The Saturjiggles XIII: 13th of Celluloid
Posted by Eliza Gauger
1. Potapych: Bear Who Loved Vodka
Why is it easier to make friends than keep them? The fable of Potapych and his pet hobo teaches us to be good, drink milk, and think of Russia.
2. Gnap-Gnap
The power of foley sound grants flight to an inflatable monster, who bears his Moebius-inspired master aloft.
3. Sam and Max Hit the Road: Intro
The animated lead-in to the classic LucasArts adventure. I desperately miss these voice actors.
4. Sam & Max: Our Bewildering Universe
A more recent Steve Purcell short, done in his inimitable style and perfect pace.
5. Sam and Max Episode 13
“Nice wedding so far!”
“I think the commissioner would support our decision to employ rubber ammo and tear gas at this point, ha ha!”
6. The Running Man
A short from Liquid Television that made an immense impression on me as a child. I still couldn’t give you a reliable synopsis, however.
7. Ergo Proxy: Episode 1
A newish anime that has more style and grace than anything I’ve seen since FLCL. After the first three episodes, it devolves into typical anime mush and become unwatchable, but until then it’s brilliant. The plot revolves around a wireless virus that impregnates androids with self-awareness. In a society built on the tireless backs of ubiquitous service drones, programmed into selfless slaves, a taste of freedom is civilization-threatening. Pay special attention to the costume designs and sound effects, which even on YouTube, have real panache.
8. Memories: Magnetic Rose
A crew of freelance space salvagers stumbles on what looks like a lush haul. I think saying a ything more would endanger the horror and sensitivity of what follows. You can thank Stickypig for this. This is part of a full-length anime with three different stories within, only one of which, this one, have I seen. And it is positively some of the best science fiction currently on film.
Categories: Anthropomorphism, Saturday Morning Cartoons, Animals, Television, Cartoons, Automatons, Insanity, Surrealism, Animation, Aliens, Horror, Science Fiction, Russia, Art
Posted at 9:03 am on December 8, 2007
8 Comments -
Ergo Proxy’s biggest problem was that it dragged on for longer than it should have, and it lost it’s focus and started to meander around badly for the middle third or so of it.
Comment by Mike — December 8, 2007 @ 5:59 pm
I haven’t the foggiest idea what to make of The Running Man, but it was intensely mesmerizing nevertheless.
As for Ergo Proxy… I can’t speak for how the series performs, since this is the first I’ve seen of it. I do know that I’ve spent a good chunk of the day watching it since watching the first part. I love the themes. The Uncanny Valley, dystopia, propaganda, conspiracy theory, etc.
Comment by Giania — December 9, 2007 @ 1:30 am
Of all of them, I think Potapych affected me the most. I can’t possibly say why.
Comment by Bob LaRice — December 9, 2007 @ 1:34 am
Ergo Proxy is best at the beginning and the end, yeah. It’s one of those series that could really have a wide swathe of material removed and perform better for it.
But at least it’s not .hack//SIGN. Which should’ve been about six episodes long.
Comment by CJ — December 9, 2007 @ 3:06 am
I love Magnetic Rose dearly, but I should warn you - it’s not worth tracking down the rest of Memories. They’re unrelated, and frankly kind of bad.
Comment by ignotus — December 9, 2007 @ 1:26 pm
Say, could you include links to the individual clips in your posts? For whatever reason, the embedded player that runs them one at a time always has problems for me. It frequently hangs and has other issues. I’m using Firefox, so that may be part of the issue, but I don’t know enough to say for sure.
Comment by John — December 9, 2007 @ 4:07 pm
Memories is a fantastic anime, one of my favorites. The first part of the “Stink Bomb” story can be seen here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8HT_A6P12w and the first part of the “Cannon Fodder” story can be seen here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phPZLjQY1g4&feature=related
Unfortunately the latter of these two isn’t translated into English, but there’s very little dialogue in the story and it’s relatively unimportant.
Comment by Singe — December 10, 2007 @ 8:14 am
The Running Man originally came from a anthology film of some other anime short films called “Neo Tokyo” All great pieces. I always felt “The Running Man” could easily be re-scripted and fit into the Blade Runner universe with the narrator being the Blade Runner and the driver being a Nexus6.
From the same anthology I recommend checking out “The order to Stop Construction” A low level company man is sent to stop a entirely run by robots huge construction job out in a swamp. Awesome tale of man against machines who are willing to sacrifice everything to get the job done.
Comment by akbar fazil — December 10, 2007 @ 1:44 pm