OK, this would have been back in the early '70’s, I think I was about six or seven when I saw it on Public Televion, and it Seriously. Freaked. Me. Out.
There was this giant sort of ape man who ate humans. Every time it ate, it got bigger- it seemed like a never-ending cycle- feed, grow, feed, grow, until it got to be so huge that it was scooping up humans by the handful and stuffing them into its mouth. Finally, it apparently grew to be so big that its body could no longer sustain its own life functions and it fell over dead. After the flesh had rotted away from its bones, we saw its ribcage being used as a church. The “camera” pulls up for an aerial view, and we see the landscape is fairly littered with these gigantic skeletons.
I was a hardcore horror fan by the age of five, and this animated short scared me more than anything I’d seen in a horror film. shudder
Has anyone else seen this film? Know the title? Where I can lay my hands on a copy?
I remember this short too. It was on a 1970’s PBS show hosted by Jean Marsh that featured animated shorts from throughout the world (sort of the forerunner of MTV’s “Liquid Television”). In fact, the short was even grimmer than you mention because, as I recall, the giant’s flesh did not rot away but was instead devoured by the smaller humans. I also remember Marsh (and the show’s producers) seemed so disturbed by the short that they put on a Woody Woodpecker cartoon (or another cartoon that was a hell of a lot lighter) next so as to balance everything out.
As for the title, I believe it was two words. I don’t remember the first word but the second one was “Rex”.
O.K. I’m probably wrong and “Let’s Keep a Dog” instead of Woody Woodpecker may have been the cartoon they showed after the grim and disturbing one (although I do remember some Woody Woodpecker shorts being part of some of the other episodes). What I do recall is that it was a lot lighter fare when compared to the giant cannibal cartoon (but, then again, so would’ve “The Tin Drum”).
One of the first cartoons to ever creep me out was Fantastic Planet, that French/Czechoslovakian science fiction film. One of my earlier memories is watching the scene with the topless woman carrying a baby running from the giant aliens. Was that also the movie where there were a bunch of primitive people who kill a giant pterodactyl-like creature with hooks on ropes or something like that?
Anyway, I haven’t seen the movie in well over 20 years and parts of it still stick with me. When I saw a few scenes from it in ‘The Cell’, it kinda freaked me out.
I seem to recall the short mentioned by the OP as well, but I’m wondering if I’m confusing the cartoon with a short story I read several years ago in Isaac Asimov’s Magazine of Science Fiction where an accident leaves an astronaut paralyzed from the neck down on some alien world, and survives because he is found and taken care of by tiny primitive but intelligent aliens. They live a lot faster than humans, and by the time he dies they have built an advanced civilization with his help, and they build a (relatively) giant tower made from his bones as a tribute to him.
Badtz Maru: Aye, you recall that right. The tribe, that the protagonist hooks up with after escaping the giant aliens, bag some kind of flying critter with grappling hooks, and suchlike.
Looked more like a mutant bat, IIRC. At the end of the bit, they spike a hole in the thing’s forehead, and drink from/bathe in the fountain of blood that spurts out.
Bizarre little flick. Another poster (and I apologize for not remembering who) described it as (something like) Science Fiction made by people who don’t know what SF is. Apt enough.
Alla this makes me wish I could track down the one mentioned in the OP, now. I’m all curious-like.
Yo! I was looking up this movie and came across your post. 15 years later, here is some info on that movie: The animator is Ante Zaninovic and the film is titled HOMO AUGENS. Here’s the link to a news article: The Dispatch - Google News Archive Search
You can use this link to see if a copy is available nearby. Turns out, the local University has one in their library. Wish I had time to see this, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon.
I live in Las Vegas, and that database says the one in South Carolina is the closest one to me, too. I’m going to hazard a guess that it’s the only publicly available copy in the U.S., and probably on 16mm film. I wonder if the library still has a working 16mm projector.
Too bad it’s not available online or on DVD. The OP’s description sounds fascinating. Although a spoiler alert would have been nice.
To those of you still searching for a copy of Homo Augens, here is the contact information (email preferred) for the original Croatian production company, Zagreb Film:
Julia Martinović
Ustanova Zagreb film
Zagreb, Vlaška 70
tel: +385 1 4613 689
fax: +385 1 4557 068
julia.martinovic@zagrebfilm.hr
Julia was quite helpful. A bit pricey at $18.00, including shipping, PLUS a wire transfer cost of around $45.00. Well worth it for me, though, to relive this impression-making film I’d only seen once on PBS in '76.
Thanks to all of you from this thread as it was instrumental in my tracking this down.
