August Links

I talked about my favourite animated shorts here, but there’s a few others you might grok:

Back when Disney did beautiful things, the classic Skeleton Dance — not that you need to go this far back to be blown away by Disney of course. The drawing style and animation of The Rescuers is a thing to behold.

Talking of extraordinary beauty, The Hedgehog in the Fog, by Yuriy Norshteyn is one of the masterpieces of the form.

What about creepy children’s stories that give you nightmares? Into those are you? If so, The Sandman is one to watch at three in the morning. Marvellous punchline.

And creepy, cute and mind-blowingly bizarre Japanese stories about cats? Yeah? Cat Soup for you!

If surreal stuff is your ‘ting, try The Big Snit.

We can’t go through masterpieces of animated shorts without mentioning the great Tex Avery. Very poor quality up here, but worth it for the final ‘miaow-miaow’ section.

Michaël Dudok de Wit did that turtle film recently which I sarcastically swept aside. All his stuff is just a bit too slick. I recommend The Monk and the Fish though; a lovely a little animation about how to get anything. The finale really gives a lovely sense of the serenity of non-attachment.

If you haven’t had enough of whimsical silliness, here’s Morph — my generation’s introduction to Aardman, long before Wallace and Gromit. Not exactly a timeless gag; it’s the voice of Chas (the pale one) that we were all in it for.

Perhaps you need something cruder, colder and angrier? Try Steve Cutts’ Man. Very poor punchline, but the basic message is still pretty effective.

Finally, relax with some walking, one of the most beautiful animations of all time.

GOOGLE AUTOCOMPLETE

Here’s a little guide to what the worldbrain is thinking…

(I changed one of those. I forget which one, but it was the title of some shite popular song)

PLANET X

When relationships end, ex-lovers all fly off to live together on a beautiful planet with all your lost biros, peanuts, pieces of paper with important information, beloved shirts, misplaced umbrellas and scarves left in restaurants. All the perfect fruit you’ve ever eaten, that made your eyes pop open—the complex, fragrant lemons, the watermelons that were sweet right down to the rind, the buttery mangoes that dribbled jungle gold—it all grows there, on that planet. The vague, freakish, sweet, wrenching flashes of youth and winter sunshine, and the fizz of long-ago thunderstorms, and the voices of long-dead friends—everything good that is lost forever to you lives there still, on a beautiful planet, far away, which, not long ago, collided with a huge asteroid and exploded. Gone forever. Okay?

(From The Apocalypedia)