Inkblot Cartoon Style is the cartoon style most prevalent from the mid-1920s to the mid-1930s.
Most historians refer to this as Rubber Hose Animation because characters' arms, legs and pretty much everything else are usually animated as if they were made of rubber tubing and without elbows or knees.
In many cartoons in the
very late Twenties and early and mid-Thirties, not only does everyone dance to the background music,
everything dances to it as well.
The style is widely considered
Nightmare Fuel because of the genre's tendency toward
surrealist humor.
Characteristics of Characters of the Inkblot Cartoon Style:
If this style is used in a cartoon that was made after the 1920s/1930s, it results in
Retreaux. It often, but not always, goes hand-in-hand with
Rubber Hose Limbs, which originated from this style.
Examples from the 1920s/1930s:
Retreaux Examples:
Video Games
Western Animation
- The Futurama Season 6 finale mocks this art style.
- Yakko, Wakko and Dot Warner from Animaniacs are this, even though they don't have Rubber Hose Limbs and their eyes look somewhat Animesque.
- In The Simpsons episode "Bart's Comet", the Couch Gag is the family drawn in this style
◊.
- Billy And Mandy parodies this in the episode "Hill Billy".
- In a Manatee Gag on Family Guy, Peter was waxing nostalgic about him and Brian in the old days; they were drawn in this style for the flashback.
- Fairly OddParents has an episode where Timmy's grandpa comes in to baby-sit him. His grandpa later reminisces on how the old cartoons used to look like in this style, causing Timmy to make a wish that causes the whole world to look like this art style for his grandpa.
- The "Old Timey" universe from Homestar Runner.
- Dennis the Duck from Houseof Mouse, who is basically an avian version of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.
- One episode of SpongeBob SquarePants featured a scene drawn this way, with Spongebob singing "I'm Ready to go to Work!" during the entire scene.
