Weirdest Cartoons

[A. Flea]

Well as the title says this thread is all about wierd,stange and even scary cartoons, from any studio. My personal fave is Jasper and the Haunted house.

[The "Chase"]

Swing Your Sinners.

I win this thread. :D

[J. B. Warner]

If you think about it, a lot of Chuck Jones' one-shots from the 1950s were pretty off-beat. Everyone talks about "One Froggy Evening", but few people stop and think about the strangeness of the premise about a frog in a top hat who sings 1890s pop songs. You can also look at examples like "Punch Trunk" or "To Itch His Own" or "Go Fly a Kit" - not exactly typical cartoon ideas, but they succeed anyway.

[Marty26]

:sowhite:

[AardvarkDog]

Surprised no one's mentioned any of the Columbia Screen Gems Shorts...yet >_>

Really, I agree with J.B Warner's comments on Chuck's later cartoons. My top WTF has to be Now Hear This. It was so weird and yet it urged me to finish watching it just to see how much weirder it'll get by the end. :D

Also, a number of the early Pink Panther shorts seem to fit in the category - Pink Pajamas comes to mind in terms of layout style and gags. This proves a number of ways to turn on and off lamp by pretending its a candle...!

[Jeffitarian]

Almost every short on Thunderbean's excellent Cultoons! series. Some delightfully bizzare highlights for me include "Mendelssohn's Spring Song", "Monkey Doodle", "3 Blind Mice", "Rumor", "The Peanut Vendor", "Mr. E From Tow City" and "Up and Atom".

Also, pretty much every short from Van Beuren's "Tom and Jerry" series that I've seen. Plenty of great WTF? moments there as well.

[frizfrelengfan]

Some of these I like, some are just plain weird:

Monkey Doodle
Now Hear This
Martian Through Georgia
Duck Amuck
Swing You Sinners (I love this one)
The Dog Snatcher (Scrappy)
Rooty Toot Toot (UPA)
Any "Ham and Hattie" cartoon (UPA)
Psychedelic Pink
Sherlock Pink
Pincushion Man (a/k/a Balloon Land) (Iwerks)

[gdX]

Swing Wedding (1937, MGM) should get an honorable mention.

But the one that first comes to mind is Betty Boop M.D.

Plenty weird throughout, but the ending is strange bordering on disturbing bordering on traumatic.

:betty:

[Glowworm]

Tex Avery's "What's Buzzin Buzzard?" wins for me as being one of the sickest,most disturbing cartoon I'd ever seen. When I was five, my dad was outside in the backyard while I watched cartoons-this one came on-I was traumatized. Mostly because of the scene in which the Durante buzzard winds up inside Joe's mouth. Now I love this cartoon-it's so insanely funny-but it's still quite disturbing.

Betty Boop's "Snow White" is very bizarre and surreal-and a bit creepy when the queen turns into a dragon and is then turned inside out by Bimbo.

"Porky in Wackyland" certainly is strange-brilliant-but strange.

[J. A. Boschen]

Seeing how a bunch a people mentioned cartoons on the CULTOONS compiliations I am surprised to see that no one has mentioned one of my favorite cartoons Ted Eshbaugh's THE SNOW MAN. The whole concept of the film is incredibly strange but enjoyable.

[Jeffitarian]

Seeing how a bunch a people mentioned cartoons on the CULTOONS compiliations I am surprised to see that no one has mentioned one of my favorite cartoons Ted Eshbaugh's THE SNOW MAN. The whole concept of the film is incredibly strange but enjoyable.

I believe that particular cartoon is on Thunderbean's Cartoons For Victory comp.

[Jack G.]

Martian Through GeorgiaI'm unfamiliar with this one. What studio is this from?

[AcmeCoyote]

Let's not forget some Ub Iwerks goodies like "Balloonland".

[Matt the Y]

I'm unfamiliar with this one. What studio is this from?

It's a WB short (released in late 1962), co-directed by Chuck Jones and Abe Levitow, about a Martian who is bored and fed-up with EVERYTHING (even girls) on his home planet so he is encouraged to travel. He finds the planet Earth on his travels and is intrigued by the life there and decides to make a fresh "new" start on this strange new planet. However, upon arriving on Earth, all he does is cause an uproar and a panic because he is different and bizarre and just cannot fit in with everyone else. He decides to return to his old "boring" planet (where at least he is loved and accepted by his fellow denizens) after all.

