Don’t Panic has a short interview with Matthieu Bessudo, who we’ve previously featured on Ectomo. Especially interesting is what he says about future projects:
Well, it’s possible that I start working on my short movie in the next months and for that occasion I’m going to record a 10 track album, so that should be fun. And more concretely I’m doing some exhibitions; one in Germany with the people of Rotopol and one with the EDTN people of London.
A short animated movie replete with insane, surreal artwork? Yes please.
Eliza put out a call for suggestions and the Ectomite Hive Mind responded with a bevy of bizarre links and nostalgic requests leaving us with a hodge-podge of old childhood favorites and surreal art-house films. Thanks to everyone who took the time to post and if you don’t see your contribution here, rest assured it will make an appearance in the very near future. Now, go Ectomomites! TO THE JUMP!
Our deepest apologies, dear readers, for having fallen down on the job as of late in regards to one of our most sacred traditions. Needless to say, we are filled with a great sense of shame and assure you it will not happen again. If, in the future, one of us is unable to fulfill their obligations our newly acquired team of Korean animators will leap into action, producing original cartoons for your enjoyment, although in all honesty I personally cannot guarantee this. You see, by “team of Korean animators” I actually mean a Korean family that Eliza met — and subsequently forced into her windowless van — while running errands at Home Depot. They have tried to reason with her, explaining that they are involved in other professions, the father is a salesman for a lighting manufacturer and his wife works as a bank teller. The children are, well, children.
Eliza would hear none of it however, either assuming that they were lying or under the impression that all people of Korean descent have an innate ability to animate. The rest of the staff has done their best to ignore the situation, knowing full well that once Miss Gauger has set her mind on something, one has little chance of ever changing her opinion. It is for this reason that we do nothing when she insists that her aforementioned van has the ability to travel through time or that Qais is, in her words, “a spy sent by space Turks to steal her chocolate secrets.” Regardless it has been uncomfortable, the tired and nervous familial unit has taken up residence in our break room where they were horrified to find only four items : coffee, tea, pipe tobacco, and squid chips. It would be worse when they found out that these items were our sole sources of sustenance. The children, unsurprisingly, did not take well to the tobacco. Perhaps we should send out for food.
Ah well, I’m sure they’ll be fine, besides it’s cartoon time! Click through, loyal Ectomites, and witness their triumphant return!
P.S. Also, remember that if you visit the YouTube page for a particular video you have the option to watch it in high quality. Especially well suited to the anime.
Is it art? I’m not sure. What I am sure of is that it appears to be a creature out of The Dark Crystal with huge, pendulous testes, hanging from gymnastics rings and covered in stick-pins. Yup, thanks John.
Abdopus aculeatus octopi lead a life of sex, murder, and gender obfuscation but only once. After that they die. Thanks to Jenny and everyone else who sent this one in!
Welcome your new cephalopod masters with a t-shirt. Thanks, Vinnchan.
Hikashu, who appears to have been Japan’s answer to the Talking Heads, sings “Puyo Puyo”. Thanks, bubliki!
The trailer for Angels and Idiots, a new film by animation god Bill Plympton. Thanks, Monkey!
As you know yesterday was Brownlee’s birthday which meant that today I had to take an extra long shower. It’s no use though, no matter how long I scrub I just can’t get clean. In any event here is a nice little animated sandwich of spoof-tastic Fox Kids and Kids’ WB cartoons between two, moist slices of anime. I hope they will entertain you, our loyal readership, and I pray that, perhaps, they will help me to repress the events of last evening. Please, God…
• FLCL: We’ve entered the final half of this spectacular mini-series, and only two more to go. Will you just look at those eyebrows.
•Eek! The Cat and The Terrible Thunderlizards: Eek! did a number of film spoofs during its run and the two that stand out, to me, are “Lord of the Fleas” in which Eek is trapped in a shopping mall with some penguins — one of whom hysterically exclaims “Shut-up, Piggy!” — and this episode entitled “Eekpocalypse Now!, which thoroughly hits upon every major joke one could make about Coppola’s film. This one is for the adults, unless you were an eight year-old who loved movies about Vietnam. The Terrible Thunderlizards was its own show but was later merged with Eek! to create a variety show more like our next two entries.
