Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson Voices Cops In Rush’s “YYZ” Animated Video

Have you seen Rush’s new animated “YYZ” video? The oblivious cops in the animation were voiced by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson. The video premiered on March 12 to promote the band’s upcoming deluxe remastered version of 1981’s Moving Pictures.

Produced by Fantoons Animation Studios, the noir comedy follows the various characters who appear on the Moving Pictures cover created by designer Hugh Syme. It includes the group of “mourners,” the crew moving large paintings as a pun on the album’s name, and Rush’s iconic Starman logo.

The story shows the roles of each character and how they are brought all together in the end. The animated Lee, Lifeson and Neil Peart were tied up by the movers who were later revealed to be thieves of the paintings. At the end of the video, the two cops arrived at the scene with no one to be found since everyone has left already.

Lifeson’s cop says, “Hey, Dirk, let’s go back to the station,” and Lee’s cop adds, “Great, I got the new Rush cassette for the road.” Lifeson looks at the cassette and asked “YYZ? What the heck does that mean?” mispronouncing the YYZ to “Yiz” and Lee replies, “probably some new term for marijuana.” Lifeson then referenced their kimonos era saying “No good dope-smoking degenerates. I should have known as soon as I saw those kimonos.”

In 2020, Syme spoke to UCR about the Moving Pictures cover sharing:

“The band didn’t get it at first. I said to Neil, ‘We’ve gotta have some people moving pictures.’ It was another one of those ‘What?!’ kind of moments. It took a little more description from me to fill in the details.”

Watch the animated video below.