Destroy All Podcasts DX Episode 104 - Cartoon Sushi

Jeremy, given your obsession with Oshii, I'd have thought you'd call that Ultra City "Patlabor" parody your good thing.

Although I wonder if the guys doing it were intentionally parodying one of Oshii's style tics, or if they just said "lol nobody in this movie is looking at the camera when they talk".

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Your description of the goings-on in Robin sounds like what you were saying about "Getting Any", in that this crazy random crap starts happening and the main character is just all "enh, whatever".

Finally got around to talking about this show!

Much of Cartoon Sushi, while being a dependent of Liquid

TV is some respect, lacked in certain capabilities is

that most of the material utilized this time around is

mostly student work from fancy colleges like CalArts in

Southern California or Sheridan near Toronto, as well as

an interest in 'new media' approaches thanks to the

internet and other resources that were opening up at the

time. In some way, it paved the route for what we see

today with places like AtomFilms.com, Channel Frederator

and anything on YouTube.

Those "Science Facts" were produced by a NY group called

AMPnycAnimation or something, here's a webpage of their

material seen on Cartoon Sushi as well as Cartoon

Network. I think the best Science Fact made was

"Broccoli has an IQ of 10" or such, which led to a sequel

cartoon with the character as a taxi driver.
http://www.ampnycanimation.com/

Dirty Birdy was from John R. Dilworth, probably best

known for "Courage the Cowardly Dog" on Cartoon Network.

Another of his efforts that was seen on Liquid TV was a

short called "Sweet Talk with Raisin".
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-

3652609476463710260

I sorta liked what "Expresso Depresso" tried to do for

humor. I kinda liked the pissed off waitress complaining

about her job and poising everyone by mistake (except for

the weirdo who gets off on pouring coffee on his crotch).

Although not seen in the Cartoon Sushi version, the end

credits to this also feature the waitress getting pissed

at the 'mess' she made. The end of this short also

thanked Seattle and Ann Arbor, MI for the inspiration (I

was up in Ann Arbor once but didn't really hang out in

one of those snooty coffee shops, coffee isn't my thing

yet).

The CG dog eating his s__t when the master approaches was

one of those weird love/hate things for me. I guess at

the time, I thought it was funny but the stylization and

approach wasn't perfect.

"Stupid for Love" is another of those student films of

lackluster fare, such as with "Casting Call" which I

think did a better job making fun of the Golden Age full

animation and the 60's limited style with those two

characters. "You're simple!" just eclipses it.

I loved the "Robin" shorts too. The Paranoid Android

video would probably be where most people would remember

these from, though I kept remembering a cartoon I saw as

a kid involving a Swedish kid of a similar nature that I

felt Arnold was spoofing called "Kalles Klätterträd" (or

"Charlie's Climbing Tree").
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFcNxUwlJO4

I often wonder if the atmosphere in the Robin films

reflect the attitudes and culture of growing up in Sweden

or elsewhere in Europe.

Some "UltraCity" shorts did appear like fandub parodies

but some had original animation like "Fast Driver" and

the episode of not showing lip syncing. The one with

Michael Jackson took footage from a short-lived OVA "The

Mighty Space Miners" which ADV once had in their mitts at

the time.

I think Sergio Aragones was the artist from MAD you were

thinking of.

These UltraCity bits do pre-date the Fenslerfilm GI Joe

PSA's obviously. Those original PSA's are pretty

terrible. That Transformer PSA was pretty funny when I

saw it.

Again, it doesn't quite hold a candle to what Liquid Television did before, but it tries for what it's worth. There are of course film festivals, scholarships and other venues then and now where student filmmakers could submit their work and often get some noteriety. Cartoon Sushi was essentially a nice showcase of these students work in some respect. Liquid TV did have some outsider stuff placed in alongside the original stuff produced like Aeon Flux. Think of it as a mini film festival approach to getting indie animation to the masses.

Don't feel like talking about MTV of today that pretty much dropped the "MUSIC TELEVISION" from their logo today. I miss the 80's. :-(

The original animation division MTV had at the time would end around the early 2000's (I think Downtown was one of the last shows they made). I recently read someplace they decided to open up a new animation division right now, but don't think it'll be anything like the MTV Animation of the 90's.

Cartoon Network started in '92. I first saw it around '94 myself. Liquid TV first aired on MTV in '91, prior to that, the animation often seen on the network had been local ID's and other promos seen on the network in the 80's. Liquid TV also came at the time of the "Animation Boom" in America when films like Roger Rabbit, Beauty and the Beast, or TV shows like The Simpsons spearheaded that rise in animation as a viable medium for general or adult audiences. The late 1980's/early 90's was an interesting time to live through for guys like me.

One of Don Hertzfeldt's films I remember from Cartoon Sushi was "Genre" as well as "Lily & Jim".

Being reminded Magnus Carlsson also did a children's show called "Three Friends & Jerry".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three_Friends_and_Jerry