Spoiler alert! If you still plan to watch the cartoons “Potets”, “The Adventures of Little Penguin Lolo”, “Penguins”, “Merry Tree Friends” (banned for distribution in Russia), “Wild Planet”, “Wild Planet”, do not read further. Ferns: The Last Rainforest” for the first time”, “The Complete Sausage”, “Contact”, “Soviet Toys” and “Fanny’s Pets”.
“Potets”, Alexander Fedulov (Russia, 1992)
The psychedelic “Potets” is based on a poem by Alexander Vvedensky, written under the impression of watching his dying father. Attention, the plot of a cartoon with age category 0+: Children are trying to learn the meaning of the word “potet” from their dying father. It turned out to be the sweat of a corpse. End.
“The Adventures of Little Penguin Lolo”, Gennady Sokolsky and Kenji Yoshida (USSR and Japan, 1986-1987)
The Soviet-Japanese trilogy “The Adventures of Little Penguin Lolo” can cause psychological trauma in many children. The main characters of the cartoon – penguin chicks Lolo and Pepe – find themselves on a poaching ship, where another penguin named Mac languishes in a cage. They escape, but the poachers return, put all the penguin chicks of the flock onto a boat, and open fire on the penguins who run to save their relatives. And it is accompanied by disturbing music that enhances the impression of dramatic scenes.
“Penguins”, Vladimir Polkovnikov (USSR, 1968)
Another creepy story about a penguin. He entrusted the egg to a comrade to get away for a while. He lost the egg and replaced it with a stone. As a result, the penguin carefully hatched the stone and dragged it on its seasonal migration, when the chicks of its other relatives had already grown up. And the stone pulled the failed father to the bottom.
“Happy Tree Friends”, Kenn Navarro, Alan Lau et al (US and Canada, 2000-2016)
It is worth noting here that the age limit for the cartoon “Happy Tree Friends” is 18+ (and its distribution is prohibited in Russia). However, due to the abundance of violence, cruelty and black humor in the plot, it is not recommended even for many adults to watch. Each episode begins with the characters’ daily events and ends with torment and tragedy. At the same time, the art of “Happy Tree Friends” resembles an ordinary children’s cartoon, and this is one that a child can easily mix and open.
“Wild Planet”, René Laloux (France and Czechoslovakia, 1973)
The cartoon takes place on another planet where people are lower class and live in terrible conditions. Strange scenes, strange creatures, bright colors and hallucination-like visual effects combined with the plot make the movie absolutely psychedelic.
Fern Valley: The Last Rainforest by Bill Kroyer (Australia and USA, 1992)
The most memorable in the story about the difficult fate of elves, fairies and other inhabitants of the forest is the main anti-hero – Hexus, the spirit of violence designed to cause pain and suffering. It appears as a black substance that can take different shapes. The film was criticized for its overly dark depiction of Hexxus, which could cause childhood nightmares.
“All Sausage” by Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon (US and Canada, 2016)
Comedy “Full Sausage” (18+) combines farce and obscenity. In the cartoon, supermarket products come to life and go off to explore the world around them, accompanied by “adult” humour. Critics panned the script for its long, awkward sex scene and predictable crude jokes.
“Communication”, Vladimir Tarasov (USSR, 1978)
The cartoon depicts an encounter between an alien and a man who tries to study the Earth by simulating what they see. While adults can grasp the subject, it will be difficult for children. The fact that the surreal shots are replaced by The Godfather music increases the strangeness of the film.
“Soviet toys”, Dziga Vertov (USSR, 1924)
The main character of one of the first Soviet cartoons is a bourgeois who constantly eats and morally decays. And the “centaur”, consisting of a peasant and a worker, rips open his belly full of money. Then a happy ending awaits the viewer: a Red Army soldier appears, and the proletarians create a New Year tree decorated with “toys” in the form of enemies of Soviet society – the priest, the bourgeois Nepman and others.
Fanny’s Pets by Ryuji Masuda (Japan, 2006)
The series begins with the human-faced Moon spitting out many flying saucers heading towards Earth. There one of the plates explodes and the characters fall from it – the melancholy sun-like Crown and the huge-toothed Crescent. Then the viewer meets the third main character – the sexy girl Fanny, who appears in the frame in a revealing dress and agrees to host guests in her house. They do weird dances, blow things up, and shoot moles with arrows. The cartoon received negative reviews on Anime-Planet, criticizing its violent and pointless plot, simplistic 3D animation, and unlikable characters.