copy of an overpriced animation utility
and animated a bunch of strange pop-
culture images set to even stranger
Japanese music. Like moths to a flame,
a dozen copycats completely ripped off
the idea, starting a freaky movement.
And everybody say... 'Yatta!'"
Animutation or fanimutation is a type of fan-made video collage, partly inspired by Japanese commercials and the old Hatten är din
meme, involving Clip-Art Animation and extensive Photoshop manipulation, usually with some sort of fast-paced and/or bizarre song playing over it. Animutations are one of the more common types of flash animation, as they are fairly easy to make but can have startling results when done... er, properly.
The animutation community has developed several tropes and in-jokes of its own; for example, several people or images are regularly referenced in them (e.g., comedian Colin Mochrie, a Jesus action figure
◊, plush monster Domo-kun, the "God kills a" kitten, Jay Jay the Jet Plane, the "dancing Hitler" animation). Many use foreign songs with fake English lyrics full of mondegreens, while others use fast-paced techno along with hyperkinetic intercutting in the video. Near-unnoticeably fast or tiny messages between and within the images are also common. Animutations tend to be surreal and dadaistic; among fans, the more absurd and incomprehensible an animutation is, the better.
Flash portals such as Newgrounds, Albino Black Sheep and Evil Trail Mix have extensive listings of animutations. The Fanimutation Wiki hosts information about the animutations and how to create them.
In 2020, Animutationportal.com shut down, but most of its music videos were saved onto BlueMaxima's FlashPoint.
Neil Cicierega, better known to some as Trapezoid, Deporitaz and Lemon Demon (yes, of "Ultimate Showdown" and "Potter Puppet Pals" fame), invented and named the animutation.
Compare YouTube Poop and Buffalax (Gag Sub with song lyrics) music videos, which combined are arguably its spiritual descendant.
Examples
- Hyakugojyuuichi, generally considered the first animutation of note, though an earlier example (Japanese Pokerap) exists
- French Erotic Film, first part of the Colin Mochrie vs. Jesus H. Christ fanimutrilogy, continued with a part 2, Plan 9 From Underpants, and a part 3, Conquest of Animutopia.
- Irrational Exuberance
- Earth vs. Funk
- We Drink Ritalin, notable for its song, Hot Limit. It's an English translation of a Japanese song, done by an Italian band who can't speak English. The end result? Gratuitous English unlike anything you've ever seen before.
- JamezBond
- Chocolate Niblet Beans, especially notable for popularizing animutations where certain elements are randomized for every individual viewing.
- Wizard Power
- Captain Lou Albano's Steady Descent into Madness
- The Fingertips Project
- neil_a_tribute.swf
Tropes frequently found in animutations:
- "Blind Idiot" Translation: Captions consisting entirely of mondegreens, almost always from a foreign language.
- Breakout Character: Colin Mochrie. He appeared in The Japanese Pokerap, but Mike Brady was the star and Mochrie was only a background singer. Starting with Hyakugojyuuichi, Mochrie became increasingly prominent while Brady fell by the wayside.
- Camp: A Surreal Take
- Clip-Art Animation: Most of the time, the animations are crude and done by cutting up a photograph into pieces and then animating from there.
- Clumsy Copyright Censorship: The Jamezbond animutation featuring Peter Pan cosplayer Randy Constan was censored on YouTube, since the real Constan filed a DMCA complaint for "infringing on his trademark". He was covered up with text lampshading the situation on that version only. [1]
- Easter Egg: The most common way of finding them is to right-click at the end of the video and chose "Play", which will trigger an extra scene.
- Mind Screw: The trippy use of deranged animation and clip-art animation combined with mondegreens of foreign music effectively simulates what it’s like to be on acid.
- Mondegreen Gag: An intentional use of mondegreens is a staple of the genre.
- Retraux: It is quite common to see newer Animutations deliberately made in an early-2000s-esque style.
- Running Gag: Colin Mochrie as the face of the sun, among many other things.
- The Walrus Was Paul: Even when there's a clear plot, animutations don't make sense.
Tropes relating to specific animutations:
- And I Must Scream: Bert's mouth gets sealed up in "Jammer Yama".
- Apocalypse Hitler: "Exotic Japan" and "Revenge of the Nazis" both involve Adolf Hitler taking over the world.
- Otherwise, portrayals of Hitler in animutations tend to be on the more goofy side.
- I Love the Dead: In Sad2Laugh, Zippy from Rainbow has sex with a dead mule.
