Robot Carnival "Nightmare"

[djvillain]

C-3PO actually references this in "Attack of the Clones" when he's going through the droid factory in a similar fashion. He says "it's a nightmare!" and about five other people in the audience got the reference.

[xMOSTYMANx]

What a great film! Reminds me of The Order to Stop Construction. If ever there is a robot apocalypse, it'll probably just destroy itself.

[ginawinabean]

I was too young to remember a lot of Robot Carnival but I remember this for sure.

[ZDLR221]

YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!!!

[kayele]

These are discontinued so thanks for posting them

[SilentHillAsylum83]

Wow, amazing stuff.

The animation is awesome, and the music sounds like it belongs in a SNES RPG, but I think that's a good thing.

I love this, wish there was more like it.

[JSENNER83]

Hmm...Think of this as an anime Night on Bald Mountain from Fantasia. Jeez...All of Robot Carnival is a timeless masterpiece.

[Johnlindsey289]

Who else saw this masterpiece of an anime on TBS back in 93? i did when i was 12 with other cult adult animated movies on TBS as well.

[jyamii1]

@Johnlindsey289 I saw it on TBS too. It was the first anime I had seen since moving back to the U.S. from Japan in 93.

[Superumouyun]

I absolutely love the music for this short.

[SpacewarpAtYT]

I just watched this again, for the first time in a long time, and had a bit of insight. The robot in the red cape is obviously following the... inebriated man, but his intent may have been misinterpreted. The robot in the red cape may be a gatekeeper, or even guardian, trying keep humans out of the dangers of the mechanical night. The drunk merely fled in terror, possibly from impending safety! This would also explain the apparent conflict with the larger robot, who might care about the human.

[Threetails]

Just from what I've seen, I think it's an allegory about arms races. Early on, two giant robots fight for the fate of feudal Japan in "A Tale of Two Robots", only to leave the Japanese robot victorious but the city in ruins. It begins a cycle of robot wars where all the world develops robots to defeat each other. This one seems to be about a robot overlord that is the result of that same robot arms race about a century later.

[Likodemus]

I can't believe I never knew a thing about this film until tonight. Thank you!

[js2phat]

I watched this over and over as a kid. Loved the character. And after years of not watching it I still loved it.

[TheWiseGuy784]

An automatonophobe's greatest nightmare.

[BloodyBobJr]

Ya this video is basically an homage to Night on Bald Mountain, old disney movie. It reminded me of it almost immediately. They all come out at night, mess things up and terrorizing. Then they all disappear and things go back to normal.. except it's all crazy ass robots, lol. Also the random "chicken" dude is different and I Think he might need some counseling after that. Nice short thou

[Nowhereman10]

@BloodyBobJr It's a mix of NIght on Bald Mountain from Disney's 1940 Fanstasia combined with the later Disney short animated adapation of "Ichabod Crane".

[ConejoZing]

those who know... CALL IT ANIME.

[Durandal1717]

Man for fucking AGES I'd had this vague, amorphous recollection of watching some guy escape on a motorcycle from some giant robot with a spinning eye, which I could never quite remember. Turns out it was a vespa and the spinning was from suspended wheels, but now I can finally lay this massive bit of ancient nagging nostalgia to rest.

[advillan]

does anyone else get the Night on Bald Mountain Feel from this part of Robot Carnival?

[ScoloCentipede]

@advillan I believe that's fully intentional.

[HailDarkened]

@advillan Yes because this particular story was based on that very thing.

[jacyrojas]

i also remember seeing all kinds of cool stuff on the scifi when i was a kid back in the 90's. a lot of it was stuff that shaped my taste in entertainment and esp in scifi. the original hhg2g, vampire hunter d, robot carnival, akira, and some others that i remember but can't recall the titles of. its annoying that you can't just turn on the tv anymore and see interesting stuff all the time.

[iheartthemaxx]

This is beautiful and amazingly dark with barely any visible violence or dialogue. I strongly believe the creator behind this story was hugely inspired by Fantasia's 'Night on Bald Mountain' sequence(A big horned devil comes out of a mountain and wakens various evil ghouls out of the earth who come flying to meet him, then he crushes them, morphing them to his delight.) There are so many moments they have in common. Not saying either one is better, both are excellent works of genius.

[bammerman1983]

I loved this part of the film. and I still do.

[thousandyoung]

The bgm rocks.

