Skywhales
10:26
Added: 5 years ago
From: algoyo
Views: 55,365
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  • My dad first showed me this when i was 3 or 4, nd I cried :'(

  • my dad showed this to me when I was four, and I've never recovered from the mental distress it caused me D:

  • It isn't really scary or sad if you think about it in a 'circle of life' sort of way.

  • am i the only one who really just found this cool and interesting instead of 'creepy?'

  • durka durka!

  • PISS OUT MY ASS!

  • Umm jsflsgjkslgh?

  • I nearly killed myself when i saw this!!

  • @iliamgillan

    It's quite chilling.

  • @algoyo Really?!! I just think its abit weird and freaky....

  • @iliamgillan

    Weird and freaky. Doesn't take much to make you suicidal, does it? LOL

  • I saw it when i was young (about 5) i never forget it. Its longtime i search it. I loved it because it open my mind and imagination. i read many was afraid but dont me. Thank for that Algoyo.

  • I kind of understood what the end was going to be when I'd seen the sky whale hunting sequences. The biggest question it brings up in me, though, is do these people know what they're doing? I mean, they seem to be very spiritual and superstitious about it all. Still, a very good film and a very interesting twist ending.

  • I saw this in 1983 or 1984, it might have been shown with "1984" but I associate it with seeing "Another Country". I was 14 and a bit of an unfashionable prog-rock type. I thought it was great. I seem to remember it almost made me cry! I made a mental note that has lasted to this day, to see it again, remembered the name, and I've only just bothered looking it up. Do I still like it? Yes, although now, the production quality seems like "Battle of the Planets" on TV. That is, not very good.

  • Where are the subtitles? I can't understand French.

  • Is it still a well-done little cartoon? Yes. :)

    They remind me of green Birdos. :D

  • Good lord..This is nightmare fule AND fridge horror all in one.

    Not only was the scene with him turning into a zombie and jumping into the pit that reminds me of Giygas creepy as fuck, it's even more horrifying when you realize that the village is basically hunting, killing and EATING their own people.

  • Beautiful and chilling.

  • "I fell for hours..."

    "Boy, hours long time."

    "Well, it seemed like hours. Anyway, I was falling, nothing below me but boiling lava. Good thing I found a magic cocoon."

  • Wow. That was brilliant.

    ...Fathers really do provide. >_>

  • WoW just WoW this is awsome

  • I saw the film when I was 13 and NEVER forget it, NOW I can see it again in youtube, such a strange world and wonderfull youtube, I thought I would never see it again

  • @alpbluemli I saw it on TV when I was living in London in 1989. Taped it but tape no use now. VIVA LA YOU TUBE!

  • @allantennent I just saw it for only one time and taped it in my head...viva la youtube, YES

  • I saw the film when I was 13 and NEVER forget it, NOW I can see it again in youtube, such a strange world and wonderfull youtube, I thought I would never see it again

  • I saw the film when I was 13 and NEVER forget it, NOW I can see it again in youtube, such a strange world

  • @algoyo You're an ass.

  • yeah because i think what the moral of this story is that you are what you eat.

  • Can see where Lucas got the inspiration for Jar-Jar!

  • I saw the ending coming, it reminded of a scifi novel put out in the early 90's. Still a good animation though.

  • The ending is epic, but what I dont understand is if the aliens know what happens to them when they die, because when that kid saw the skywhale he looked shocked, was that just because of him seeing a skywhale so upclose or did he know it was his father?

  • What a peculiar movie. But I love stuff that looks like it comes out of a person's dreamscape. The creatures and their society are so well-developed it doesn't matter if you cannot understand what they are saying. So brutal and so realistic, while at the same time so amazingly alien. Very well done, actually. IF they are an alien race who needs to fall down a hole like that...is their floating island some kind of living thing? It seems to be.

  • It's like a cross between Morrowind and Avatar.

  • ahhh LSD, where would the majority of children cartoons be without it

  • During the time this was aired on Channel 4 my dad recored numerous animations. Ive been trying to track some of these down, does anyone know or remember some of these european and American animations that were shown on Channel 4 throughout the 80s?

