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PaperclipPerfector
2d ago
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Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.
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Notes -
Have you ever played Cadavre Exquis (Exquisite Corpse)?
It's a drawing game played by artists, both the Surrealists and inspired schoolchildren. Someone folds a sheet of paper into thirds, as one would when preparing to mail a letter, and the first artist draws on the top third the head of a character, monster, person, etc. He makes sure to extend the lines of the neck briefly into the middle third, and passes the paper to the second artist. The second artist, without viewing the top third, draws a torso, extends the connecting lines of the waist into the bottom third and gives it to the third artist to draw the pelvis and legs.
Someone at Adult Swim (formerly Cartoon Network) had the grand idea of having three or four of their most famous cartoon producers create an Cadavre Exquis, animated by different production companies, with none of the three knowing what the others would be creating. Pendleton Ward (Adventure Time), a duo of Rebecca Sugar (Steven Universe) & Ian Jones-Quartey (OK, K.O!), and Patrick McHale (Over the Garden Wall) collaborated blindly.
The result is neither disjointed nor meaningless.
As a lifelong fan of cartoons and other forms of animation, I found it a fascinating and compelling half-hour of artistry. You can watch the entire thing if you have a cable TV provider, a satellite dish subscription, or an HBO Max account. The documentary is freely available on YouTube, but I highly recommend watching the actual show both before and after you see the documentary, first to prevent spoilers and later to find themes and symbols you missed on the first watch.
What I found interesting on my second watch was how politically tribal it is. I don't mean in the culture war sense! (Except that a character named Donald wields a gun at one point, but that's expected CW claptrap at this point.) I mean that the shared language of symbols shared by the artsy blue tribe at the pinnacle of the corporate art-making world became obvious on my second viewing. This, more than anything, is what makes it feel like a single piece planned collaboratively from the start.
All three segments share a focus on identity, since the main characters of each are directly based on Exquisite Corpses drawn by these three famed animators. There are elements of body horror and bodily integrity throughout, and an undercurrent of the expectation that being embodied includes the fragility of death.
All three segments share oppression as the primary physical threat to the main character: antagonists, the alienation of fame, and one's own existence are each, in turn, seen as oppressive.
This "tribal hive mind" aspect is why it feels like a unified whole instead of the disaster that was the Star Wars sequel trilogy, which is itself considered a Cadavre Exquis by some reviewers. This is the tribe that communicates asynchronously what the media story of the day and The Latest Discourse will be, acting separately and alone but toward a shared goal, surviving as a group mind by winnowing out and excommunicating members who don't get the memo.
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