Me and a few other redditors have been searching for a short film that featured puppets with real bones. The OP says that he watched it in South America. The time period was 2001-2004. He thinks it's called "the butcher" and it is black and white.There is also no dialogue. In the plot he says that the butcher is butchering animals with real bones. The puppets kinda looked like this. Eventually the puppet bone skeletons rebel on the butcher. This animation was also playing at the time the butcher was playing. Strange invaders apparently was airing on the Canadian channel ZeD so we think that it involves with some Canada. We can confirm though that the National Film Board of Canada does not have the short. Here is the post and the comments that NFB made are below. I can confirm that CBC (Canada Broadcasting Corporation did have a partnership between 1989 and 2006. If any of y'all can help that would be great!
This is all very interesting! Was there stop motion involved, or was it all live puppetry?
My first thought was Jan Svankmajer, who's known for visceral subjects and sometimes uses animal body parts, like cow tongues, raw meat, and skeletons. But nothing I find in his filmography really fits this short.
However, if the short contained real bones that were stop motion animated, there's a decent chance the animator was in part inspired by Svankmajer, his work in stop motion is extremely influential, especially in gritty, visceral stop motion.
I'm thinking of looking at stop motion animators inspired by Svankmajer, if the short was in fact partially stop motion.
This is all very interesting! Was there stop motion involved, or was it all live puppetry?
My first thought was Jan Svankmajer, who's known for visceral subjects and sometimes uses animal body parts, like cow tongues, raw meat, and skeletons. But nothing I find in his filmography really fits this short.
However, if the short contained real bones that were stop motion animated, there's a decent chance the animator was in part inspired by Svankmajer, his work in stop motion is extremely influential, especially in gritty, visceral stop motion.
I'm thinking of looking at stop motion animators inspired by Svankmajer, if the short was in fact partially stop motion.
Sorry for taking a bit of time to reply! I will have to ask the OP about it. It looks like though that it was live puppetry.
Just gonna bump this thread if that's ok, in honor of blameitonjorge's new video!
I wish I had more to add so far, but this may help:
The first film featured (and subsequently ruled out) is Odokuro by Aurelio Voltaire.
As the OP from tipofmytongue says, nothing Voltaire has uploaded matches the description of The Butcher. Voltaire may have nothing to do with the short at all. Still, his stop motion work with animal bones does bear a striking resemblance to the aesthetics of The Butcher, at least to me. In addition to making his own short films, he has worked on other projects as a member of the animation department, so it's possible he worked on the short but doesn't personally own it. All of this is just total speculation though.
What makes this frustrating is that the use of full skeletal animals in stop motion seems somewhat uncommon. There is a tradition of using animal parts in stop motion, just not full skeletons. Ladislas Starevich, credited as the creator of the first animated puppet film, used dead animals, mostly insects, in his short films, but I couldn't find any use of animal skeletons. [UPDATE: nah, nevermind, he totally used some full animal skeletons, I'm going to look through his shorts again more thoroughly] Jan Svankmeyer used all kinds of entrails, including animal bones, but not many full skeletons from what I can remember.
I can easily see this film being real, but also just as easily believe it to be a false memory. Still, I'll keep poking around, hopefully we'll find something!
I have an interest in the macabre, especially in art, so this short intrigues me. It sounds very cool and creepy at the same time. I'm reminded of an old folk story called Rawhead and the Bloody Bones. The full story is at this link, but basically it's about a butchered hog's reanimated skeleton getting revenge on the man who killed him. I don't know if this was a possible inspiration for the short, but it may be worth looking into.
I have an interest in the macabre, especially in art, so this short intrigues me. It sounds very cool and creepy at the same time. I'm reminded of an old folk story called Rawhead and the Bloody Bones. The full story is at this link, but basically it's about a butchered hog's reanimated skeleton getting revenge on the man who killed him. I don't know if this was a possible inspiration for the short, but it may be worth looking into.
Absolutely love this folk story! It would make a great basis for a stop motion film for sure!
Sorry if this is a bit off-topic, but what is your icon picture from?
It's the Knave of Hearts from the 1949 version of Alice in Wonderland. That movie is a childhood favorite of mine, and in fact is partially lost media as there are several scenes known to be missing from all the current home video releases.
Wow, what a surreal and thought-provoking short! I really admire the creativity that went into it. In another one of his videos blameitonjorge says that it seems like as soon as he makes a video on something it's found, and it looks like this is another situation like that, haha!