- Narrator: In a place of no vital importance, there existed a man with a mechanical arm. This man, was known as-Orc Thing: MUTILATOR!
Mutilator (AKA Mutilator: Hero of the Wasteland) is a short series created by Eric Fogel (who would later create Celebrity Deathmatch) as a college animation project in 1991, with the second part being made a year later. Best described as Mad Max meets the cover artwork of a heavy metal band, Mutilator follows the adventures of the Mutilator, a man with a mechanical arm, as he fights for survival in a post-apocalyptic wasteland populated by all manner of blood-thirsty mutants.
Like so many college projects, Mutilator is clearly the work of someone just starting off with their chosen craft. The animation is very simple and downright crude at times, with low production values, awkward character movements, (characters constantly shake, as if high on caffeine), inconsistent anatomy and perspective, and there's no real plot to speak of, as Mutilator just wanders around and kills things. It's very heavy on over-the-top violence and gore (so much so that Fogel's college professor called it "inappropriate due to its violent content."). Yet, the consensus seems to be that it's extremely amusing, if not outright hilarious, due to these shortcomings.
Despite it's amateur beginnings, Mutilator became quite popular with Spike and Mike's Festival of Animation, and has achieved minor cult status on YouTube. Fogel himself has posted both videos on his YouTube page, which you can see here
and here. Fogel has also started work on a big screen stop-motion movie (titled "Havoc,") but the Kickstarter campaign didn't take off. However, he did say in a Twitter post that Havoc will live on, and posted an animatic on his YouTube page two years later, suggesting that the project isn't dead yet.
This series provides examples of:
- After the End: The series takes place in the aftermath of a giant meteor impact with earth.
- All There in the Manual: If you want any background on Mutilator's world, you'll have to hunt around Fogel's tumblr and kickstarter page. Among the revelations are:
- The earth was almost destroyed by a meteor in the year 1999, and by the year 3001, the atmosphere has been turned to toxic gas that few can breathe.
- What remains of civilization hides out in a space station above the earth, and plans to reclaim it by building massive air-scrubbers, and by creating armies of super soldiers to protect them.
- Mutilator is a genetic human/mutant hybrid soldier who was eventually betrayed by his superiors, and cast into the wasteland, where he vowed to protect any surviving humans he came across.
- Mutilator once had a mutated arm but had to sacrifice it it to save his life, and gained his biomechanical arm afterwards.
- Apocalypse How: Class 3: Humanity is almost wiped out, with mutants now being the dominant lifeforms.
- Art Evolution: While both shorts are quite crude, the second one does have noticeably improved animation and artwork.
- Badass Boast:Mutilator: When I bust out of here, I'll kill. You. All.
- Bloodier and Gorier: The first short has headshots, brains getting sliced open, and limbs getting chopped off. How can the second top that? By having Mutilator rip out a mutant's spine and skull, and then beat two other mutants to death with it!
- Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Subverted. Mutilator's mechanical arm gives him a huge advantage in combat.
- Dull Surprise: Mutilator's response when the ground beneath him crumbles: "...Shit."
- His response when he falls into a cave as a result: "I hate when that happens."
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The main character is called "Mutilator" by everyone he meets, but his real name is Havoc.
- Eye Scream: One Mercenary gets a knife thrown into his eye.
- Incredibly Lame Pun:Mercenary: Where are you?Mutilator: Can't you see? *hurls dagger into mercenary's eye*
- Knight in Sour Armor: Mutilator is not particularly heroic, but he does help out whomever he comes across, both human and mutant alike.
- Metal Scream: Power beyond MUTILATORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!! *Title screen blows up*
- Monochromatic Eyes: Mutilator's eyes are solid white.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Mutilator feels very guilty after killing an innocent mutant by mistake and feels that he doesn't deserve to be called a hero. He seems to get over it very quickly, though.
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: Despite having seemingly normal human legs, Mutilator can leap impossibly huge distances with ease, and his cyborg arm can fire normal projectiles, and then ones that explode.
- No Ending: "And now we leave the Mutilator to his life in the wasteland. Whether or not he survives another day, is entirely up to him."
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Mutilator saves a mutant who's being tortured to death, only to learn that said Mutant killed the wife and ate the children of the man who was torturing him, and subsequently tries to eat Mutilator.
- No Name Given: Everyone besides Mutilator, who's real name isn't even mentioned on screen.
- Orphaned Series: The second short is titled, "Episode 2," implying further installments, but they were never made. Possibly averted if the feature length film happens.
- Random Events Plot: Episode 1: Mutilator kills guys, gets his arm repaired, kills more guys. The end.
- Running Gag: Someone else always shouts Mutilator's name before it's revealed. First an orc, then the singer of the title song.
- The Stoic: Mutilator isn't fazed by much. The only time he shows emotion is when he's physically injured, or watches another human be killed.
- 20 Minutes in the Future: While the earth was almost destroyed by a meteor impact in 1999, the events of the shorts themselves take place in the year 3001.
- Walking the Earth: All he seems to do is wander the wasteland looking for innocents to help.
