Morgan M Morgansen's Date with Destiny and its sequel Morgan and Destiny's Eleventeenth Date: The Zeppelin Zoo are short films produced by hitRECord, an online production company run by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who in addition to editing and directing the Morgan M. Morgansen films, plays the eponymous Morgan. Despite their short running time (Date With Destiny runs at 5:23 and The Zeppelin Zoo tops out at 6:55), both films are notable for their fanciful animated imagery, steampunk setting, and weird, made-up wordplay narration.
The films follow Morgan, a chaplinesque Nice Guy, and his romance with the lovely Destiny (played by Lexy Hulme). Other characters include the Food Penguin, Destiny's pre-now lovebuddy Lionel, and Destiny's purr-pet Madame Ballofur.
- Antiquated Linguistics
- The Big Damn Kiss: Morgan and Destiny's kisses are given special attention
- Cock Fight: Between Morgan and Lionel.
- Cool Airship: The Zeppelin Zoo.
- Deliberately Monochrome: Fitting with the old timey theme.
- Friend to All Living Things: Vegetarian, animal lover Destiny; Morgan ordering a "bleedy bunny-baby" on their first date did not sit well with her.
- Funny Animal: There's a cat-person orchestra in Date With Destiny
- Gross-Up Close-Up: The "bloody bunny baby" in Date with Destiny and the mice kabob in The Zeppelin Zoo are drawn with distressing detail.
- Interspecies Romance: Between Madame Balfour and the purr-beast(lion) in The Zeppelin Zoo.
- Lemony Narrator
- Non-Action Guy: Morgan, who loses handily in a fight with Lionel.
- Official Couple: Morgan and Destiny, naturally.
- Punny Name: Destiny.
- Purple Prose: See the quote at the top of the page.
- Repetitive Name: Morgan M. Morgansen
- Roger Rabbit Effect: The human characters have been digitally placed within a cartoon world.
- Scenery Porn: The collage-like visuals are lush with detail and funky old-world designs.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Probably the most notable feature of both films.
- Shipper on Deck: The Food Penguin ships Morgan/Destiny.
- Shout-Out: To Charlie Chaplin, A Trip to the Moon, and Lewis Carroll, to name a few.
- Slippery Skid: Lionel slips on kabob'd mice.
- Steampunk: The world Morgan and Destiny live in.
- Unusual Euphemism: "Merry pre-night" tittered Morgan. "You look verily procreational".
- Zeppelins from Another World: Appear in the background of Date With Destiny and is the setting of The Zeppelin Zoo.