[KandiStomper]

brings me back to the day when scifi channel did the "Saturday Anime" thing. i used to always wake up for that, these were my saturday morning cartoons haha.

[GamaScythe]

Doesn’t the main human kind of look like Don Knotts, or am I the only one who thinks so?

[InoueTatsuhiko]

Lol, this particular short scared the daylights out of me when I first saw it (I was 7 or so). When Dad and I would watch our VHS, I'd ask him to stop it just as this one was coming on. XD

[DrOetker14]

night on bald mountain for robots

[CyberPirate83]

I think this one is my favorite of the non-verbal shorts.

[CaptainRobotnik]

That was badass

[TtheWriter]

Night on Bald Mountain, Robot Style! Wow! :D

[clockworkcorvid]

Some of these shots are direct parallels to Night On Bald Mountain. This is not a bad thing.

Had this on vhs as a kid, it's amazing.

[kefsound]

Is it just me or the soundtrack is very close to one from Laputa? (Studio Ghibli)

I guess Studio Ghibli has been inspired by this!

[hivelocity100]

Does this remind anyone of Disney's Legend of Sleepy Hollow

[marinersfanfromny]

Japan in about 10 years.

[cadman2300]

When I first saw this in Sy-Fi's Saturday anime movie block, I couldn't help but wonder why the red caped bot was chasing after the homeless guy. Looking at it now, my guess is that the robot devil doesn't want any witnesses but I doubt that anyone would believe him even if he did remember any of it with a sober mind.  As far as the man's concerned it was all just a bad dream, a "Nightmare".

[METALHEADCERBERUS]

I love this one. I remember the music from when I was a kid

[kyo221]

My Favorite anime!

This Tokyo city ripped off reminds me of Akira and The Wicked City.

[sakuraXmoto]

When I was watching it subbed a while back it said "Red and the Chicken Man"

The subbs wern't that good to begin with though.

Anime isn't made like this anymore! Too bad!

[MuffinMan2908]

@sakuraXmoto

Anime became too cheesy and less original. SOme of it still is, but I really agree with you on that. I've always loved the old style music and creative ideas these guys came up with during the 80s and 90s. Not to mention awesome original music.

[KandiStomper]

@MuffinMan2908

old anime over new ANYDAY. i pride myself on knowing/seeing anime that most people have never even heard of. not to mention today's anime is dare i say, boring...

[Jurbaga]

@KandiStomper I couldn't agree with you more. Thanks to the Sci-Fi Channel (back in the mid to late 90s) it exposed be to alot of the old and more classic anime movies.. Hell, I'll even admit I watched Project A-Ko! Todays stuff doesn't have what this stuff has at all..

[Daquine]

I remember watching this on Scifi Channel on the old Saturday Anime block.

[ElusiveElixe]

Disney and anime nostalgia rolled up in one..wow.

[joemanses]

well it wasn't very deep, but it sure was cool

[djvillain]

This film was reference in Star Wars: Attack of the Clones when C3P0 was in the robot factory. He says "It's a Nightmare".

Every once in a while Lucas does something clever.

[lev0001]

Buuullllsheeeeet was it....you fuckin tool!!!

[LadySomnia]

LOL, the red caped robot sounds cute when it's mad =)~ 07:10

[sweetpoison4u69]

remember seeing this as a child.. thanks for showing this.. brings back so many memories remembering waking up super early on sat.day to watch anime...long week of waking up for school and waking up 3 hours early for anime on sat.day

thanks again

[curtisb3000]

MY FAVORITE

[GeneralRatKingLord]

My most favorite short.

Few things though:

What was the caped robot trying to do to that guy?

What was the gigantically huge towering robot trying to accomplish?

Why did that same towering robot destroy the other robot at 5:35?

I'm just curious

What are the citizens going to think when they see the mess that was made?

(BLAME IT ON THE HOBO)

[Entity4two]

this was pretty much the japanese version of Fantasia. night on bald mountain anyone?

[SpookyNero]

that mixed with The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, methinks.

[chubnostics]

Absolutely brilliant stuff.......

[23rdcenturyboy]

The animation's brilliant, and way ahead of it's time. Disney was practically doing this with Goofy and Ducktales (TV and movies) in the 90s, but here it's got an incredible amount of energy you wouldn't say it's anime the first time round!

