Post an obscure cartoon (theatrical or TV)

Ludwig! I remember this being on BBC1 in the late 1970's. Not one of my friends of the same age has any recolection of it at all.

 

I used to watch Ludwig. It looks bizarre now but I can’t really remember what I used to think about it. That narrator’s a bit weird, peeping out the bushes with his binoculars.

 

Hanna Barbera produced this James Bond spoof for the U.S. Army's cost reduction program (1966)



16mm Hanna-Barbera James Bond Spoof U.S. Army Promotional Film | The James Bond 007 Dossier

 

2ⁿ (1961)

Short film from the legendary design team of Charles and Ray Eames.

Part of the Mathematica Peep Shows, one of five films made to accompany the Mathematica: A World of Numbers and Beyond exhibition at the California Museum of Science and Industry and the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.

2ⁿ is a story about the exponential growth of numbers raised to powers.​

 

The Cat Came Back. Canadian animated short.

 

Psychedelic Pepsi Cola Ad (early 1970s)

 

Norman Mclaren's Dots (1940)

 

Dollar Bill and Australians Keep The Wheels Of Industry Turning (1966)

Made in 1965 for Australian the Decimal Currency Board in preparation for the changeover to decimal currency on February 14 1966. Dollar Bill and company parade to the repeated strains of the Decimal Currency song, and an exercise in simple addition in pounds, shillings and pence is included to show the virtues of the new system.

 

Nasrudin (1970)

The animated Nasrudin film, which became The Thief and the Cobbler, is excerpted with an interview with animator Richard Williams. It is unclear how much of the Nasrudin film was completed, as very little of it has been seen, but many shots and ideas from the original film survive in The Thief and the Cobbler- which was written and compiled as a hodgepodge of the best visual ideas from the unfinished Nasrudin film.

Kenneth Williams is the primary (only?) voice heard in this clip.

The narrator is Idries Shah, who translated and wrote a series of Nasrudin books which were illustrated by Richard Williams in the 1960s, leading to this animated project which fell apart when Williams fell out with the Shah family over financial issues.

 

Black Cat Detective - "Urgent Action!" (1992)

Chinese cartoon where a police cat wanders around on his floating motorcycle stopping villains. With guns

 

Somnambulists (1958)

Directed by Mieczyslaw Waskowski

 

Reminds me of playing Pong, but Pong 2.0.

 

Rein Raamat - Firebird (1974)

Estonian animation

 

Felidae

This is a German film from 1994, based off a book by Akif Pirinçci (who also worked on the screenplay), that has gained notoriety for its graphic imagery. One bit of misinformation about the film that is often reported, including on IMDb, is that the English dub features some high profile actors, including Cary Elwes, John Hurt, Michael Madsen and Christopher Plummer amongst others. This is completely untrue; in reality, the English voice cast was really a bunch of uncredited London-based voice actors (the characters that are miscredited to the aforementioned actors are actually voiced by Jeff Harding, Peter Marinker, Graydon Gould and William Roberts respectively).

 

The Scrabble People - "A Pumpkin Full of Nonsense" (1985)

An attempt to adapt the famous board game into a children's cartoon; there was even a toy line.

 

A Short Vision - Wikipedia

A Short Vision is a British animated film by Joan and Peter Foldes released in 1956. The film, inspired by one of Peter's poems, depicts the destruction of mankind. The film's music was composed by Matyas Seiber, who composed music for Animal Farm two years earlier.

A Short Vision gained notoriety when it was shown on The Ed Sullivan Show on 27 May 1956. This, however, made it controversial. Due to popular demand, it was shown again on 10 June.

Ed Sullivan saw A Short Vision in England, and promised an American showing. He said his motive was a "plea for peace" However, he may have shown it because of his relationship with George K. Arthur, A Short Vision's distributor. Ten days after he saw it, Sullivan showed A Short Vision on his popular Sunday night show The Ed Sullivan Show on 27 May 1956. Sullivan told the audience to tell their children in the room to not be alarmed, because of its animated nature. The film was very popular, and it was shown again on 10 June; Sullivan told parents to take children out of the room.​

 

Futuropolis (1984)

It’s amazing how many films came out on VHS and have never been re-released.

Which isn’t to say that many — or even most — of them don’t deserve to languish in obscurity.

But thanks to the wonders of Youtube, a lot of films that were just a whisper heard here or there, a comment from someone who saw it years ago, or a brief unrelated note in an article about something else altogether, are sometimes available.

Futuropolis is one of those. It was the work of Steve Segal and Phil Trumbo, who both ended up working on Pee Wee’s Playhouse a few years later and have both gone on to work in the animation business. Steve even worked on Toy Story.

This is a thoroughly strange mix of cartoon animation, stop-motion, pixilation and live action, about a team of Space Rangers fighting the evil Egg Head and his mutation ray.

Actually, I’m impressed by how good a lot of the 2-D animation looks: it’s got a rounded, simplified look that suggests R. Crumb or maybe Ralph Bakshi. And you have to remember that this was long before a production like this could use computers for its animation. And it is a nice touch that the Ranger ship set has the same cartoony look.

I do have to wonder if any Drive-In theater ever used the lengthy Intermission animation they created. It is so much like the real thing that most people wouldn’t even notice that it is a satire!

When it comes to the live and pixilated action, one is aware that this is a bunch of friends getting together and using whatever minimal resources they have to create a film. Still, it is colorful, strange, goes in weird little directions every minute or two, and has a quirky sense of humor which reminds me of the Firesign Theater troupe.

You can see why these guys ended up working on Pee Wee’s Playhouse.

Is it a great film? No. But it is always provides a chuckle or two, and even provokes a belly laugh here and there. What’s more, it is short enough that it doesn’t have a chance to make itself too unwelcome. Particularly not when you can watch it for free.

And it shows you what a bunch of highly creative and skilled people can do when they have far too much time on their hands!

(For those of you to whom such things matter, there is no Futuropolis in this film, nor is it ever mentioned!)​

 

Prometheus' Garden

This is a brief excerpt from legendary underground animator Bruce Bickford's original 28-minute masterpiece of stop-motion, PROMETHEUS' GARDEN. Loosely based upon the Greek myth of Prometheus, a Titan who stole fire from the gods and made the first mortals out of clay, PROMETHEUS' GARDEN is the only completed film over which Bickford maintained 100% creative control. Bickford is best known for his collaborations with musician Frank Zappa in the 1970s. ​

 

Milton and Mary Mouse?!

 

Mark McCray, author of a book on Saturday morning cartoons, is interviewed on the, er, idiosyncratic (& IMHO awesome) Gilbert Gottfried pop culture podcast. They discuss the late '60s cartoons Gilbert grew up with.

This week: “Milton the Monster”! “A Man Called Flintstone”! The genius of Jack Urbont (and Hoyt Curtin)! Gilbert sings the “King Kong” theme! And the return of Jerry the Bellybutton Elf!​

https://www.amazon.com/Best-Saturdays-Our-Lives/dp/1491755083

 

Intergalatic Thanksgiving, or Please Don't Eat the Planet (1979)

From the Canadian company Nelvana

 

La Brulure de mille soleils/The Heat Of A Thousand Suns (1965)

 

Ziggy's Gift (1982)

Emmy-winning Christmas special. Music by Harry Nilsson

 

A Cosmic Christmas {1977)

From Nelvana

 

Pong ping