Vintage Anime

March 29, 2008 11:41 AM

Vintage anime: Evil Mickey Mouse invasion! (YT) and an even more beautiful example from 1943.
posted by vronsky (13 comments total)

I know I've seen this before somewhere, because I have a screencap of Evil Mickey riding the mickey-dactyl on my desktop. Thank you for reminding me, because this is great.
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 12:18 PM on March 29, 2008 [1 favorite]

FUN!

This one is still my favorite.
posted by louche mustachio at 12:28 PM on March 29, 2008 [2 favorites]

Nice to know Japanese animation was always batshit insane.
posted by schwa at 12:31 PM on March 29, 2008

Not really any more batshitinsane than Western cartoons. What's exciting to me about these is that they mix the very clear influence of American animation and characters with themes and characters from traditional Japanese folklore - elements like magic, ghosts, and shapeshifting. In the American cartoons, especially the Fleischer studios cartoons that the animators clearly admire, there is a lot of random transformation - watch this Betty Boop cartoon for an example - which is strange, but not really related to anything much deeper than the flexibility of the medium.
posted by louche mustachio at 1:01 PM on March 29, 2008 [1 favorite]

Is it just me, or is that 1943 spider in blackface? (And if he is, what does this say about Japanese popular understanding of America at the time?)
posted by IndigoJones at 1:04 PM on March 29, 2008

I'm so glad you found this, vron.
And so sad that even Mickey can turn to the Dark Side.
posted by Dizzy at 2:35 PM on March 29, 2008

He has a good side??

For those of you strange synchronicities and new ideas - try the soundtrack from this (very beautiful) video while playing the video from the "1943" link. Better than Pink Floyd / Wizard of Oz I tells ya.
posted by vronsky at 3:05 PM on March 29, 2008

here
posted by vronsky at 3:06 PM on March 29, 2008

Cease and desist order from Walt Disney Co. in 5, 4, 3....
posted by Avenger at 4:16 PM on March 29, 2008

The 1943 YT cartoon you linked to really is beautiful. Nice post.

As for:

Nice to know Japanese animation was always batshit insane.

Bah, what would you know? Because if what is linked to in this post is "batshitinsane", then what does that make this?
posted by KokuRyu at 4:48 PM on March 29, 2008 [1 favorite]

That's not insane, so much as it is shocking and vile. Those cartoons had a purpose - they were meant to dehumanize the "enemy" via caricature and stereotype. If there's anything insane about it, it's the mass insanity of casual racism and of the wartime mindset, but the people who made it knew exactly what they were doing.
posted by louche mustachio at 4:56 PM on March 29, 2008

That was nice with the sound off and Ernst Reijseger's 'Colla Parte' on in the background. My daughter left today on spring break and I choked up when the Cat-With-A-Mouse-Head had his seemed-like-a-daughter-to-me snatched up. She loves Myazaki and I miss her. Thanks for the post.
posted by Mei's lost sandal at 9:05 PM on March 29, 2008

For those of you [who appreciate] strange synchronicities... Damn! Me type pretty one day:(

Thanks for that KokuRyu.
posted by vronsky at 8:27 PM on March 30, 2008