[darksungames]

Nah, Disney was doing exceptional animation in the 30's. This is actually a combination of Fantasia & Sleepy Hollow. In fact the Hobo is essentially Ichabod Crane. He even looks the same & has the same movements. You need to brush up on your animation history. Most early Anime was inspired primarily by Disney.

[RyePan]

Wow, the part around 7:00 reminds me of Princess Tutu! O__o

[crainey1]

I saw this when i was like 10. im 25 now. its still my fave. I even taped it way back when it aired. still have the tape stashed somwhere....

[MrDopple]

If you've ever seen Fantasia, one of the last shorts in the movie consisted of the Devil himself over a mountain with all these evil spirits dancing about. If you combine that with the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, it's remarkably similar to this movie, just a combination of those two with robots.

[TheLanceChannel]

holy shyte. I just like the way some of the older anime looks, and such creative and kick ass robot designs!

[supermantahoo]

This anime kicks ass! Im getting tired of those big anime eyes...

[DarkKrusnik]

didn't someone make this with "night on bald mountain" as the background music?

[vweezer27]

robot carnival changed my life. too wicked

[LYNCHisLYNCH]

this segment was in fact done in contrast to "Night on Bald Mountain" from Fantasia, and also drew inspiration from the chase scene between the Headless Horseman, and Ichabod.

[MrDopple]

What he said.

[symptomy]

I would say his alter ego was really what was chasing him, his fear was the world that really existed as opposed to the drone existence that prevailed. When he woke up he saw his "nightmare" was real.

[symptomy]

This was the best one by far

[Blackheartrises]

This reminds me of the segment of Fantasia when the demons controlled the night, it's very similar except for the guy trying to get away. This whole movie kicks ass.

[dontlistentomeimmute]

dang i wish they make more anime like this!

[hazzard1983]

I remember seeing this on sci fi anime on saturday morning. Thanks for posting

[videochemist]

you know sometimes when you look at man-made objects they often become personified as you attribute human characteristics to them. a perfectly inanimate object suddenly has a face or limbs. im sure as a child your parents were surprised to find you playing with an ordinary household object as though it were designed as a toy. I imagine it was these feelings that inspired the concept here.

[alexcomk]

This cartoon is still one of the best!

[Daquirie]

I'd watch this over and over again as a kid... I just love the music.

[RF23]

Robot Carnival was one of the first animes I saw as kid. This brings back memorries. Thanks for posting it.

[SmokingSumSoup]

Gee... It seems like this was inspired by Disney's Fantasia, and that guy really looks like Disney's Ichbod Crane.

[jadedXotaku]

My fav segment. In the 15 yrs since first seeing this, I've never once thought about what the meaning was. Maybe I've always just been so taken by it. I loved the music in this segment(I watched it so often my parents got annoyed hearing this), and found it so very creepy and bizarre, yet quite funny. It's just so great!

[RealTyche]

This is a comment on man's relationship to nature. In Japanese Shintoism, the belief is held that every object holds a spirit ( as seen my the robotic looking entities that spring up from the machines). The director is making the comment that man should learn to live in respect with nature rather than trying to dominate it because nature can-and does-fight back.

[cctrent]

I heard this was considered the anime verison of our "Fantasia". So this could be equal to the Chernobog video.

[Beuzer0]

I'm impressed by the messy design of the junk-robot at 5:15 and the way they animated it !

[Althman]

On Wikipedia, there is a mention, in regards to this particular piece of animation, that it draws from the recently-developed Japanese "mythology" that machines can grow by connecting onto other machines. What's the story behind that? How is that a myth?

[Beuzer0]

I don't know, but I went to Japan two times and I can say, with my French point of view, that Japan's society is very mechanic and robotic by high presence of machines, the way to live, the telephone lines at the roof,etc. Japanese people have a different view of machine than the rest of the world (at least this is what I think by viewing movies like this one and Otomo's ones).

I know a Japanese woman, I should ask her what she thinks about this setence.

[orunir]

There was some sort of fictional work years ago that constructed a disease where machinery grew from human flesh, like a symbiote or parasite and eventually overwhelming the human victim. It went so faras to catalogue case reports of the disease. I don't remember if it was japanese or not, or even if it's related to what you mention.

[raptonx]

Out of all of the shorts, this one I liked the most, really wild and menacing looking machines, and a really cool sound track.

[Magestrix]

I first saw this when it came on TBS back in 94 along with Vampire Hunter D. Just like you guys, this was my introduction to what anime really was.