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't this short included on this year's upcoming LT GC Vol. 6?

[Jack G.]

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't this short included on this year's upcoming LT GC Vol. 6?Just checked. You are correct!

[J. A. Boschen]

I believe that particular cartoon is on Thunderbean's Cartoons For Victory comp.

You are thinking of Hans Fischerkoson's 1943 German AgfaColor Cartoon Der Schneeman (a cartoon about a snowman who locks himself in a freezer and comes out in July). The Snowman cartoon that I am refering to is an early 1932/1933 Color cartoon (which unfortunatly has only been available in a B&W Official Films Prints) which was directed by Ted Eshbaugh (the Same fellow who did THE SUNSHINE MAKERS (35) and WIZARD OF OZ (33).

[Matt the Y]

Some of my picks for weirdest cartoon.....

Duck Pimples (Disney/1945)
Can You Take It? (Fleischer/1934)
Small Fry (Fleischer/1939)
Now Hear This (WB/1963)
A-Haunting We Will Go (Lantz/1939)
Abou Ben Boogie (Lantz/1944)
A Wolf in Sheik's Clothing (Famous/1948)
Half Pint Pygmy (MGM/1948)
Sh-h-h-h-h (Lantz/1955)
Chew Chew Baby (Famous/1958)
Porky in Egypt (WB/1938)
Porky's Tire Trouble (WB/1939)
Tin Pan Alley Cats (WB/1943)
Kitty Kornered (WB/1946)
The Big Snooze (WB/1946)
Norman Normal (WB/1968)
Purr-Chance to Dream (MGM/1967)
Pink Punch (DFE/1966)
The Hand is Pinker Than the Eye (DFE/1967)
Psychedelic Pink (DFE/1968)
Kongo-Roo (Columbia/1946)
Loco Lobo (Columbia/1946)
Mother Hubba-Hubba-Hubbard (Columbia/1947)
Topsy Turkey (Columbia/1948)
The Coo-Coo Bird Dog (Columbia/1949)
Wrestling Wrecks (Lantz/1953)
Alley to Bali (Lantz/1954)
The Dog That Cried Wolf (Lantz/1953)
Destination Meatball (Lantz/1951)

[Cartman]

My list includes:

Any early Fleischer work
Duck Pimples (Disney)
Hell's Heels (Lantz)
The Great Piggy Bank Robbery (WB)

[drmark7]

You are thinking of Hans Fischerkoson's 1943 German AgfaColor Cartoon Der Schneeman (a cartoon about a snowman who locks himself in a freezer and comes out in July).

See a well-illustrated history of that one here:
http://www.kiddiematinee.com/s-snowman.html

(Kiddie Matinee, a good site run by a buddy of mine, with lots of other oddball animation reviews to be found.)

I'm always knocked out when the rabbit eats the snowman's carrot nose at the end!

The Snowman cartoon that I am refering to is an early 1932/1933 Color cartoon (which unfortunatly has only been available in a B&W Official Films Prints) which was directed by Ted Eshbaugh (the Same fellow who did THE SUNSHINE MAKERS (35) and WIZARD OF OZ (33).

Curiously, and not unexpected, this isn't in Eshbaughs filmog at IMDB. Your mention here is my first confirmation that this MUST have been made in color and related to THE SUNSHINE MAKERS! One of my "weird" favs as well, with the "snowman" getting so MEAN and LOVE those great MOIRE effects on the machine at the end. I don't recall seeing an effect like that in any other film. They still look pretty good in B&W. And doesn't this feature a HYMN as played on an organ ("Little Brown Church On The Hill?") Haven't seen it in fresh memory, but that's what I recall...

Dr. Mark

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[FlapperPrower]

Many of the silent Felix the Cat shorts are weird and bizzare. I remember one where Felix actually skins a elephant alive.

[lonesome-lenny]

I'm torn between SWING YOU SINNERS and the Famous Studios CHEW CHEW BABY. The latter may well be the singlemost creepiest cartoon of all time.

Van Beurens like GYPPED IN EGYPT, THE HAUNTED SHIP and the beyond-messed-up PLANE DUMB, would also hit pretty high on the Weirdometer.

