Help me name/locate these two short 1980s (?) animations.

April 23, 2006 9:42 PM

Help me name/locate two 1980s (?) animated short films.

1. Soviet-esque. A long line of identical gray men are standing side by side on a featureless plain against a dark sky. One man taps the shoulder of the man to his right, who taps the man to his right, passing it down the line for what feels like miles. Cut to the only guy acting different, a nervous fellow at the end of the line and the edge of a cliff. When he's tapped he falls off, and everybody takes a step to the right.

Some more happens, with things shaken up a bit by a colorful man with a clown nose. I won't spoil any more since the above should already be enough to identify the cartoon to those who know it. I saw it as part of a non-Spike and Mike cartoon festival in ~1991.

2. Anime. Wordless, short, (I think) about self-organizing machines in a slightly futuristic urban environment. Really beautifully drawn, no obvious CG. (I don't mean to imply those are mutually exclusive.) I saw it on a French channel sometime in the '90s, and remember that the French title translated as "Nightmare". Presumably that should be enough to find it, but I obviously haven't been looking in the right places.

posted by Aknaton to media & arts (7 comments total)

This movie is a short (possibly animated--there's not enough information there), and it's in association with Jean Giraud.
posted by interrobang at 9:53 PM on April 23, 2006

As far as I can tell, that movie is an animated adaptation of a comic strip. It sounded likely to me as well; I actually came to post about it a little loo late.
posted by MadamM at 9:56 PM on April 23, 2006

1 is Elbowing, by Paul Driessen. I believe it's from the National Film Board of Canada but I can't seem to find it on their site.
posted by stefanie at 10:54 PM on April 23, 2006

It's not Cauchemar Blanc like interrobang suggested. That's live action and you can watch it here.

Perhaps the movie was not originally french? Because if so, that's going to make it a lot harder to find...
posted by cyphill at 12:55 AM on April 24, 2006

I think "Nightmare" is one of the segments from Robot Carnival.
posted by Faint of Butt at 3:33 AM on April 24, 2006

The first one reminded me (FWIW) of Balance
posted by stevil at 7:56 AM on April 24, 2006

I'm not sure about Robot Carnival, but it lists
Takashi Nakamura (segment "Nightmare")
which seems very likely. Thanks to everyone!
posted by Aknaton at 10:51 AM on April 24, 2006