Based on a surrealistic absurdist comic book series I liked to read as a kid...
The adventures of a cucumber wearing a mask ("so that nobody can recognize me!"), his friend who is a beet, he lives in an iron cactus on a floating continent in space... his catchphrase is "G".
I learned about the animated series development inside a kid magazine... never heard about it again.
And then, in a French nostalgic cartoon/kid-show forum, somebody pointed me to some footage inside an animation festival reel!!
I got the footage taken out and uploaded in a partner channel:
Dialogue translation: Beet: What are you doing? Cuke: Me? Nothing. I am watching the rocks grow. Beet: No! I am sick of this! I want you to tell me what you are doing! Cuke: Nothing! I managed to reach the knowledge of ultimate reality. Beet: Hah yeah right! And what is ultimate knowledge for you? Cuke:(swats fly) You see? This is it. Ultimate knowledge. Beet: I see... we must SWAT... (swats fly) Cuke: Wait, what are you doing? You are swatting my fly! Beet: Your fly? Cuke: Yes! You must find YOUR fly! Beet: Ah okayy! But which one is my fly? Cuke: This one is your fly!... (Beet runs off trying to swat the fly) Cuke: To each their fly!
You'll notice that it doesn't look very much like the watercolor concept art... well, this is kinda how French 3D looked at the time...
Still, I wonder why this animated series has never resurfaced since then...
Well, it looks like I've made the classic lost-media-hunting mistake: Finding lost media on the internet, not downloading it, and the media getting deleted shortly afterwards! At least it was just an awkward English dub that was in really bad quality.
Would you look at that! The video that I posted to here has been made public again (but for how long?). Another video that contains most of the Cuke short has also been uploaded to YouTube (the last third/quarter of the short was omitted from this one). Interestingly, this video includes an actual intro to the short which was not included in the previous video (begins at 39:10):
Would you look at that! The video that I posted to here has been made public again (but for how long?). Another video that contains most of the Cuke short has also been uploaded to YouTube (the last third/quarter of the short was omitted from this one). Interestingly, this video includes an actual intro to the short which was not included in the previous video (begins at 39:10):
I decided to watch the whole thing to see if there are any voice actors credited: sadly nobody is credited & it could very well be non-union.