  • they sound like Spore creatures (the videogame)

  • w0o0o0w, this is a great work ofr its times...and a great one for this times too, maybe i'm too dumb to understand the message so i have to see this wonderfull animated short again and again!!!!

  • I think the Aliens are just the juvenile stage of a larger life form (the skywhales themselves). The juveniles are able to breed, as some ocean creatures on Earth are said to, and they developed language and their own civilization, not realizing exactly what happened to their elders when they became zombies and jumped down a big hole in the ground. They decorated the hole and considered it another part of life, just like hunting their future selves without understanding.

  • @Coralchoral

    I think that the child knew that was his father at the end. I thought it was some kind of disease but you're interpretation makes more sense.

  • @Coralchoral I agree, I think I saw this when I was about 16 and whilst it scared the crap out of me, I never forgot it. I can't help wondering if one of the writers for Dr Who also saw it, as I thought of it with one of the Matt Smith episodes, where Humanity was sailing through space on the back of a huge star whale....

  • Amazing, very creative and original! It's 26 years since I saw this! It was a support feature in Glasgow cinemas when they were screening 1984.

  • You know this ain't so bad. Compared to "Fantastic Planet" this is NOTHING!

  • That's one way of doing "The circle of life"

  • I saw this when I was about five or six. It is burnt onto my mind.

  • This was prally the realest shit I have seen ever. I love fantasy cartoons and this is prally the finest. Question for ya'll mofos? I was on here one day and was watching a fantasy flick and it was with these barbarian tribes. One was the lava kingdom and the other was the ice kingdom. The ice queen and her son were evil and they tried to destroy all other kingdoms until one brave soul and his warrior brother defeated them. Anyone know the name?

  • @Urology707 Fire and Ice by Ralph Bakshi would be a good guess

  • @CaptCondor Thanks, I found it and I love it...

  • @Urology707

    I recently saw "Fantastic Planet" and I found a related video called "Fire and Ice" and showed an angry woman. You should check it out.

  • this is groovy!

  • Now THIS is what I call "serious" animation!

  • i remember this.

  • I wouldn't be surprised to find out George Lucas lifted the premise of these characters when creating Jar Jar Binx.

  • You are what you eat?

  • What if someone "eats" something inappropriate?

  • Comment removed

  • Then inappropriate they are.

  • @DIETRYINVICTORIOUSLY

    So in other words. Don't be a dickhead and do it the right way.

  • Incredible. IT was just great. I loved it, but not sure the message it's trying to get across 100%... I tink it's saying that we should give back to the world what we take, or something along those lines, or that we end up returning to the earth that gave us food during life when we die. Not sure really on the message.

  • There is no message. Not every good video has to have one.

  • I more of meant uh, what's-ya-callit. IT's meaning. Because to every plot, there is a meaning. Message was all I could really think of word-wise, xD

  • Comment removed

  • I still like thinking there was a bit of more meaning than that. I like overanalyzing things.

  • I watched this film when I very young on a wet Sunday afternoon with my parents, it brings back so many memories! Its a wonderful short film that I've been wanting to see again for years - thank so much!

  • around 2:53 it fucks up for me :) can't watch passed that point

  • This is amazing.

  • Still can't come up with the overall statement of this film.

  • very cool animation!

  • Very interesting. The imagination used was astounding. What I thought at first was that of course that they lived in a GAS GIANT AND HUNTED SKY WHALES. Then I thought that hunting them caused them to change. Or as they age they turn into a Skywhale because maybe those creatures are Skywhale Larva and Then they turn into a cocoon and the cycle continues.

  • it is like... the low tech Avatar

  • Watched this at school, well weird

  • What did I just WATCH. Oh my GOD. I didn't see that ending coming at all!

  • Im glad i found this, i saw it three years ago and ill never forget it, I love it.

  • I saw it in 1984. in Zagreb, Croatia, on festival of animated film, and never forget it. I also met the authors then. I am very glad that youtube exist, and it gave me oportunity to see it again. Great little masterpeace

  • I saw this years ago and have thought about it often. It is mostly as I remembered it. I would love to see a better copy of it but appreciate you posting this one.

  • this scared the crap out of me when i was little.

  • @EctoplasmicMoose When you were little? I'm twenty years old and this STILL scares the crap out of me!

