Animutation
Animutation is a style of Flash animation invented by Neil Cicierega when he was 13 or 14. Neil was inspired to create animutations by Hatten är din. Typical features of animutation include strange foreign music, purposefully misheard lyrics, and lots of pop-culture references flashing about the screen. The word “animutation” is a portmanteau of “animation” and “mutation”, and was coined by Neil.
About Animutation
The first animutation, The Japanese Pokerap, was released February 27, 2001. The second, Hyakugojyuuichi, was released the next day. Both were set to music from the Japanese version of Pokémon, and set the precedents for future animutations. Many famous characters made their first appearances here, such as Pee-Wee Herman, Harry Potter, Jay Jay the Jet Plane, Bill Nye the Science Guy, Hulk Hogan, and the ever-present Colin Mochrie.
In most animutations, there are lyrics to the songs. In a common technique, characters are made to look like they are “singing” by having their chins cut off and moved up and down. Eyes are also usualy added to make the characters more expressive. Animutations also frequentally contain messages which are displayed for an insanely short period of time, blinking by in one frame, only viewable by pausing the animation. Other messages scroll across the screen very fast or in the wrong directions, or are only visible by resizing the Flash player window or by continuing to play after the movie is over.
Animations by other people but using the same style as Neil were originally known as “Fanimutations”, but the term is no longer used as much. Other animators wanted their work to be considered art in its own right, not just fanart.
A notorious animutation using Lemon Demon’s music is Hyakugojyuuichi Forever, written in 2004 by Andrew Kepple, using Hyakugojyuuichi 2003 from Clown Circus. The video is ultimately an homage to animutation itself.
Neil Cicierega said simply about the definition of animutation, “If the person who made it says it’s an Animutation, it’s an Animutation, unless they’re clearly pulling our leg.”
Neil’s Animutations
- The Japanese Pokerap
- Hyakugojyuuichi
- Lesko’s Revenge
- Team Rocket’s Journey Through Time and Space
- Monkey Magic
- Do The Mario
- Lucky Lucky
- The Japanese Pokerap 2
- Nya Nya Nya
- Batman and the Magical Band-Aid
- Kung Fu Phil and the Death Cookie
- Rubber Duckie
- The Unabombers - Slipknot
- Cold Heart
- Life is Like a Mop
- Jesus H. Christ
- Captain Lou Albano’s Steady Descent into Madness
- Untitled
- Earth Vs. Funk
- Wizard Power
- WTF
- Macho Man
- Summer Vacation Fan Club
- Sexy Snape
- Rugrats