As I looked into the eye of the bright pink giant grizzly bear, I knew this wasn’t a normal phone launch event.

Google has just taken the wraps off its brand new Pixel 2 phone and new additions to its smart home lineup in San Francisco. (Here’s literally everything the company announced.) But I was following the news from a “satellite” event in London. 

And it was quite a different experience than what the world was streaming from California.

It started here, in the bright pink room, with bright pink foliage and, yes, a whole menagerie of life-size bright pink animals. 

Where do you even get something like this? “Okay Google, find me a giant, pink crocodile.”

This is completely normal.

A large swing hung from the ceiling in the main event space. Because why wouldn’t there be a swing.

Giant wall of foliage? Google’s got you covered.

Welcome to Google’s gallery of smells.

Shove your face into the fishbowl and take a good whiff. Apparently you might experience certain feelings with different smells. The main feeling I got was one of embarrassment at putting my head in a fishbowl.

At least at the end you get to create your own scent from your favourites from around the gallery. This is totally normal for a phone launch. Totally normal.

Next up: Throwing big silver balls around, for some reason!

Your throw is captured in ‘bullet time’ (read: that funky Matrix stuff) on a whole set of Pixel 2 handsets.

Demo Google’s new VR headsets in this smokey jungle zone. 

Tucked away on the floor of a back room; this adorable little tableau of a mouse selling doughnuts. Bottle for scale.

There are road signs, but there’s no way I found of properly navigating this bizarre daydream event. More like this, please Google.