[Rashaed]

Same here. This short was actually scary.

[MBMaster83]

So friggin sick - Saw Robot Carnival on Sci Fi along with Vampire Hunter D and Lensman when I was a kid and taped it - have had them on VHS since!

[eiremoonblossom]

I did the exact same thing! This, Vampire Hunter D, and Lensmen were my introduction to anime in general. The tape is slightly damaged now but I continue to watch it quite often.

[fedupN]

@MBMaster83 Hell yeah!

Thank goodness for Sat Anime!

I watched Record of Lodoss War, 8-Man After, and a few others.

One of the things that introduced me to anime.

[Massivec09]

@MBMaster83 Saturday Anime... I remember Demon City, 8-Man, Cassah- Robot Hunter,

D (Vampire Hunter), Project Ako, Tank Police, etc. Man brings me back... good times... good times. But we don't have to let those times go away. We can change the world for our kids if we want. Cuz look at the cartoons they have now.. it's nothing compared to what these had. (Life, Passion, Originality) Or we can just get them on DVD or Blue-Ray for them to see cuz they'll never see a VHS.. wow think about that

[TheTygre]

@MBMaster83

... That is the single greatest VHS of all time.

[Jal8919536]

LOL, 'birdzilla' at 5:25.

XD

[joshd616]

I remember when this came on sci-fi channel ,1998 I believe it was the last time I saw it. Man the memories. I thought this part was the coolest. It was a time when they actually had good movies and shows on sci-fi channel. Not these terrible knock off B movies and shows. Adult swim and Anime station has pretty much taken over the anime scene all together on network television here in the u.s. Alot of the anime on anime station kind of sucks.

[striderhiryu2]

robotic version of chernabog,this is a homenage to fantasia last short.

[Jal8919536]

Plus another Disney work - "Legend of Sleepy Hollow". ; )

[TetsumiKato]

Even the big fat monster robot reminded me of a character from the film "Heavy Traffic".

[deepfriedewok]

this animation makes my hands hurt

[comradevodka]

Thanks Phantom for uploading havent seen in ages.

Not only is it an homage to the Sleepy Hollow legend it also has a very NIGHT ON BALD MOUNTAIN theme with robots. It's brillant- japan was always eons from us creating great imagery and effects.

[techno79]

I haven't seen these in so many years! I used to love this cartoon. This has got to be cyberpunk genre.

[blackranger00]

I think that a better music score would make this animation much greater than it looks.

[luvesgirl]

I would think that Disney's night on bald mountain better fits this feel... This was so amazing to see from start to finish though... I found it easier to sit through then Fantasia though...

[kevingra]

This was made about ten years before Sleepy Hollow

[Astronopolis]

um, sleepy hollow was written in 1819, so you're saying this was animated in 1809?

[kevingra]

No i meant the film, that was made in 1999, which has simlilar gothic imagary

[Funkgun]

yeah I agree sleepy hollow is a prime candidate for being the inspiration

[calavera69]

This was their take on fantasia.

[nunojpassos]

im not saying that this video isnt great but i prefer with darkest hour music :D

peace

[comicsggk]

The music sounds like it was made by the same composer of Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, even the robot witch reminds me of the main villain from that game.

[aubreyholman]

I agree with you ridley. THat's the way I always took it.

[Seetherr]

I betcha all these robots had just been upgaded to Vista... The latest Microsoft update they downloaded through Wifi made them self destruct in the end!!

[robotwo]

of course, as we all know vista IS the source of all evil.

[Seetherr]

amen brotha!

[vonmeth]

double amen!

[MikeTMerciless]

@robotwo No. It is the spawn of a greater evil. 95

[Jermeister]

talk about freaky. love it!

I haven't much thought on this one (yet), but I'm quite into how a few of the other shorts (the opening and "tale of two robots") have a lot of references to foreign powers invading what seems to be a "classical" japan.

[Dinosaurprince]

Nice Tribute to Disney's Fantasia and the Legend of Sleepy Hollow.  Well done.

[ebisufandom]

Oh my gosh. I did not like this one. I did, however -- I appreciated the animation. It was well done.

The plot I think was kinda lame.. but y'know?

I remember watching this as a child on the SciFi channel and it scared the crap outta me. But I got over it. Now that I'm older I can see it for it what it is.

