In the words of Animal Kingdom executive producer John Wells, "Through images, the Animal Kingdom main title prepares the audience for the violent, amoral, and virile world they will encounter in this show."
"John Wells and Jonathan Lisco really understand the root of what makes their series special," adds Erin Sarofsky. "They emphasized that it's more than just a complicated family drama… describing how the humor, the Oedipal complex underlying their relationships, the complexity of each individual character and the tension, love and co-dependency they all share, impacts all aspects of their lives."
Given 60 seconds to explore the permanence of these relationships, the Sarofsky team used the tattooing process that matriarch Smurf (Ellen Barkin) endures as a powerful metaphor, along with scenes distilling the boys' childhoods and their transitions to manhood, intentionally juxtaposing jarring imagery that interweaves emotions, adult sexuality and masculinity.