The Best Surrealism In Cartoons/ Artmania Halloween

 

Now that we're closer to Halloween, I want to talk about what I've been working on lately and the inspirations behind it.

These are surreal cartoons I actually do tend to be invested by. Usually I'm not into abstract filmmaking, but if it's fast, and done well, it's hella fun. I tend to be inspired by more creative and amusing concepts in animated films. I don't watch cartoons that has done a premise over hundreds of times, or is just too short.

One of my favorite animated moments are particuarly spooky and mysterious, my favorite cartoons are ambitious like The Old Mill, The Goddess Of Spring, The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow, Father Noah's Ark, Minnie The Moocher, The Great Piggy Bank Robbery, heck even some of Fantasia's scenes like the Night of Bald Mountain scenes mostly animated by William Shull are purely untouched and are absolute masterpieces.

I was planning a Christmas special last December, I'm not too keen on the project nowadays because it feels a little too basic. I didn't feel like I conveyed what the true spirit of Christmas was so I spat out a bunch of childish ideas like having factory workers and focusing way too much on Truffles, a tree that is a cliche of a comic relief. I definitely will think of more concepts and character development soon.

I'm not really a Halloween celebrant anymore, I do tend to enjoy more important holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. I guess I'm just too iffy on the aspects of a modern Halloween night like trick or treating and wearing costumes. 

I like Halloween for the vibe, the pumpkins, the color scheme, I love looking at decorations to feel inspired.

I made some storyboards, this is a music sequence.

This is while Szac and Dredd are trick or treating, Dredd starts to fantasize the sinister atmosphere of the night, his pumpkin bag suddenly comes alive and bonks Dredd in the head, a ghost appears as he tells Dredd that ghosts are real and get into your soul sometimes to make you feel utterly shaky, as Dredd changes colors and patterns while moving dysfunctionally. He then turns into a snail, and while he continues, the camera zooms into his shell as it turns into an egg, in fact multiple eggs start to dance until one completely explodes, and goo is everywhere causing Dredd to almost pass out, 

Szac finally arrives and says, "Mac! What's gotten into you? We just left the house!" Then in a sudden attempt to using the staging principle in animation, the light then turns to complete flame, and burns Dredd causing him to push Szac into a gravestone with my signature. Dredd stops feeling the pain and walks slowly in the wrong direction, Szac steadily sprints until a hand with sharp red claws grabs Szac's costume and a baseball bat appears to swing and beat Szac, he then rides a minecart, with devilish imps flying around him, Szac attempts to get out of the cart and falls into a bed curled up alongside Dredd, Szac is shocked as he wakes up Dredd, Dredd explains that he has had a nightmare but is talking in fast gibberish like tiny cartoon characters do. Then a floating pig, cow and chicken arrive to haunt Dredd and Szac as they talk about the wrongness of eating too much animals, the pig then transforms into a musician as he sings a love song on the mandolin. He then tries to catch the both of them in a surrealistic chase and their fantasy is over.

Here's some of the characters I mentioned. Including one of the floating animal heads.

I sorta like a bit of creepy and unusual stuff from time to time, it's a good way to challenge yourself and get through more darker themes and mature scenarios. I see myself enjoying films with dialogue and tension nowadays. I'm actually interested in watching films like It's A Wonderful Life and 12 Angry Men, I seen a few minutes of those films and am highly interested in checking them out fully.

They're the "best" films of all time for a reason. Almost anyone can relate to more human feelings and entertaining scenarios. 

Even when I was younger, I kinda like a good chilling moment in something I have watched. 

Heck, what made me feel inspired to make that drawing of the pig in the first place was a random moment in Malcolm In The Middle's season 7 episode Cattle Court, I remember this particular scene vividly where Reese has a nightmare where he is sentence to trial. It's a truly underrated scene from otherwise a magnificent sitcom.

Like I was saying earlier, Halloween is in a few days, and I'm trying to experience as much stuff as I can with the holiday. There will be more concepts and ideas of what an artmania halloween film could look like.