Weird me out!
December 26, 2013 11:27 AM   Subscribe

I'm fascinated with the Uncanny Valley theory and would like to see more examples of it. I'll look at anything: YouTube, movies, articles, books, video games - you name it, I want to see it. I've looked at several things online and have poured over the wikipedia entry for it, but I want to see the truly weird and far out examples of uncanny valley. Weird me out, MeFi!
posted by ThaBombShelterSmith to Grab Bag (17 answers total) 17 users marked this as a favorite
 
Survey says: The Polar Express

The fact that the character that's voiced by Tom Hanks is also modeled to look like Tom Hanks adds that perfect bit of je ne sais quoi.
posted by komara at 11:31 AM on December 26, 2013 [3 favorites]


Start at about 2:23 here.

I watched this on Night Flight when it aired in maybe 1991 or so; it was held up as the cutting edge of computer animation. I knew something was off about it back then, and now it looks even more ghastly.
posted by FAMOUS MONSTER at 11:34 AM on December 26, 2013 [4 favorites]


Have you already looked at the TV Tropes entry?
posted by antonymous at 11:35 AM on December 26, 2013


HAND THING
posted by Faint of Butt at 11:42 AM on December 26, 2013 [1 favorite]


If your curiosity or significant other was cruel enough for you to drag you to the bitter end of the Twilight saga, remember the bad CGI baby?

It has nothing, absolutely nothing on the original attempt at creating the infant through purely physical effects. The result was as if the entity from Hardware, a marionette, a Chucky doll, and the brain of Mark Ryden were locked in a telepod and this thing came scampering out looking for a mother/host/slave to love/feed/obey it forever and ever.
posted by adipocere at 11:43 AM on December 26, 2013 [3 favorites]


The Little Girl Giant is astonishing. (Hat tip to the original mefi post here.)
posted by mochapickle at 11:44 AM on December 26, 2013




Basically every episode of Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! features this in at least one form or another. Here's Chippy; assume everything in the first link is NSFW in one way or another.
posted by Room 641-A at 12:15 PM on December 26, 2013




Have you checked the metafilter tag? This one from a few months ago remains one of the creepiest things I've seen...
posted by rouftop at 12:30 PM on December 26, 2013


Maybe this is what spurred your interest, but eh, I almost feel like I'm being asked to Pepsi Blue a little here... Have you seen the pilot episode of Almost Human? The basic premise of the show is that cops have to be paired with a robot, and because the robots are a little too cold and calculating Karl Urban's character's partner dies and he looses a leg. As such he's a bit prejudiced against the robots that basically also all look the same and make everybody a little heebie geebied.
posted by Nanukthedog at 12:30 PM on December 26, 2013


Mod note: Question is not "Who is weird looking?" Do not answer that question. Thanks.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 12:44 PM on December 26, 2013


Actroid F

Valerie Lukyanova
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 1:08 PM on December 26, 2013


The movie Mars Needs Moms hit it for several people I know.

IMO, the old TV show Small Wonder and the recent film Avatar.

Oh, and the kind of clown dolls with porcelain hands/feet/head. [shiver]
posted by stormyteal at 4:34 PM on December 26, 2013


I FEEL FANTAAAAAASTIC
posted by Rhaomi at 11:25 PM on December 26, 2013 [1 favorite]


Does Patricia Piccinini work for you?

Jesus god, I couldn't even make it all the way through Hand Thing.
posted by Specklet at 3:26 PM on December 27, 2013


If you haven't already, follow the New Aesthetic blog.
posted by tmcw at 4:01 PM on December 27, 2013


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