Salesman Pete and the Amazing Stone From Outer Space

October 29, 2010 12:07 AM

Salesman Pete and the Amazing Stone From Outer Space. You've never seen animation quite like this before. Bizarre, but supremely impressive. Looks great at low-res if you're on limited bandwidth.

It's got a bit of Confuso-vision going on, lots of short, choppy takes, but dayam.

posted by Malor (26 comments total)

That was fantastic. The style reminded me of a few different things as it went on, but all meshed together into something downright awesome.
posted by Stunt at 12:36 AM on October 29, 2010

The number of setups and characters is pretty impressive - an editor person might have been handy but if the point was to cram as much as possible into it then mission accomplished!

Cool stills and prototypes at the blog
posted by victors at 12:45 AM on October 29, 2010

OK, that was impressive--and fun!
posted by maxwelton at 12:53 AM on October 29, 2010

Saved by a talking steak. Very nice.
posted by From Bklyn at 1:10 AM on October 29, 2010

My whole month has been like that.
posted by aubilenon at 1:17 AM on October 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

It's things like this that make me realize I could assemble my own Liquid Television if I spent enough time rooting around in the animation underworld.

I found the steak uniquely irritating for some reason, but I still laughed out loud at several points.
posted by mykescipark at 1:49 AM on October 29, 2010

I really enjoyed all of that. The staccato pace of the jokes especially.
posted by Peztopiary at 2:32 AM on October 29, 2010

Totally awesome! Thanks Malor.
posted by Duug at 2:40 AM on October 29, 2010

Very... busy.
posted by pracowity at 2:44 AM on October 29, 2010

They threw everything AND the kitchen sink into that seven minutes. Wow. And I had just started checking out the Drawn blog's collection of shorts from the Ottawa International Animation Festival, and the very first one was a piece of Japanimation that is similarly frenetic (or more so, if possible) but only two minutes...

I may be too exhausted to watch any more...
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:06 AM on October 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

That was fantastic. Quick jokes, a talking steak who does very little but occasionally remind Pete he's invincible, a stone stolen by some shrimpmongers solely to... make cheaper shrimp... and cleverly mixed to the music.
posted by disillusioned at 3:31 AM on October 29, 2010

Salesman Pete might want to hold a shot for more than 1/100 of a second. His backgrounds, light effects, angles and figures are a thousand times more interesting than his gags, action and editing. The long, steady shot is the next frontier of cinema, I promise you.
posted by Faze at 4:07 AM on October 29, 2010 [2 favorites]

Technical / eye candy: 10
Story: meh.

I completely appreciate the insane amount of work that went into this animation, but the story is too slow (or lacking in something I can't put my finger on) to deserve all that icing.

To me, this one was far more amusing. I'm not sure if it's b/c it's shorter or b/c it's more intellectual in that it makes me think - I don't know where it's going. I like that it's simple (on the surface at least), and it lets me do some of the work.

YMMV
posted by yoga at 4:13 AM on October 29, 2010 [7 favorites]

Thanks Yoga, that one is hilarious.
posted by ciderwoman at 4:40 AM on October 29, 2010

Yeah, immediately after posting, I wanted to change it to say, "Bizarre, and a bit incoherent, but supremely technically impressive." I wasn't so much wowed by the story, but the hand-drawn feel of what are obviously computer-generated models.

They need more patience and a bit less of a desire to show off their cool tools. I call that the Dreamworks effect, putting stuff in because it looks neat, whether or not it has anything to do with the story. But I, at least, found those techniques jaw-dropping.
posted by Malor at 5:27 AM on October 29, 2010

Reminds me just how very VERY good Salad fingers was. can't get through more than a minute or so of this.
posted by mary8nne at 5:29 AM on October 29, 2010

That looks incredible, it's like an entire animation made out of title cards. I wonder what the set up was to get that style.
posted by lucidium at 5:30 AM on October 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

Pretty nice toon shader there.
posted by echo target at 5:54 AM on October 29, 2010

I like that once the intro is over, the thing isn't ruined, as so many cartoons are, by talking. Visual storytelling should be the rule. Feature-length cartoons should take that lesson from shorts.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 5:58 AM on October 29, 2010

Spümcø on crack...
posted by jim in austin at 6:11 AM on October 29, 2010

This isn't a style I particularly love, but it's still easy to admire the technical excellence. The cartoon yoga linked, made me laugh hard and the art is perfectly suited to the slapstick, which is done with impeccable timing.

The intersection of those two things may be Pixar's Presto short, which I would goggle at for its technical excellence if I weren't too busy wheezing and wiping away tears.
posted by Wolfdog at 6:26 AM on October 29, 2010

IMHO this is too frenetic and busy (as are most modern cartoons). Its like watching TV after 10 cups of coffee.

I miss cartoons like Bugs Bunny. Let to jokes set-up - the humor is in the pause: "Ah..... what's up, Doc?"

And we all sit around a wonder why all our kids have ADD.
posted by LakesideOrion at 6:29 AM on October 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

Ah, the origin story for Bikini Bottom.
posted by chairface at 8:28 AM on October 29, 2010

Internet Rule #32: Whenever a link promises you something "you've never seen before", you already have.
posted by Poet_Lariat at 1:59 PM on October 29, 2010

May I ask where, Poet_Lariat?
posted by Malor at 2:05 PM on October 29, 2010

Really impressive. If the Warner Brothers studio was making the equivalent of its classic cartoons for today's movie-going audiences, I think it would be kind of like this.
posted by treepour at 2:23 AM on October 30, 2010