Evil Colonialism
Voyage to Next is a 1974 animated short film (nine minutes) written and directed by the husband-and-wife team of John and Faith Hubley.
Father Time and Mother Earth (the former being voiced by Dizzy Gillespie) are living somewhere up in the cosmos. Father notices Mother sending boxes out on a cosmic sea and asks what she's doing; she answers that she has created humans. Things go well at first, as cavemen humans sit around campfires and share meat. But as humanity advances it gets more aggressive and violent, and Mother wonders if the race will survive.
Dizzy Gillespie's second turn as a voice in a Hubley and Hubley short, having previously appeared in The Hole.
Tropes:
- Evil Colonialist: Various nation-states are represented by boxes floating on the sea. Mother Earth notes how the big countries take resources from the small countries: this is shown when a big box sails up to a small box, scarfs up all the small box's animals, and then stamps a lid on the small box.
- Green Aesop: Part of the way humanity is ruining the world is by polluting the air and water.
- Humans Are Bastards: And Mother Earth is greatly concerned. The strong oppress the weak and aggressive nationalism sets countries at each other's throats. Father Time remembers how Marco Polo came back from China, and the Venetians weren't very much interested in Chinese culture, but they were interested in gunpowder.
- Physical God: Father Time and Mother Earth, hanging out somewhere in space and chatting about human beings.
- Pop-Star Composer: Dizzy Gillespie composed the music as well as providing a voice.
- "Ray of Hope" Ending: The nations of the world have started talking to each other and shaking hands, while still fighting. Mother Earth is hopeful that humanity will solve its problems, but the cartoon ends with Father wondering if they'll figure things out in time.
- Speaking Simlish: Near the end, when the various nation-boxes start to talk to each other and Mother Earth gets hopeful that humanity may save itself, the talking is represented by Simlish muttering.