  • @EctoplasmicMoose It doesn't scare you now? This is some creepy stuff, man.

  • @EctoplasmicMoose same for me

  • I wish more animation were like this.

  • (over limit continued)

    Watching it a second time, now knowing the significance of the eye-covering, the wife's concern was about him being close to his change. ("Oh, Honey, you're too close to your change. You should be getting into your change robes." "I got plenty of time for one more hunt!") Or possibly that the act of going out on a whale hunt causes the change. ("But Honey, this might be the trip that puts you over!" "Maybe, but the village still has to eat.")

  • Watching it the first time, just taking everything in, I pegged this as "A typical day in Alien Nantucket." I figured the husband as being sort of elderly, the wife's concern was about him being so old. ("But, Honey, you're getting too old for this." "No, I'm not!") Which was reinforced by the reaction of the junior captain to his arrival. I figured the two grey guys were priests, or similar respected elderly. All in all, right up to the transformation, the ending was a surprise.

    continued:

  • Not as good as I remembered it to be, and it's taken me ages to find this!

    Thanks for posting anyway.

  • omg their speaking is already annoying at 10 secs in... my brain hurts

  • Well, I'm not sleeping tonight.

  • only taken me 26 years to find this, blew me away when i first saw it.....

  • Same here, some scenes haunted me for more than twenty years, never thought i'd see it again and ended up here by coincidence (looking for another haunting animation, Fantastic Planet)... Thank you algoyo for putting this online

  • Why can't we have animation like this anymore? I grew up watching animation like this. Mostly old Russian movies and other films by René Laloux.

  • I guess because psychedelic Disney-loving, Greenpeace-supporting college kids are too busy being emo or slutty nowadays. Hence the whiny & rappy videos, i guess.

  • Very interesting animation. First time I've seen it.

  • WTFITS

  • I have this on a random video somewhere :) We used to have a vid in for such random animations such as this back in my yoot !!

    I should really one day sit and go thru them :)))

  • i saw this some 20yrs ago and thought it magic then ,clever storytelling,animation on a par with studio ghibli,and nymanesque music,fantastic,thanks so much for posting it

  • I think it's worthwhile to note that whatever you think of it as a whole, you wouldn't be able to get around the fact that the music is distractingly horrible.

  • Man, you watched this like a game, that's the problem.

    Once you heard 'surprise ending,' it seems the entire runtime was spent in your attempts to guess said ending.

    You didn't miss the subtleties because of your age, you missed them because you weren't actually watching the film; you were playing a guessing game while looking at superficial details.

    Certainly some young ones are capable of a deeper viewing, and many, age regardless, are never able.

  • Childhood memory unearthed just now.

    Man, it's awesome to stumble across these things on Youtube.

  • [my 2 cents] Watching this of how old you are but when you are seeing it. Young people nowadays just have seen more and their brains have learn to jump ahead due to their experences. Be that a good or bad thing is irrlevant. The world is global and the mysteries are getting few. Besides there is nothing original anymore. life coming from life has been done after this and so the young know what is going to happen. I still like it - thanx for the vid.

  • What`s wrong with being young and seeing it? I understood it as well as my 50 year old father and I`m 15.

  • Oh wow...I haven't seen this in...19 years? It's a lot less disturbing then I originally remembered it, but it's still wonderfully original.

  • Found this because I recently remembered it. I saw it when I was small and it was creepy as hell but in a good way.

    I also remembered a weird cartoon about a kid who was stranded on a planet with a microphone through which he could communicate with the people on a spaceship who were coming to rescue him. They took years to get there if I remember right.

    What was that called?

  • Never mind. It was called Time Masters.

  • because i wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt so that i could form my opinion AFTER watching it instead of BEFORE. whats wrong with that?

  • That was good.

  • SpectacularMunkiman

    There was nothing obvious or predictable about it, dumbass!

    How old are you, 14?

    I expect you prefer the transformers or something other mindless shit like that, right?

  • I'm actually 15, so if you want you can ignore my opinion because of my age. Maybe this IS better to watch if you're older, but nobody told me that before I saw it.

