An extraordinary animation produced by the Fleischer Brother Studios in 1931, showcased in BoingBoing’s current Mindblowing Movies series.
Cartoonist and illustrator Jim Woodring sez of it:
…an ingenious piece of work, made by men who I now realize were well aware of its metaphysical content, as evidenced in part by the use of Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld in the soundtrack. Perhaps its creators were trying to amuse themselves by making a cartoon that combined madcap whimsy with philosophical depth. Or maybe they were just high.
This is our animated pilot for a cartoon series starring everyone’s favourite aliens from the planet Zod, Zig and Zag! In this three minute trailer, Zig and Zag attempt to get all the ice cream for themselves and the only thing standing in their way is some helpless kids…
Animator and Comic artist Ian J (who also works on Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time) saw this spectacularly bad airbrush artwork on the back of a pickup and couldn’t resist extrapolating the fail.