Bizarre and Surreal Animated Movies?

Does anyone know any animated movies that have a bizarre and surreal tone? Some of the ones I could think of are The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach, Coraline, Yellow Submarine, and Corpse Bride.

Rock And Rule is the first thing that comes to mind.

If short films count the work of Sally Cruikshank is exceedingly surreal.

"Twice Upon a Time" is kind of Surreal, definitely Bizarre animated Movie, Produced by George Lucas and Featuring the voice of Lorenzo Music. For the longest time, I thought I made up the movie in my mind (I only saw it once as a Kid during Cartoon Network), and I only recently rediscovered and watched it. I think it's pretty good.

Oh yeah! I almost forgot about Twice Upon a Time! I really need to see that movie again since it's been a long time since I've seen that movie!

• Fantastic Planet
• Fehérlófia
• Hugo the Hippo
• Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure

edited 23rd Apr '14 4:56:12 PM by Bananaquit

Oh yeah! I almost forgot about Raggedy Ann and Andy! Since that was mentioned, I also would like to include The Thief and the Cobbler to the list!

Sort of unrelated, but I always thought of Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 as a sort of spiritual successor to TUAT. The tone and plot has similarities, at least.

As for Bizzare and surreal animated movies? Pretty much anything from Ralph Bakshi would fit the criteria. I would also suggest checking out Shinbone Alley and The Mouse and His Child.

There's a 40 minute Soviet animated movie called Taina Tretei Planety (Mystery of the Third Planet). Check it out. It's like a Flash Gordan Serial on LSD.

Shinbone Alley... A great film. Great frigging film.

The truly surrealist part is the dream sequence drawn in the style of George Herriman, one of the greatest comic strip artists ever. It's long but it's great.

I would recommend any film by Richard Williams with Raggedy Ann and Andy and The Thief and the Cobbler already mentioned. I also would like to add in the Rabbit Ears Productions' version of The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship with the drawings done by Henrik Drescher as both the characters and the story was really bizarre!

The Point; The Phantom Tollbooth.

I'd say Rock A Doodle is pretty surreal. That's not to say I would recommend it as an example of good film-making, or good songwriting, or good animating, or good anything...but it's pretty trippy.

Where the Dead Go to Die.

Watch the whole thing in one sitting. I dare you.

Sounds interesting! I'll have to check it out!

I also like to add We Are the Strange. I haven't seen this movie yet, but from the premise I've read about, it seems like a very strange and bizarre movie.

Crazy this morning I was thinking about Twice Upon a Time but could not remember what it was called, just that it existed and I saw it on Cartoon Network when I was little. I remember loving it but it seemed so obscure that it almost felts like it was just something I dreamed up before.

The Russian 60s animation of The Jungle Book is kind of weird in art style, best animated Bagheera by far though.

Allegro Non Troppo

And both Fantasia films, but you've probably seen them. Alice In Wonderland counts as well

edited 30th Apr '14 3:30:09 AM by PippingFool

Oh yeah! I almost forgot about Alice in Wonderland! There's also Jan Svankmajer's Alice that's like a dark and disturbing take on Alice in Wonderland.

The short film The Lost Thing, based on the equally odd book of the same name.

Shaun Tan is an amazing artist. I've actually met the man and he is both kind and smart as he is talented.

If you can, borrow The Arrival, The Lost Thing, The Rabbits, The Red Tree 2001 or Tales From Outer Suburbia. All of which (and especially The Arrival) are MASTERS of visual storytelling.

edited 30th Apr '14 8:29:17 PM by PippingFool

That's cool that you've met him, I'm jealous! I've read/looked at all his books, he's my favourite illustrator and one of my favourite authors

I would like to see Tales From Outer Suburbia turned into some sort of animated anthology, that would be awesome. It would be cool if The Oscar and Hugo Award wins for The Lost Thing leads to other adaptions of Tan's work, all his projects could make great animations.

edited 1st May '14 1:16:43 AM by editerguy

Fritz the Cat is pretty bizarre. Mainly because of animal orgies and crows being black people and everything else about the movie.

I've heard a lot of good things about Shaun Tan's works, but I was never able to read them, although I am thinking about checking out The Arrival soon.

Crows being black people isn't bizarre, it stems from the old derogatory usage of the term which is where Jim Crow laws get its name, hence why Dumbo gets a lot of flack now. I assume Frtiz was more tongue-in-cheek about it considering the tone of the movie and time period although it's arguable whether people actually get it.

The works of Canadian animator Richard Condie may be of interest to you:

“How I love to push my fish!”