    It's been two weeks since I made that comment, but as I recall, I thought the twist at the end was predictable. I'm sorry if I shouldn't have been able to predict it, but I did. (SPOILER ALERT): When the skywhales appeared, I noticed how the weird people who walk past the main character dude earlier have similarly pale skin and the

  • same black eyes, plus the mouths were kind of similar, so when the main character experiences the same changes, I was reminded of that and I thought he was going to (SPOILER ALERT) turn into a skywhale. And he did. So it might have been a shocking twist if I hadn't seen it coming from a mile away, but I did, and so the ending disappointed me.

    Yes, I am just a teenager, so maybe there were greater subtleties that I couldn't appreciate, but I thought this was pretty mediocre. Not because it moved

  • too slowly, though it did at parts, but because it was predictable and the concept wasn't that interesting - some little aliens hunt big flying creatures, woo hoo. The fact that the little guys turn into the big guys who they hunt is disturbing, but it was predictable enough to be kinda boring by the time it actually happened The backgrounds are very well done, I'll give the short that, but the aliens look a little too cartoony, and the animation is kind of dated.

  • OK, fair enough. Good answer.

  • You have to understand though, when this was first made, the world really was different. Not something us "old folks" could really convey in words, but it was very different. A short like this was very deep at the time, it truly is a case of "you would have to been there."

  • im sure i would have.

  • Yeah.......they were cool times. Weird animation, weird music......corny (but cool) movies.......it was fun. I wish I could go back!! :)

  • Times sure have changed. Yes, things were VERY different back then; we were more naive, in my opinion. There was more innocence and even a blindness to many things. Pleasures were simpler!! I miss that!! Music that we thought was amazing and deep is now laughed at by younger generations. I hear ya, evnstar.

  • I, being only twenty-four, am truly honored to be able to consider a film like this to be deep and beautiful. Don't worry, the younger generation is not completely lost. There are people my age and, surprisingly, even younger than that who can still appreciate the beauty and depth of works such as these!

  • Glad that there are young people like you!! It makes me feel better knowing that some of you out there understand!! :)

  • haha 24? You oldie! I'm 15 and still appreciate this animation.

  • One of the most brilliant animated shorts ever made!

  • at 0.54 they say the name of one of the worst filmakers ever. Did he sneak that in

  • uwe boll?

  • if you lision at the beging it sounds like they said here puppy

  • I have seen it. It is very good.

  • awesome!

  • All they ever say is "Dee bee dabba da boo" lol

    So bizarre yet funny as hell.

  • Now that is epic loved it the cycles of life for these mysterious on-existent b

  • verga si son mariquitos y que video disturbador que dicen es una vaina rara solamente, coño yo vi esto cuando era un carajito tomando rokomalt en mi escuela CAP era presidente que bolas lo vi en parabolica

  • I remember my grandad tellin me about this when i was 8 i looked for it for year and ive finally found it :) i love it and i must tell him i found it

  • 25 yrs ago about 5pm, what a yikes ..

  • I saw this film 25 or so years ago while in a hospital bed and whenever I told people about it they looked at em like I was abit odd. Great to find it here on youtube to prove what a spooky piece of weirdness it really was.

  • This cartoon has been giving me nightmares for 20 years

  • Brilliant haven't seen this for more than 20 years

  • fantastic. watched this film when it first got shown on tele many years ago, never thought i would see it again.

    Nice one.

  • Interesting method of reproduction.

  • It's like eating grandpa

  • its weird the sky whales look just like the gas giant inhabiting alien animals on the discovery channel's Alien Planet show.

  • well depending your philosiphy's in can be interprated in differant way's i for one think that becoming a 'sky wale' is some kind of acensoin in there culture as the hut whith the pit in it was gaurded and the family didn't seem that unhappy when

    he fell into the pit but that's just my opimion

  • It seems this video supports the idea of reincarnation.

    It's pretty interesting actually, yet the beginning hadn't convinced me this short film would be any good. Luckily I kept watching.

    It may be disturbing to a younger audience, but not to anybody commenting here.

  • i have been searching for this for a long time, this is the only animation that scared me when i first saw it, it never left my memory. now i watch and it looks tame compared to back then. thanks for the post.

  • I've been searching for it since ages...THANK YOU!!!!

  • eat your heart out Moby Dick , great animation film loved it.

