# Dark and Deranged Classic Animation **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 19, 2012, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-and-deranged-classic-animation/631947 "2012-08-19T06:49:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Cheez\_Whia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d26b3c/32.png) [@Cheez\_Whia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheez_Whia)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2012, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-and-deranged-classic-animation/631947/21 "2012-08-20T20:18:42Z")
The alcohol-induced [Pink Elephants on Parade](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoysQe-2HS4) in _Dumbo_, and the psychedelic [March of the Cards](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGqdhD0kMvw) in _Alice in Wonderland_ were supposedly inspired by chemical enhancements. ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2012, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-and-deranged-classic-animation/631947/22 "2012-08-20T20:20:10Z")
By the way, people who like this sort of thing might also be interested in _[The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat,](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twisted_Tales_of_Felix_the_Cat)_ a 1990s update of the old cartoon character that tries to incorporate that old-fashioned weirdness… it sometimes has a sort of R. Crumb feel to it. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2012, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-and-deranged-classic-animation/631947/23 "2012-08-20T21:13:22Z")
Oh, I forgot. I once found [this classic Japanese cartoon](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyGvGMa2RFg). It’s dark, weird, and funny all at the same time. Maybe someone who speaks Japanese can look in and tell me what they’re saying. There’s not much dialogue. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2012, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-and-deranged-classic-animation/631947/24 "2012-08-21T06:31:31Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > [“Red-Headed Baby,”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GP1Pja_IltQ) 1931. Not exactly “dark” – toys coming to life and dancing – but, just what **is** the nature of that spider’s interest in a doll?! She’s got no blood, and what else . . .. I’m freaked out by the fact the spider has only six legs. What did he do to lose the other two? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2012, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-and-deranged-classic-animation/631947/25 "2012-08-21T13:19:07Z")
> [@teela\_brown](#): > > Oh, I forgot. I once found [this classic Japanese cartoon](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyGvGMa2RFg). It’s dark, weird, and funny all at the same time. > > Maybe someone who speaks Japanese can look in and tell me what they’re saying. There’s not much dialogue. I dunno, but thanks for putting it here. It’s like a dream. A dark, weird, funny dream. I love this stuff! These old cartoons were shown long ago in movie theaters before the main picture and not meant exclusively for children, at all. My mother says she remembers seeing an X-rated old cartoon at the movie theater looooong ago, a male character chasing a female character - and (mom whispered) “his you-know-what was stretched way out ahead of him trying to reach the girl!” :eek: ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2012, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-and-deranged-classic-animation/631947/26 "2012-08-23T04:43:49Z")
> [@Cheez\_Whia](#): > > The alcohol-induced [Pink Elephants on Parade](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoysQe-2HS4) in _Dumbo_, and the psychedelic [March of the Cards](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGqdhD0kMvw) in _Alice in Wonderland_ were supposedly inspired by chemical enhancements. “Yes, it is true. I myself was addicted to Ex-lax and Feenamint.” [both Laxatives] - Art Babbitt, Disney animator Not very likely that drugs like LSD were on the menu then: > **[Dwarfs on Drugs](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/go-ask-alice-2/)** > > Spurious rumor holds that the personalities of Disney's seven dwarfs represent the seven stages of cocaine addiction. > [@](#): > > A common motif among Disney legends is the claim that various Disney animated films were drug-inspired; that Disney and his band of animators were users of hallucinogens such as LSD, and their experiences with drugs formed the basis for such fare as the fantasy world of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the colorful visual interpretation of musical themes in Fantasia, and the surreal psychedelia of Alice in Wonderland. > > On a literal level, not much can be said to address these rumors other than to cite a litany of negative evidence. Walt Disney and his principal animators are well-known figures about whom much has been written, and no one who knew or worked with them claimed (or even suggested) that they partook of recreational drugs. And although drug abuse was enough of a social concern to prompt didactic scare films such as Reefer Madness and The Cocaine Fiends back in the 1930s, the “drug” of choice in Walt Disney’s era was far more likely to have been alcohol than anything else. (Recall that the hallucinatory “Pink Elephants on Parade” sequence in 1941’s Dumbo is triggered when the diminutive pachyderm inadvertently imbibes a tubful of champagne.) > As for LSD, it wasn’t even brought to the USA until 1949, too late to have been the driving force behind Disney’s classic animated films ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2012, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-and-deranged-classic-animation/631947/27 "2012-08-23T06:20:20Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > I dunno, but thanks for putting it here. It’s like a dream. A dark, weird, funny dream. I love this stuff! These old cartoons were shown long ago in movie theaters before the main picture and not meant exclusively for children, at all. My mother says she remembers seeing an X-rated old cartoon at the movie theater looooong ago, a male character chasing a female character - and (mom whispered) “his you-know-what was stretched way out ahead of him trying to reach the girl!” :eek: “EverReady’s Buried Treasure,” a mad little exercise put together by the Fleischer Studio just for fun. I saw it in an art theater in San Francisco, but it’s hard to believe it ever made it onto a mainstream theater screen! When and where did your mom see it? ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2012, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-and-deranged-classic-animation/631947/28 "2012-08-23T15:29:27Z")
> [@Sam\_A.Robrin](#): > > “EverReady’s Buried Treasure,” a mad little exercise put together by the Fleischer Studio just for fun. I saw it in an art theater in San Francisco, but it’s hard to believe it ever made it onto a mainstream theater screen! When and where did your mom see it? It’s on YouTube: [noparse][http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GG55JmqYcSs[/noparse]](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GG55JmqYcSs%5B/noparse%5D) ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2012, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-and-deranged-classic-animation/631947/29 "2012-08-23T17:32:57Z")
There is an old Pluto cartoon where Pluto accidentally inhales a lot of insecticide and has a nightmare about going to hell (which is run by demon cats). It’s pretty messed up. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2012, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-and-deranged-classic-animation/631947/30 "2012-08-23T23:42:16Z")
Does anyone remember one with some sort of anthropomorphic child dreaming of meeting a variety of horror-film characters? Just as they’re all about to coat him in wax (for some reason), he wakes up. I liked it at 5 or 6, though cartoon horror never actively frightened me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-and-deranged-classic-animation/631947.md?page=1)