October 30, 2014, praising the way the animators fused Mystery Incorporated visuals with sci-fi elements synced to Dubuc's beats[1]. Coverage on Kotaku and a Reddit submission to r/animation pushed it further past the music-blog circuit[3].
The fandom quickly outgrew the video itself. The skeleton character was officially named Lewis, and DeviantART filled up with hundreds of sketches, cosplay photos and plush toys built around him, with fans nicknaming him 'Bara Skeleton' for his broad-shouldered design[3]. Tumblr became the other hub, with tag pages dedicated to Mystery Skulls Ghost art and Dubuc taking part in a Tumblr music Q&A on November 6, 2014 to answer questions about the video's reception[3].
Mangum followed up with the second installment, Freaking Out, on April 15, 2016, which pulled roughly 300,000 views in its first two days[3]. The third video, Hellbent, featuring vocals from Snowblood, dropped on October 13, 2018 and picked up more than 475,000 views and 85,000 likes within 17 hours[3]. Fellow animator Marisol 'yuramec' Aranda later made a widely shared animatic for the Mystery Skulls song Magic that has since passed 7.1 million YouTube views[3].
## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is Mystery Skulls Animated?
It is a series of animated music videos, Ghost, Freaking Out and Hellbent, made by animator Ben Mangum for songs by the electronica act Mystery Skulls[3].
### Where did Mystery Skulls Animated come from?
Musician Luis Dubuc commissioned animator Ben Mangum in December 2013 after enjoying Mangum's earlier fan video The Turntable Turnabout set to the Mystery Skulls song Money[5].
### What does Mystery Skulls Animated mean?
The name refers to the animated series specifically, as opposed to the live-action Ghost video that Dubuc released separately through Vice's Thump channel in 2014[5].
### How do you use Mystery Skulls Animated?
Fans mostly engaged with it through art, cosplay and plush toys of characters like Lewis the Skeleton on DeviantART and Tumblr rather than as a remix format[3].
### Is Mystery Skulls Animated still popular?
The trilogy is a classic corner of animation-fan culture from the mid-2010s, with the Ghost video and follow-ups still cited as touchstones of that era's YouTube animation scene[1].
## References
1. [https://buzzbands.la/2014/10/30/video-mystery-skulls-ghost-animated/]()
2. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TqfBEX6QtE]()
3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/subcultures/mystery-skulls-animated]()
4. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhjk5x54bsE]()
5. [https://mysterybensmysteryblog.tumblr.com/post/101375027808/q-so-how-did-the-animated-version-of-ghost-come]()
6. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mSBjAcBQIg]()
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