Thanks for the upload. <333

[Piscivorus]

What a total acid trip! lol

[Limejello10512]

I think this was supposed to be a parody of night on bald mountain (in fact robot carnival was supposed to be the japanese fantasia)

[Sc6h12o6]

Have the remastered Robot Carnival at all does anyone know? ^.^

[itburns1234]

this one gave me nightmares when i was younger, but the music was my favorite out of all of them! i love this one now that i've gotten older and i know that strange robots aren't stomping outside my window...or are they?

[newro1]

I'm from Mexico and I remember when I was very little they showed this movie on Cartoon Network, I never watched a lot of anime before besides Mazinger so this is THE movie that made me interested on anime, thanks for posting this, it brought so many memories back.

[Ridley9548]

I like how it seems to say how cities around the world are becoming dark and cold places and that how technology is on a fast rise.

[DarkKrusnik]

so why is the red caped robot trying 2 "save" the drunk?

[sa1tine]

this is my favorite short out of the entire robot carnival movie. the creepy music is great. haha i love the guys reactions.

[DarkKrusnik]

so wat happned 2 the red caped robot? he was out in the sun at the start?

[weirdwatch]

The scene where the red robot started raising up the other robots reminded me of Toby turning the villagers into living puppets in Unico and the isle of magic. There's also a lot of fantasia riffs..the scene where the robots dance around on the pedestal and gets smashed is one

[rtemilynguyen]

This is my favourite short from that movie. Kinda reminds me of Night on Bald Mountain and that Disney versionof Sleepy Hollow.

[Majase]

Great stuff. Thanks for posting; and I agree with axelswife1, few anime 'fans' seem to even be aware of most if any of the Robot Carnival episodes.

[sudoraba]

Lets just call this "Night on Bald Mountain the Techno Remix"

[princessofbalance]

i think the person who made his was trying to show how technology could turn against and overtake us.

[Tradias]

I first saw this movie back when they had Saturday Anime on sci/fi channel. It has been one of my favorites ever since. Thanks for posting this!

[Detective09]

This is one of the movies that got me into anime! Thanks a lot for the upload

[Scythemantis]

I love "Nightmare" more than all the rest of Robot Carnival. It's a GREAT work of art all on its own. Course, I feel the same way about Fantasia's "Night on Bald Mountain".

I love the style of the various machine-demons, some of them even look like deep-sea fish!

I wish I could figure out what's supposed to be happening towards the end, though, with the female mannequin creation that the biker robot defaces for some reason, and the giant goblet.

[narodniki]

Fuck

[KmKGreyhat]

Wowowow, I never thought I'd see this Classic ever again since my brother stupidly tossed out my old grainy VHS copy. This movie rocked so many tits.

[Tradias]

This was my favorite one out of the whole movie. The music is just awesome and the artwork kicks ass.

[Chibikatza]

Maybe this short animation was asking: "What if the machines had a special night where they all came alive? What if a person stumbled into the middle of this event?" Or something like that...

[conoba]

Maybe it has its root in the japanese shintu religion.

Every object is believed to have a soul or spirit.

[ThePhantomOtaku]

But does Shinto apply to something man made or something that's gone through a manufacturing process? I thought it only applied to things that were natural ... But I'm no expert on this ... -_-

[aeriswithleo]

The rule is any "thing" that caries a strong emotion with it can develop a soul.

[Chibikatza]

This one was always my most favorite of the Robot Carnival shorts! I have this one on a video tape. Though, granted it's now all worn out and grainy looking. I'm just happy to see it again! Thank you very much!

[ThePhantomOtaku]

I think you're right. I made the connection when I was younger

[Chibikatza]

To me, this short was more of a mix between the Fantasia final scene and the Adventures of Ichabod Crane. The action happening between the guy and the robot with the bike reminded me of the antics from Ichabod's encounter with the headlesss horsemen, except the robot seem to want to scare the guy more then kill him. I think I came up with that mostly because when I was a kid the guy sorta reminded me of Ichabod Crane from that Disney adventure.

[drcopperwire]

I think that the red caped robot was actually trying to keep the out of harms way by trying to run him out of town, but in the process the robot relized what a monster it had created.

[aeriswithleo]

Then why did he warn the other bot the sun was comeing up? He seemed to be the only one that could live beond night.

[chorchapodrida]

this video was supposed to mirror the final scene in fantasia, i think. its so badass