Heads Up, Ears Down

This blog accurately identifies depictions of violence and cruelty toward animals in films. The purpose is to provide viewers with a reliable guide so that such depictions do not come as unwelcome surprises. Films will be accurately notated, providing a time cue for each incident along with a concise description of the scene and perhaps relevant context surrounding the incident. In order to serve as a useful reference tool, films having no depictions of violence to animals will be included, with an indication that there are no such scenes. This is confirmation that the films have been watched with the stated purpose in mind.


Note that the word depictions figures prominently in the objective. It is a travesty that discussions about cruelty in film usually are derailed by the largely unrelated assertion that no animals really were hurt (true only in some films, dependent upon many factors), and that all this concern is just over a simulation. Not the point, whether true or false. We do not smugly dismiss depictions of five-year-olds being raped because those scenes are only simulations. No, we are appalled that such images are even staged, and we are appropriately horrified that the notion now has been planted into the minds of the weak and cruel.


Depictions of violence or harm to animals are assessed in keeping with our dominant culture, with physical abuse, harmful neglect, and similar mistreatment serving as a base line. This blog does not address extended issues of animal welfare, and as such does not identify scenes of people eating meat or mules pulling plows. The goal is to itemize images that might cause a disturbance in a compassionate household.


These notes provide a heads-up but do not necessarily discourage watching a film because of depicted cruelty. Consuming a piece of art does not make you a supporter of the ideas presented. Your ethical self is created by your public rhetoric and your private actions, not by your willingness to sit through a filmed act of violence.

The Funky World of Adult Cartoons

The Funky World of Adult Cartoons. Various directors, c. 1978 compilation.
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Edition screened: Included on Vinegar Syndrome DVD #130 Sex in the Comics, released 2016. English language. Runtime approximately 45 minutes.

Summary: Some depictions of cartoon animals in sexually compromised situations, but nothing that suggests physical harm.

The Funky World of Adult Cartoons is almost wonderful. This compilation includes about ten vintage cartoons that are not so much erotic as downright filthy. Really obscene, and seeming more outrageous because of their sometimes gritty styles and deteriorated quality. They run consecutively with no indication of creator, origin, or of who compiled the segments into one feature. The first cartoon about a housewife and her maid is particularly raunchy, breathtakingly so. We also get the famous Schwänzel und Gretel (very washed-out), a few that are informed by Warner Brothers Silly Symphonies, a scandalous jungle adventure, and much more. It is possible that The Funky World of Adult Cartoons is largely or completely a dupe of an earlier compilation called Dirty Little Adult Cartoons . . . but I’m having a hard time confirming or refuting that theory. Some of these cartoons definitely were included in DLAC.

So what happened to ruin this fascinating little Funky World? Well, you know how some folks think it’s funny to spout off the first juvenile smart-ass comment that pops into their heads on a second-by-second basis? And you know how there’s even a compilation series where this grade school approach to watching film is the whole point?

Yep. Each of these little gems retains its original music soundtrack . . . but barely audible under a running commentary by a couple of buffoons who ridicule and “riff” (I’m ashamed to even write that) on everything that happens on the screen, mixing it up occasionally to insult each other and each other’s wives. This unifying audio idiocy was recorded much later than the actual cartoons, probably added about 1978 when the compilation was made. It completely ruins the presentation, and is about as entertaining as hearing Welcome Back Kotter playing loudly in another room while you’re trying to watch something worth watching. Very unfortunate. As released, it would not be possible to turn off the morons without also eliminating the correct original soundtracks.

Vinegar Syndrome? Hello? Hi there. Wouldn’t it be great if someone were able to remove the idiotic commentary from Funky World so that the cartoons could be heard as intended? It would be even better to find a superior master of Funky World with unspoiled audio and better video, or possibly a quality dupe of Dirty Little Adult Cartoons if in fact it is the same thing or very similar.
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