[Fibber Fox]

Van Beurens like GYPPED IN EGYPT, THE HAUNTED SHIP and the beyond-messed-up PLANE DUMB, would also hit pretty high on the Weirdometer.

Are there any Tom and Jerry cartoons that don't? Which is the one when they're skeletons at the end?

I like The Haunted Ship. Plane Dumb just shows us all there was a time when people thought blackface = automatically funny. Or at least cartoonists at Van Beuren did.

F. Fox.

[Cartman]

Are there any Tom and Jerry cartoons that don't? Which is the one when they're skeletons at the end?

That cartoon is WOT A NIGHT.

[lonesome-lenny]

Are there any Tom and Jerry cartoons that don't? Which is the one when they're skeletons at the end?

There are several lame, gormless Van Beuren T & Js. The best ones are those which contain some supernatural content, or have some dark, threatening element to them.

THE MAGIC MUMMY is another of my favorite WTF-weird cartoons...

[Glowworm]

There was this really weird Van Bueren version of Little Red Riding Hood in which Grandma takes Jazz Tonic and becomes young and beautiful again. She attracts the wolf and they attempt to wed. However, red riding hood seeks out the wolf's wife and all her children and they come to opose the matrimony wielding rolling pins.

Roland and Rattfink could be quite trippy.The two that come to my mind are "Hurts and Flowers" in which Roland is a nature and peace loving hippie while Rattfink hates all those things and continuously destroys Roland's pink dasies. Yet Roland still smiles and offers flowers to him.

"A Pair of Sneakers" is also trippy because there is a scene in which the stairs randomly flatten out and a giant iron comes out of nowhere to run over Rattfink. Also later on there is a scene in which Rattfink mounts a large elephant and snatches the secret message from Roland-only to have Roland deflate his elephant! WTF?:D

[jonmayo15]

Porky In Egypt- Great cartoon, gets weird as hell.

It's The DESERT MADNESS!

[A. Flea]

Yeah. That made me piss my pants as a kid! Are the voices that scream WB workers? Like inkers and painter.

[Glowworm]

"Porky in Egypt" also frightened me as a child-it gets really freaky fast!

[J. J. Hunsecker]

Monkey Doodle is the weirdest cartoon from the classic era I've ever seen. I'd have to say that it's not an enjoyable weirdness, though.

I find a lot of the Harman-Ising MGM cartoons to be strange. They're light on story and events just seem to happen. The animation is over-labored and timed too slow. Characters usually have annoying voices, and ramble on and on. This tends to give the cartoons a bizarre feeling. Happy Harmonies like To Spring and Pipe Dreams come to mind. Although I do like Swing Wedding.

Early 30's Terrytoons and Van Beuren cartoons are also of the WTF? variety to me. Things just seem to happen for no reason. For instance, the cartoon may be a western yet the cowboy hero rides a mechanical horse. Huh?!?

Lantz's Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons are also weird, but in a loopy, enjoyable way, even if they don't always make sense. There's a lot of spirit in them, and Bill Nolan's animation is unique and funny.

Bob Clampett's Looney Tunes from the 30's are also odd, but in a good way. They're surreal and imaginative, the best being Porky in Wackyland, and parts of Porky in Egypt.

Some of Otto Messmer's Felix the Cat cartoons are surreal and wonderfully crazy, like Felix Dines and Pines.

I also like Fleischer's pre-code cartoons, such as Swing You Sinners and Betty Boop in Snow White.

Chuck Jones's Now Hear This is also a weird-but-in-a-good-way cartoon that I like. In the 70's young independent animators would make cartoons like this, but in all seriousness. Most of them never realized that Jones beat them to it by a good decade or so.

[frizfrelengfan]

I've got to add to my list the three Fleischer cartoons featuring Cab Calloway: "Snow White", "Minnie the Moocher", and "The Old Man of the Mountain".

Also the Looney Tune "The Phantom Ship", directed by Jack King and featuring Beans and Ham and Ex, is full of weirdness. It's a good cartoon to watch during Halloween season.

And how could I forget the Fleischer Talkartoon "Bimbo's Initiation"? My avatar comes from this cartoon.

[Glowworm]

Somebody's been posting episodes of "Here Comes the Grump" on Youtube and the animation designs sure are trippy!