•Tiny Toons: “A Quack in the Quarks” is the second episode of this seminal show and features a loose parody of Star Wars and a plethora of fourth wall shattering humor. In this episode Plucky Duck is kidnapped by aliens to Planet X to save it from the nefarious plot of Duck Vader. This was the beginning of a real golden age of Warner Brothers cartoons in the late 80s/early 90s that include Animaniacs, Freakazoid, and the Animaniacs spin-off Pinky and The Brain. Oh, and a Watchmen reference!
•Animaniacs “Super Strong Warner Siblings” is a brilliant send-up of the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers which always marked the end of cartoon time. Animaniacs also did an Apocalypse Now parody which, while excellent, did not follow the plot as closely as Eek!. Next up is one of the many “Good Idea, Bad Idea” clips followed by my favorite, Pinky and The Brain. In this episode, entitled “Battle for the Planet”, Brain once again acknowledges his Orson Welles influence by attempting to fake an alien invasion ala the Mercury Theater’s broadcast of War of the Worlds.
•Paranoia Agent: Someone has some unpleasant secrets…
Madness Combat has everything you could want in a series: violence, suspense, violence, clowns, Jesus, zombies, and violence. Brilliantly animated by Krinkel using faceless, Weeble-esque figures; it is a truly epic tale. An epic tale of violence. Presented above are all eight episodes available thus far. Watch and be entertained.
Freakazoid in “Candle Jack”: Broadcast in patented Scream-O-Vision for the first time in network history, I just want to point out that the first kid’s idea of the scariest thing in the world is pretty terrifying. All the air in the world, turning to wood simultaneously? One day, you’re just respirating with all the swagger of a carbon-based-lifeform, just showing off your lungs, not a care in the world. The next thing you know? You are encased in a wooden sarcophagus on all sides, enormous logs crammed down your throat and up your bowels, your lungs tearing themselves apart as they try to breathe splinters. Terrifying indeed. Thanks, Professor Robot!
The Wonder Twins in “Drag Race”: Despite their godlike transformation powers, the Justice League’s most useless members are incapable of stopping a typical teenage drag race. “An eagle? Carrying a monkey? *Crash*”
A Random Car Chase Scene from Mind Game: Though both physics and plausibility defying, perhaps the best animated car chase in cartoon history. Thanks, clevetheripper!
There’s two ways you can take this advertisement for Fred’s “Video Movie” and animation services. The first is as a hilariously perplexing display of the kind of human tragedy lurking within the seething morass of “normal” people. That interpretation is really more than enough to keep you amused as you watch the rest of Fred’s inexplicably edited and composed videos.
There is however, a second, far more insidious (and I think more accurate) interpretation. You see Fred is no ordinary Canadian man with a video camera, computer, and delusions of film-making grandeur. Fred is a monster, an evil man that has conducted horrific experiments in the unspeakable regions of science that no self-respecting man or woman gives any thought to lest they run shrieking into the night. That lifeless lump of audibly monotone flesh is not his wife, but an automota created in his hideous lab simply to see if he could accomplish the feat.
She was probably once a beautiful woman, rife with vim and vigor, full of the promise and untapped potential our parents and Disney have led us to believe we all have inside. Now the poor thing is nothing more than a shapeless mound atop a wheeled stool (adjustable in height of course, even mad scientists need their rocks off once in a while) shuffled around to be put on display as Fred’s greatest accomplishment. You can almost hear the screams of a shattered psyche echoing in her mind as she mumbles the speeches Fred has programmed her prior to show time.
The Cat With Hands is a short film by Robert Morgan. Released in 2001, it is the story of a cat who wishes to be human. The premise comes from a recurring nightmare that Morgan’s older sister had when she was a young child. It is a brilliantly executed tale, very much in the style of Edgar Allan Poe and features some startlingly creepy stop motion animation.
Episode 24 of the ongoing Meth Minute 39 addresses the Japander, a western celebrity who shills products in Japan, a pastime made famous in Lost in Translation. Here then is a compendium, a “Best of” if you will, of famous Japanese commercial insanity.
