Old documentary style cartoon about ancient history
Jan 15, 2024 12:44:03 GMT
ModWalletGuy and f1lthym0uth (joey) like this
Post by mapleleaff on Jan 15, 2024 12:44:03 GMT
Hello Lost Media Wiki! There is this old animated history documentary, possibly a series of them, that I saw as a child in the 90’s. I’ve been trying to look for leads for years to find out what it was or if anybody else has ever seen it, I’ve been posting on several forums and r/tomt about it along the years with absolutely no results so this is probably my last shot with trying to find this mysterious animation.
The animation in question was an educational, documentary style cartoon which I think had several episodes and from what I remember it mostly discussed ancient history. Unfortunately I don't know when it could've been made but no later than around early to mid 90's when I first saw it. The art style was reminiscent of middle European comics so my guess is it was made somewhere in Europe. There was a narrator character with a big, round nose and I think glasses and moustache and he was sitting in this dark room with a whiteboard or a canvas from where it cut to different scenes from the ancient history which he narrated. It's hard to remember many specific details about the cartoon but I do remember it was really violent and gory. I even remember the narrator comments on the amount of violence with frustration, lifting his hand off the canvas which had turned red with blood and wiping it with a handkerchief. Despite this I have a vague recollection that the tone of the animation was kind of quirky and humorous, like a dark comedy. One specific scene I remember very vividly is the death of Alexander the Great, in which he's shown standing in place while he gets a mosquito bite, contracts malaria and then he just slowly withers away, turns into a skeleton and passes away.
I tried to draw the narrator character and the room he's shown in as I see them in my memory. Take this with a huge grain of salt however, as it's been over 20 years since I last saw this. Maybe it will look familiar to someone anyway:
Lastly, this piece of info probably won't be very helpful unless another Finnish person comes across this thread, but as I live in Finland I saw this cartoon dubbed in Finnish and I'm 99% positive the narrator was voiced by the late actor Heikki Määttänen in the dub. I highly doubt the cartoon was made in Finland though, as the animation industry here was pretty non existent at the time so it probably would be more well known within the country if that was the case.
People have suggested Histeria! to me before and I can say with utmost certainty that no, it's not Histeria. Histeria is too upbeat and the art style doesn't match at all. I've also been suggested "Once Upon A Time..." series, but while that cartoon certainly was made in Europe and shares some similarities with the description above that's also not it, I have also watched Once Upon A Time as a kid and the mystery cartoon in question was much more violent and the mood was more quirky as far as I remember.
This is probably such an extremely niche thing that I don't know if I ever have any hope finding this again but I thought I’d give it the last shot on here because if lost media folks can’t help me find an answer I doubt no one can lol. I even thought of the possibility that maybe I've just dreamt the whole thing because I can't find anything on this but the details I do remember are just so vivid I'm absolutely sure I've seen this with my own eyes, I remember we even had some of it recorded from TV on the same vhs as The Land Before Time. I haven't been able to find the said vhs again though as many of our old tapes are either lost or they no longer work properly after sitting in my parents’ storagehouse for years.
I hope someone can help me out with this mystery cartoon that has been in the back of my mind for years. Thank you!
The animation in question was an educational, documentary style cartoon which I think had several episodes and from what I remember it mostly discussed ancient history. Unfortunately I don't know when it could've been made but no later than around early to mid 90's when I first saw it. The art style was reminiscent of middle European comics so my guess is it was made somewhere in Europe. There was a narrator character with a big, round nose and I think glasses and moustache and he was sitting in this dark room with a whiteboard or a canvas from where it cut to different scenes from the ancient history which he narrated. It's hard to remember many specific details about the cartoon but I do remember it was really violent and gory. I even remember the narrator comments on the amount of violence with frustration, lifting his hand off the canvas which had turned red with blood and wiping it with a handkerchief. Despite this I have a vague recollection that the tone of the animation was kind of quirky and humorous, like a dark comedy. One specific scene I remember very vividly is the death of Alexander the Great, in which he's shown standing in place while he gets a mosquito bite, contracts malaria and then he just slowly withers away, turns into a skeleton and passes away.
I tried to draw the narrator character and the room he's shown in as I see them in my memory. Take this with a huge grain of salt however, as it's been over 20 years since I last saw this. Maybe it will look familiar to someone anyway:
Lastly, this piece of info probably won't be very helpful unless another Finnish person comes across this thread, but as I live in Finland I saw this cartoon dubbed in Finnish and I'm 99% positive the narrator was voiced by the late actor Heikki Määttänen in the dub. I highly doubt the cartoon was made in Finland though, as the animation industry here was pretty non existent at the time so it probably would be more well known within the country if that was the case.
People have suggested Histeria! to me before and I can say with utmost certainty that no, it's not Histeria. Histeria is too upbeat and the art style doesn't match at all. I've also been suggested "Once Upon A Time..." series, but while that cartoon certainly was made in Europe and shares some similarities with the description above that's also not it, I have also watched Once Upon A Time as a kid and the mystery cartoon in question was much more violent and the mood was more quirky as far as I remember.
This is probably such an extremely niche thing that I don't know if I ever have any hope finding this again but I thought I’d give it the last shot on here because if lost media folks can’t help me find an answer I doubt no one can lol. I even thought of the possibility that maybe I've just dreamt the whole thing because I can't find anything on this but the details I do remember are just so vivid I'm absolutely sure I've seen this with my own eyes, I remember we even had some of it recorded from TV on the same vhs as The Land Before Time. I haven't been able to find the said vhs again though as many of our old tapes are either lost or they no longer work properly after sitting in my parents’ storagehouse for years.
I hope someone can help me out with this mystery cartoon that has been in the back of my mind for years. Thank you!
