Once upon a time, according to my husband, when he was about 12, he saw a cartoon or movie in which Mark Twain takes a series of kids through time and space in a magical steam engine.
Years later, he found a clip of this Sunday morning adventure on YouTube and was forced to revel in its magnificence. In particular, this claymation cartoon features Mark Twain taking the kiddies to visit Satan, an angel (my question was where in time and space was the angel? Another planet?). Hubby forced me to watch the surrealness that was this epic and I have to agree, this episode, loosely (very loosely) based on the Mark Twain unfinished novella The Mysterious Stranger (in which Satan visits some guy in Austria) features a mash-up of surreal- someone must have been on acid – blow your mind philosophy and caused the cartoon to get banned.
The philosophically inclined will notice that in this cartoons the author implies that everything is an illusion created by the insanely bored deity (Mark Twain?). Those of you who have taken Old Testament Studies will also recall that the word Satan is more of a descriptor of a function (rather than name of a particular angel) which literally means “adversary” (the function of the Satan was to challenge God).
I bid you adieu, leaving you with the final paragraphs of chapter 11 of the Mysterious Stranger where Satan reveals a truth to the narrator of the story:
“It is true, that which I have revealed to you; there is no God, no universe, no human race, no earthly life, no heaven, no hell. It is all a dream–a grotesque and foolish dream. Nothing exists but you. And you are but a thought–a vagrant thought, a useless thought, a homeless thought, wandering forlorn among the empty eternities!”
He vanished, and left me appalled; for I knew, and realized, that all he had said was true.
June 27th, 2007 at 11:15 pm
evilbunny you rock!
i pledge my firstborn to you.
June 28th, 2007 at 8:22 am
You should pledge your firstborn to the hubby, he’s the one that forced me to watch this, promising I wouldn’t regret it.
July 2nd, 2007 at 2:50 am
Youtube got some real wierd videos. I wonder about the guys who take the time to produce such videos.
Bangkok Girl
October 18th, 2007 at 9:06 pm
the cartoon wasnt banned. its a movie.
April 17th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
The angel wasn’t on another planet. He’s the only thing that exists, like he says. He created the children when they appeared through the door and he unmade them when they went back through the door. That’s what he’s eluding to at the end when he says he can make more people sometime.
March 14th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
This would be “The Adventures of Mark Twain”, by Will Vinton’s Claymation studios. I actually own this movie, I watched it as a kid and had to buy a copy when I located it on the internet a couple of years ago.
Yes it is very surreal, even morbid and macabre in parts. But it also a brilliant work of art, that showcases the grand vision of Will Vinton. A vision that was sadly watered down and commercialized into the California Raisins. Its certainly worth it to watch the whole movie if you haven’t yet seen it all. The trouble is actually locating a copy, they are somewhat hard to find.
January 20th, 2013 at 2:52 pm
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January 20th, 2013 at 3:03 pm
The angel wasn’t on another planet. He’s the only thing that exists, like he says.
http://www.youtube.com/user/KakSoblaznit2010
February 21st, 2013 at 10:52 pm
I ran across this today and it really creeped me out thinking it was a cartoon show for kids that aired 20+yrs ago!! I cant help but wonder how long it aired for, how many viewers did it have AND does it have anything to do with all the violence and evil in the world nowadays………seeing stuff like this, now & in the past , although NOT as graphic ( Disney movies for 1) reminds me of how IMPORTANT it is to monitor our kids/grand kids shows, even if its periodically cause we NEVER kno what they r watching.