It’s Saturday! These are cartoons! It is not, however, morning. Two out of three ain’t bad though!
• FLCL continues and just gets stranger and stranger.
• Courage the Cowardly Dog. Why isn’t this how on DVD? WHY? This episode, entitled “The Tower of Doctor Zalost” is among the show’s best. The second short included in this particular show was entitled The Mask which is about a cat and a bunny who are lesbians. Unfortunately I couldn’t find it. Feel free to link to it in the comments if you come across it.
• Darkwing Duck in “Twin Beaks”. I loved this show when it was on. This particular episode is a brilliant spoof of, you guessed it, Twin Peaks and includes references such as a talking log, and a diner with excellent pie and “darn good coffee”. They manage to make it just as surreal as David Lynch’s murder mystery. Also, bonus Far Side joke!
• Ducktales: “Much Ado About Scrooge”. Scrooge and the boys go after the lost, cursed play of William Drakespeare. Ducktales and Darkwing Duck were set in the same world and characters like Launchpad and Gizmoduck featured prominently in both shows.
• Paranoia Agent: “Double Lips”. After being attacked by Lil’ Slugger, Yuichi’s name is cleared and he can finally relax. His tutor, Harumi Chono,unfortunately has other things to worry about. She has a second personality named Maria who spends her nights as a prostitute. Harumi has no control of herself during this time, nor can she recall what happened afterwards. After receiving a marriage proposal, Harumi decides to get rid of Maria, but can she? This one has some sex edited out of it so that YouTube wouldn’t take it down. Just an FYI.
After careful consideration Randy decided that his master could afford to purchase a new ball and that this particular game of fetch was over.
Thanks to everyone who pinged Ectomo on Valentine’s Day, it made Eliza’s puckered tear ducts moist with joy (or rage, I can never tell)!
The severing of a number of undersea communications cables have elicited claims of sabotage. Edward points to one of the more plausible theories.
The beautiful story of a young woman and the intimate relationship she shares with her speakers. Thanks, Tristion!
What happens when someone with a high speed camera takes video of insects being pelted with various liquids and miniature pies? Mable invites you to find out.
I do not know what is going on in this video but it is NSFW. Looks of disgust should be aimed at ithidet.
Update: The ever lovely and erudite Suzanne points out that the above image is by two Swiss collagists, Plonk & Replonk, and is part of a set of postcards which can be seen here.
Let me start out by saying that I loathe The Beatles. While I understand their place in the history of pop music I have trouble fathoming the praise that has seemingly been heaped upon them in terms of substance and lyrical acumen. Their songs may well be catchy and they must be credited (if indeed it is deserving of credit) for the explosion of pop music into the marketing and money making juggernaut it has now become but to say that The Beatles spoke for a generation is, to me, the equivalent of choosing a Hallmark card to represent my world view.
There are moments in their repertoire, however, that eschew the insipid, saccharine-sweet, posturing of songs like “All You Need Is Love” or the vapid, masturbatory day dreams of solo offerings like “Imagine” and, most certainly, “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” is one of them. It is a song that, at least, does not aspire to be anything besides what it is: a pop song. A pop song that happens to be about a young man named Maxwell Edison who murders his girlfriend, teacher, and a courtroom full of people with his gleaming, silver hammer. The literal take on the song, via flash animation, makes it all the more enjoyable.
I apologize for the video being clipped off on one side, I had a hard time fitting the clip inside our “paper” template.
Ren and Stimpy in Mad Dog Hoek: Due to the endless legal prowling of both John Kricafalusi and Nickelodeon, Ren and Stimpy episodes don’t last long on YouTube, and the ones I want like Space Madness are never there. It doesn’t matter: seasons 1 and 2 of Ren and Stimpy were unmitigated brilliance as a whole. It’s a shame that John K. has become the Harlan Ellison of the cartooning world: an undeniably talented artist but so utterly cantankerous and up-his-own-ass that all he does is spend all day raving about those talentless kids of today who can’t wait to sell out.
The Human Torch Raps from The Fantastic Four: This is totally for real. From the 1990s Fox Saturday Morning series.
