Animutation or fanimutation is a form of web-based computer animation, typically created in Adobe Flash and characterized by unpredictable montages of pop-culture images set to music, often in a language foreign to the intended viewers. It is not to be confused with manual collage animation (e.g., the work of Stan Vanderbeek and Terry Gilliam), which predates the Internet.
Animutation was popularized by Neil Cicierega. Cicierega claims to have been inspired by several sources, including bizarre Japanese commercials and Martin Holmström's "Hatten är din" Soramimi-style video made for the "Habbeetik" song by Azar Habib. [1] The term animutation is a portmanteau of animation and mutation and was popularized in 2001 through Cicierega's flash animations such as Japanese Pokerap and Hyakugojyuuichi!!, which feature the credits music from older episodes of Pokémon. The popularity of Hyakugojyuuichi!! quickly made it an Internet phenomenon. [2] Since that time, others have adopted a similar style and communities of similarly minded animators have sprung up around the web. [3] These versions made by fans were christened "fanimutations".
This section has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these messages)
|
Animutations can be based on songs of foreign, independent, or mainstream origin. Japanese songs were used in many of the original animutations by Neil Cicierega, but newer animutations use songs in a wide variety of languages, including English, Dutch and gibberish.
The foreign language songs are often "misheard" into English by the creators and added as subtitles. The words are not translations but soramimis, English words that sound roughly the same as the original lyrics. For example, the animutation title "French erotic film" is a soramimi of the original Dutch lyrics "Weet je wat ik wil" in an Ome Henk song. The actual translation of the lyrics is "Do you know what I want?"
Though animutations are close in relation to the random nonsense of dadaism and can be entirely unpredictable, they sometimes exhibit recurring memes among them as a result of being influenced by each other and internet culture. Among the many recurring motifs found in animutations are:
While many flash animations have a "replay button" at the end, animutations often use a silly graphic which animates when interacted with, included with instructions on how to replay the animutation. For instance, at the end of Cold Heart, the title character is holding a package of Mentos mints, which serves as the replay button. The package slightly increases in size when moused over, and text at the bottom of the video informs the user to "Click the Mentos to replay!".
Similarly to the replay button, a progress animation is used in many animutations, especially the later creations. For example, in Jesus H. Christ, a papier-mâché goose which was originally in a Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode was used as a pointer, rotating clockwise to indicate the animation's playback progress.
Colin Andrew Mochrie is a Scottish-born Canadian actor, writer, producer and improvisational comedian, best known for his appearances on the British and American versions of the improvisational TV show Whose Line Is It Anyway?.
"Badgers", also known informally as "Badger Badger Badger" or "The Badger Song", is an animated meme by British animator Jonti Picking, also known as Mr Weebl. It consists of 12 animated cartoon badgers doing calisthenics, a mushroom in front of a tree, and a snake in the desert. The cartoon is accompanied by a bass line, above which a voiceover sings the names of what is shown on screen.
A stick figure is a very simple drawing of a human or other animal, in which the limbs and torso are represented using straight lines. The head is most often represented by a circle, which can be filled or unfilled. Details such as hands, feet, and a neck may be present or absent, and the head is sometimes embellished with details such as facial features or hair. Simpler stick figures often display disproportionate physical features and ambiguous emotion.
Rejected is a 2000 animated surrealist short comedy film directed by Don Hertzfeldt that was released in 2000. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film the following year at the 73rd Academy Awards, and received 27 awards from film festivals around the world.
Adobe Flash animation is an animation that is created with the Adobe Animate platform or similar animation software and often distributed in the SWF file format. The term Adobe Flash animation refers to both the file format and the medium in which the animation is produced. Adobe Flash animation has enjoyed mainstream popularity since the mid-2000s, with many Adobe Flash-animated television series, television commercials, and award-winning online shorts being produced since then.
Chinese animation refers to animation made in China. In Chinese, donghua describes all animated works, regardless of style or origin. However, outside of China and in English, donghua is colloquial for Chinese animation and refers specifically to animation produced in China.
Lemon Demon is a musical project and band created by American comedian and musician Neil Cicierega in 2003 in Boston, Massachusetts. Lemon Demon's studio work is performed solely by Cicierega, who is the project's sole official member. Live performances also include a backing band, with previous performances consisting of Alora Lanzillotta, Charles Sergio, Anthony Wry, Dave Kitsberg, and Greg Lanzillotta. As of 2024, Lemon Demon has released seven studio albums and five EPs.
Seven Little Monsters, or 7 Little Monsters, is a Canadian animated children's television series about a family of seven monsters and their mother. It is based on the book of the same name by Maurice Sendak and directed by Neil Affleck, Lynn Reist, and Glenn Sylvester. It was produced by Wild Things Productions Inc. (uncredited), Nelvana, Suzhou Hong Ying Animation Corporation Limited for the first two seasons and Philippine Animation Studio Inc. for the third season, in association with Treehouse TV and PBS.
Hatten är din is an Internet meme from 2000. It is a Flash animation featuring the music of Lebanese musician Azar Habib; the name of the song playing is "Miin Ma Kenti". The animation prominently features a hat, Swedish text, and an assortment of bizarre imagery.
"Day-O " is a traditional Jamaican folk song. The song has mento influences, but it is commonly classified as an example of the better known calypso music.
"The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny", often shortened to "The Ultimate Showdown", is a comical song and video released on December 22, 2005. The song was written and performed by Neil Cicierega under the pseudonym Lemon Demon, appearing as the fifth single of the project's fifth studio album Dinosaurchestra. The song describes a massive, citywide battle set in Tokyo started by Godzilla and Batman, ultimately lasting for a century and involving dozens of pop-culture icons with the music video's animation by Shawn Vulliez.
Mashimaro (마시마로) or Yeopki Tokki in Korean and 流氓兔 in Chinese is a South Korean fictional character who resembles a fat rabbit, created by Kim Jae In (김재인). He debuted in a series of Flash animations on the internet. Mashimaro is far more often seen in merchandise, similar to Hello Kitty.. Mashimaro merchandise can be found on the internet and in Korean communities around the world.
"Pork and Beans" is a song by the American alternative rock band Weezer, released on the group's 2008 self-titled album Weezer, also known as the Red Album. It was released to radio on April 22, 2008 and released in digital form on April 24. The track debuted at number 19 on Billboard's Modern Rock chart, and spent eleven weeks at number one. The song charted in many countries such as Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Neil Stephen Cicierega is an American musician, filmmaker, YouTuber, and animator. He is known as the creator of Potter Puppet Pals, "The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny", and various music albums under the name Lemon Demon, along with a series of mashup albums under his own name.
Soramimi is a Japanese word that in the context of contemporary Japanese internet meme culture and its related slang is commonly used to refer to humorous homophonic reinterpretation, deliberately interpreting words as other similar-sounding words for comedy.
CSS animations is a proposed module for Cascading Style Sheets that allows the animation of HTML document elements using CSS.
Baozou is a website featuring comics and animations. The Baozou style of comics, originally inspired by rage comics of the US, was popularized in China and later developed into its own style.
"Touch-Tone Telephone" is a song by American pop band Lemon Demon, a musical project created by American musician Neil Cicierega. It was released on February 29, 2016, as the second track of Lemon Demon's seventh studio album, Spirit Phone.