Watching and talking about these different types of animation really made me appreciate how far the medium has come, while also reminding me that some of the most powerful moments in animation come from the simplest ideas. For example, Don Hertzfeldt’s Rejected was chaotic and absurd, but it hit me in a weird way. It was funny, yes, but also unsettling. The crude drawings and random, painful humor made it feel like a meltdown in real time and that vulnerability stuck with me.
Then there’s Logorama by H5, which was visually stunning and overwhelming in the best way. I felt like I was being bombarded by logos, and that was clearly the point. It made me feel both amused and slightly sick. It’s rare that animation makes me question capitalism, but that one nailed it.
Brad Neely’s George Washington was funny in a completely different way: loud, ridiculous, and chaotic. It didn’t try to be polished, and that’s what made it great. The way Neely treats history like a fever dream is oddly freeing, like watching someone scream facts from an alternate timeline.
And going all the way back to the phenakistoscope and thaumatrope, those early experiments blew my mind in a different way. They’re primitive, sure, but they prove that even in the 1800s, people were chasing movement, illusion, and imagination. All in all, watching these animations made me think not just about how animation looks, but how it feels and what it says, even when it’s barely saying anything at all.