Noodle (Gorillaz)

Noodle

Noodle (born October 31, 1990) is a fictional member of the virtual band Gorillaz. She provides the guitar as well as some main and backing vocals for the band. She, like all other Gorillaz members, was created by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett.

Character biography

At age ten, Noodle arrived on the Gorillaz' doorstep in a FedEx crate, in response to the ad they placed for a guitarist in the NME. She could not speak any English beyond the word "Noodle", thus earning her the alias. She quickly got settled in England with Gorillaz, and was accepted as the fourth member of the band.

In Rise of the Ogre, it is revealed that during the band's hiatus in November, 2003, Noodle went back to Japan to find out the truth about her past after being haunted by strange nightmares while on tour. Upon her return to Japan, Noodle regained her memory after hearing the code-phrase 'ocean bacon' at a restaurant. There she coincidentally met with her creator/mentor, Mr. Kyuzo, who was working as the head chef in the restaurant. Kazuyo helped her make sense of her lost memories: Noodle is, in fact, part of a secret government super soldier project, trained specially as a musician. As a result, she is a master of many weapons, languages, and musical instruments, with a specialty in the guitar, both as a musical instrument, and a weapon. Out of the 23 children created for the project, Noodle was the only one to survive; the others were all destroyed by the government when the project was scrapped.

Mr. Kyuzo had smuggled her to safety in England after reading the aforementioned ad placed by the other three Gorillaz members in the NME.

Noodle regained the ability to speak English, along with her memories, and was the first member of Gorillaz to return to Kong Studios after their failed international tour. She was alone at Kong studios for nearly six months, during that time she was composing the majority of the Demon Days album as a response to the chaotic cultural climate at the time. Her composition of the album crafted a specific message, as opposed to the debut which was composed by Murdoc and 2D, which had a grimier, more spontaneous sound. Despite her quiet nature, she became the most vocal of the band when it came to describing the album.

"El Mañana"

In March 2006, the Gorillaz video "El Mañana" (which depicted Noodle being killed in an explosion) was released. In the days preceding the release of the video, cardboard boxes were found in the Kong Studios lobby. The boxes soon moved to Noodle's room, and each day, her room was shown to be more and more packed away until the room was entirely barren. At the same time, the windmill island from the "Feel Good Inc." music video appeared outside of Kong Studios on the website's splash page. Shortly before the release of "El Mañana", the windmill was seen flying away.

The video is a continuation of the "Feel Good Inc." video, once again depicting Noodle on the windmill island. The video concludes with the helicopters bombing the crashed windmill. Two days after the video's release, cracks appeared on the walls of Noodle's room on the website (which spread to the ground floor lobby) and the clock on her wall labeled "Armageddon" (the only piece of furniture left behind) gained a fourth hand, and fell to the floor. The cracks grew to the point that part of the roof collapsed, exposing the outdoor sky. Near the end of the month, more boxes were found in the Kong Studios lobby, one of which was labeled "DedEx". They disappeared after the lobby was destroyed.

In the book Rise of the Ogre, Murdoc reveals that the "El Mañana" video was indeed "staged" and that Noodle is still "alive". It was stated by Murdoc that Noodle had been planning to leave after Demon Days. According to Murdoc, Noodle is in the Maldives "chilling out".

Trapped in Hell

When the Gorillaz web site still allowed visitors to tour Kong Studios, a radio could be heard in the basement, broadcasting a distress call from Noodle. The message was printed as an epilogue in the Gorillaz book, Rise of the Ogre:

'Murdoc! Russel... Is anybody there?! It's me, Noodle... Is there anybody there! You need to reply... Helllloooo! Come In... It's Noodle ... I've found the missing code... They're coming!... (quieter) The reception here is really terrible ... (Back to normal volume) MURDOC! ... Murdoc, you got to get the combin...! Come in! They know where you... Mur ...You must get out! ... It's coming from BENEATH the building! You have to get out! ... Murdoc, hurry before it's too late. MAYDAY ...MAYDAY ... Murdoc! COME IN GORILLAZ!'
—Transmission from Noodle (In the epilogue of Rise of the Ogre)

It is mentioned in Rise of the Ogre that Murdoc accidentally summoning a black-skinned demon boy during the international tour, which has stalked the band ever since. While Murdoc seemed to believe he was friendly (despite the boy's intent to kill Murdoc and deliver his soul to Lucifer), Russel and Noodle were openly disturbed by him.

Plastic Beach

On January 22, 2010, Murdoc hijacked the online NME Radio and Yahoo! radio broadcasts to promote the new Gorillaz album, Plastic Beach. The bassist claimed that Noodle was never rescued after the "El Mañana" video, and that his supposed rescue attempt was a drunken delusion. With Russel's whereabouts still unknown, he and 2D have been working on the third album with the help of a Noodle cyborg constructed from Noodle's DNA from the floating windmill wreckage.

Character appearance

For the Demon Days album, Noodle was seen with a notably different look, no longer sporting her trademark radio hat as well as having a noticeably more feminine fashion style and lighter skin tone. She was also noticeably taller with thinner legs, and occasionally seen sporting a monkey named Mike. It is revealed in the video for "El Mañana" that Noodle has green eyes, which is contradicted by the previous video for 19-2000. In this video she is depicted as having black eyes with no irises or pupils, much like 2D. Later in the video she is seen in a profile shot with her left eye open slightly, revealing an iris.

In Phase One, her hair was completely black, and she was always wearing her helmet, except for select live performances. During Phase Two, Noodle's hair became purple and longer.

According to the original promotional booklet, Noodle was fourteen as of January 2006. It was confirmed by a Gorillaz email sent out on Halloween that she was born on that day in 1990.

Character personality

Noodle is the only member of Gorillaz, besides 2D, who demonstrated any type of vocal talent.

During Phase One of Gorillaz, Noodle could only speak Japanese, with the exceptions of her bandmates' names and small words such as "duh" or "yeah," and Russel had translated for her; but she had done vocals in English: the chorus for 19-2000 and backup in several tracks in the first album. She also did an alternately Japanese and English vocal narration for the track "Left Hand Suzuki Method", originally from the G-Sides album.

It was not until Phase Two with the Demon Days album that anyone actually heard her fluently speak English conversationally.

Noodle is a fan of Miyazaki movies. She enjoyed Spirited Away and got inspiration for the Feel Good Inc video from Castle in the Sky. According to the bio presented on Gorillaz appearance on Cribs, her listed interests are Johnny Thunders and Richie Sambora.

Also, on her computer in Kong, it is shown in the file '23_facts' that she is interested in that number. This file also has a reference to Prince. In Rise of the Ogre many pictures of Noodle include her holding a guitar in her left hand, showing that she is right handed.

Voice actors

There are several people who make up the identity of Noodle, they include former Cibo Matto vocalist Miho Hatori and Talking Heads' Tina Weymouth, who both had provided singing vocals for Noodle on the first album; Haruka Kuroda, an actress who provides Noodle's speaking voice (i.e in interviews, etc) ; Rosie Wilson, who performs Noodle's lead vocal in "DARE". Her guitar portions have been provided by whoever plays guitar on a given song, including Simon Katz, Simon Tong, and Damon Albarn.

External link

• Noodle's biography on Gorillaz Official Fansite