Fantastic Fables of the Southern Seas is a four-part animated series that reimagines well-loved Singaporean tales.

The series is directed by Koh Chong Wu, animated by Nanyang Animation, and illustrated by artists at A Good Citizen.

The first three episodes cover the story of Sang Nila Utama, Sisters' Islands (Pulau Subar Laut and Pulau Subar Darat) and The Legend of Bukit Merah.

The last episode is a fun vision of space explorers looking for Merlion statues buried under the remains of Singapore, which belongs to a long-dead and abandoned Earth.

Futuristic retelling

The animated videos are chock-full of references to Singapore and symbolic motifs about the legends.

For example, Sang Nila Utama gets reimagined as (spoilers ahead) Nilo, a captain of a spaceship who's been woken up from his cryogenic sleep by the Artificial Intelligence navigation system, NKHD.4 (Nakhuda) when the ship is damaged from an oncoming meteor shower.

Nilo disregards NKHD.4's (who is based on the ship's captain in the original tale) advice on painlessly ending the lives of everyone on board.

He speeds towards a planet that miraculously can sustain life, and witnesses a nebula that looks like a merlion.

The other episodes are given the same creative and futuristic re-telling.

Viewers can see the legend of the Sisters' Islands adapted into a steampunk-esque tale of two sisters living amongst floating islands and motorised flying ships and vehicles; the swordfish in the legend of Bukit Merah is depicted as a virus attacking a virtual reality where people's consciousnesses reside.

You can watch all the episodes on Youtube:

Top image via via Viddsee's Youtube