Spongebob Squarepants in Sailor Mouth: I have to apologize for this one. This episode in which Spongebob and Patrick learn how to swear is absolutely hysterical in its original incarnation, with all obscenities bleeped out by the braying sounds of dolphins. It’s perfect. Unfortunately, no one will upload that version: the only versions that are available are ten thousand re-dubs in which some anacephalic mouth breather moistly shouts “FUCK! SHIT! PUSSY!” into his mike whenever Spongebob and Patrick utter an expletive, or the version I’ve chosen to use here, where the dolphin noises are replaced with network-style bleeps. Hopefully the cartoon will still work for you if you haven’t seen it.
Droopy Dog in Droopy Dumb-Hounded: The single, perfect example of the surrealist Hollywood cartoon chase, in which one character begins to fray around the edges as he tries to escape a slow, lumbering but utterly inexorable pursuer. Directed by Tex Avery, natch; this is also the first appearance of Droopy.
Wallace and Gromit in The Wrong Trousers: Not the whole thing, just the chase scene at the end. I worry that not enough people saw this in the theater when it came out: this one scene had every single person in the audience standing up and cheering when they saw it. It’s unfortunate that Wallace and Gromit, while always sublime, never managed to top this.
Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot in Patriotic Games: Another episode of Geof Darrow and Frank Miller’s curiously overlooked cartoon series. After an accident test piloting a prototype time machine sucks Big Guy into a vortex into the past, Rusty and Lieutenant Dwayne Hunter return to a future in which humanity is ruled by cephalopodic squid creatures and every American speaks with a British accent. The twist in this episode is great.
Aeon Flux in A Last Time For Everything: The Aeon Flux half-hour episodes were never up to the standard of the sublime Liquid Television shorts, this is one of the better episodes. Trevor develops a method for creating human duplicates. After Trevor copies Æon, the real Æon conspires with her doppelganger and switches places with her, but finds her loyalty to Monica challenged; meanwhile, the copied Æon prepares to kill the original. Dig the Russian assassin with the hands for feet.
Kenshiro Kasumi in Fist of the North Star: Just a little palate cleanser, as Ken explodes some post-apocalyptic mutant’s heads through the lightning-quick jabbing of certain key pressure points.
O-Ren Ishii in Kill Bill: A lecherous pedophile yakuza boss is taken down by a young, almond-eyed Lolita.
A study was recently released that compiled survey data from English children. The purpose of the study was to determine the most comforting, entertaining, and healthful decor for children’s hospitals, which in my experience has ranged from vomitous pastels to vaguely confusing jungle scenes.
A University of Sheffield study of more than 250 children, aged four to 16, found the images were widely disliked.
[…]
Researcher Dr Penny Curtis said: “As adults we make assumptions about what works for children.
“We found that clowns are universally disliked by children. Some found them quite frightening and unknowable.”
This study surprised me in the same way that studies showing a correlation between soft drink consumption and obesity confuse me: jesus freaking shit, NO DUH. Clowns are only enjoyed by adults, who are either perverse, facetious, or political enough to use their fearsome greasepainted rictuses (rictii?) for some purpose, such as sexual gratification or internet humor. I can safely say I have never loved a clown. Much less wept for one. Especially not a simpleminded, gape-faced horror of a clown.
Until now.
Something Awful goon Gaspy Conana, pixel artist, posted the preceding few panels in a thread titled “They are kicking Dropsy out of the circus. Please help him.” Using inspiration from the thread’s reader suggestions, oldschool LucasArts adventure games, and the gently probing finger of God Himself, he brought the story through dozens of episodes, several animations and songs, and thirtysomething pages of comments, cementing Dropsy firmly in the goon consciousness as friend and hero, and solidifying his own internet stardom. It was awe-inspiring to see hardbitten goons begging, literally begging, Conana to never draw Dropsy crying again. And the story wrapped up today.
This is a new kind of participatory media, my friends. Something lovely and funny and entertaining, something that combines nostalgia, art, and originality. I could not love Dropsy more.
In sheer defiance of the World Wide Web Consortium's will, Ectomo was designed using a non-web-standard font. Luckily, it is included in the excellent font pack released by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, which can be freely downloaded in Mac and PC formats here. Ectomo should still look fine without it, though.
