Animated subversion from within?

June 8, 2004 5:46 AM

These educational cartoons about the upcoming G8 conference are easily some of the worst pieces of animation ever to be considered "educational." Could they be an attempt to create animated subversion from within? Or is it just par for the course when the government tries to sell the G8 to the youth of America? Oh, and if you like the cartoon, try testing your G8 IQ.
posted by hank_14 (14 comments total)

The acting is amazing!

"Here-comes-Mark-with-some-cards-in-his-hands. This-is-fun."
posted by Mayor Curley at 6:06 AM on June 8, 2004

Hahaha, these are stunning. Reminds me of a 5-year-old's first try on those early-90s PC animation bundles.
What we need, of course, is "Where In The Internet Is Carmen Sandiego?".
posted by Pretty_Generic at 6:09 AM on June 8, 2004

Why didn't they just use flash? And I can think of no kid that would fine this entertaining enough to learn anything from.
posted by Evstar at 6:52 AM on June 8, 2004

What does the name of Bush's dog have to do with the G8 exactly?
posted by fvw at 7:04 AM on June 8, 2004

"I also know the total number of stars on all the flags!"
posted by Pretty_Generic at 7:25 AM on June 8, 2004

i clicked on it thinking "they can't be that bad."

holy shit. they're worse. everything about them is so profoundly wrong/bad/pitiful.

surely it's on purpose... nobody with a high school education could think these are adequate or even remotely interesting?
posted by oog at 7:34 AM on June 8, 2004

This is the world's richest and most civilised nations working together to educate our youth. We suck.
posted by Pretty_Generic at 7:45 AM on June 8, 2004

Actually Pretty_Generic, this would be the sole work of the US Gov't as they are the host nation. Here's the youth page for the 2002 summit in Canada.
posted by smcniven at 8:56 AM on June 8, 2004

Wow, bizzare. It looks like the animation was made using some kind of 'motion clipart'.

Also, russia's new flag sucks.
posted by delmoi at 10:58 AM on June 8, 2004

These display the symptoms of poor management - like the idea was started, then the bottom fell out so the storyboards were slapped into video instead of properly handled in a structured animation tool. I was about to comment that someone's kid volunteered, but any child would do a far more interesting and competent job than what's been posted there.

smcniven - nicely done to reference the 2002 summit - ah to grow up Canadian.
posted by mouthnoize at 11:10 AM on June 8, 2004

this leader was elected to his country's House of Representatives 10 times. must have been a very popular leader!

ha ha ha ha!

watch the animation again, and write down the clues as you hear them

interactivity has never been so fun. these clips are so boringly bad that they can't be a joke. if it is a joke, it's incredibly well done, in fact so well done that it isn't even funny.

it looks like these were designed to be Flash cartoons with an interactive quiz at the end, but someone f'ed up.

i was helping my son access the G8 website last night ...

classic!

at least that Canadian site is somewhat informative. these videos just present trivia and expect you to look up the real information yourself.
posted by mrgrimm at 11:35 AM on June 8, 2004

What does the name of Bush's dog have to do with the G8 exactly?

and why would a turtle be hosting the quiz (and in the logo above the quiz) if it wasn't the "official" logo. why not have a tree host the quiz? fuckers.

at least they gave me a score of 17 out of 18 (i think perhaps because i "rewound" it the first time thru) even though i easily got at least 7-8 wrong.

i used to be mad that these people were running the planet. now i'm unbelievably scared.
posted by mrgrimm at 3:33 PM on June 8, 2004

It probably won't be long before Eric Fensler adds his talents to these magnificent works of art.
posted by Smart Dalek at 3:37 PM on June 8, 2004

Georgia when it fizzles
posted by homunculus at 8:51 PM on June 10, 2004