  • Was this made by the same guys who made the movie Heavy Metal from 1981?

  • But I loved it, and I always will, and I thank you, algoyo, for posting it

  • I just happy we don't have to eat our grannies.

  • dear sir, you have no idea the resonance your message generates here at this time. Illness of 91-year-old in family. Drama, drama. Thank you again. Also, i think the papa critter really was sick, and knew it. He was just too damn stubborn and macho to give it up

  • Ninety-one! That's a damn good age. Hope she pulls through.

  • I think the momma critter was arguing that the poppa critter, being so close to the end/change of lifecycle should forego the hunt to spend his remaining moments with his child critter, and actually convinced him to the point of feigning illness when reporting to his vessel, but, alas, the rest is history. I doubt these critters as a society saw the connection between themselves and the whales. Otherwise they would have known they were eating Cousin Oscar

  • You never see things like this anymore.

  • Yeah, I'd have to agree that the people know what skywhales are; maybe it's the final stage in their life-cycle, like maturing fully means turning into a skywhale, or maybe there's something else - Like killing a skywhale means getting to eat a certain part that triggers a change into a skywhale? Ergh. Wonderfully done short, quietly-disturbing content.

    I'm more disturbed (nigh-terrified) of the skywhales though, especially their stalk-eyes and their gaping mouths. *shiver*

  • For some reason I really didnt find this all that disturbing. I guess I really am fucked up in the head! hahaha. Awesome short.

  • wtf

  • I have a love of 2d animation and have seen many animated shorts. I can say that this kept my attention the whole way through and I haven't seen anything like it yet! :)

  • epic

  • wow...

    i just read a short description of this video.

    after reading it, well i was aware that it was an alien planet and that the people hunted those whales.

    the description also said that ending was disturbing... ending with a tremendous twist...

    i started the video... i clicked around... and happen to skip to the part where i saw the guy falling and transforming...

    ... i stopped the movie, with my mouth wide open.. put my head down and said,"wow"

    i figured it out quick... but i wish i didn't

  • and just to end this..

    my god, this movie is hauntingly disturbing... i've never seen this before but now i'm disturbed... just wow, holy crap...its soo.. soo.. i'm lost for words... this isnt for kids!

    this is just... ugh.. so surreal. The music only amplifies that feeling... and the sight of the person transforming.. changing.. screaming with its new mouth... i don't know how to explain it...

    you've guys who watched this as kids... holy crap.. i would of been psychologically traumatized.

  • lol it aint that scary, he isent 'SCREAMING' i think thats your mind. U must have something wrong with you.

    He just opens his mouth and makes a nice calling sound. :S

  • perhaps the screaming part was exaggerated but i still find the whole transformation thing downright creepy.

  • actually id did watch this as a kid, and now just happened to stumble upon it. I remember being very weirded out when watching it.

  • holy shit, i saw this when i was a samll child and it stayed wih me ever since. i thought my dad was gonna come back and walk to the pit the same as daddy skywhale.

    thanks channel 4, you introduced me to the concept of mortality and scared the living shit outta me in the process. well done! now you have hollyoaks.......

  • kool

  • I watched this video when I was 5, I think it was my first understanding of what death was. It truely tatooed my mind. It is simply amazing for me to see it again as I thought the world had forgotten about it.

  • that site at the beginning of the video, it still exists! :o

  • The last time I checked (admittedly a long time ago) it was defunct. I'm happy it's back up, because they had some really good content up there!

  • :) I only heard about this video, my mother told me a story once when she was drunk and a friend showed her this. She told me to look for it on youtube and I found it! :) Very weird cartoon, I think its one I won't forget for a long.... LONG time.

  • So the creatures that have to open parachutes are doomed?

  • I don't think so. Why would they bother having them if they didn't work? I hope the members of the other boats' crews would pick them up.

  • This is a pretty odd cartoon. Had I seen this when I was a child I would have had some pretty crazy nightmares. They are essentially cannibals! This is the kind of shit you watch on acid.

  • or write on acid

  • Although Wikipedia lists the writer as _the_ Phil Austin of Firesign Theatre, The Internet Movie Database shows the Austin as being a British citizen.

  • Thank you very much for upping this great classic

  • I've always loved the idea of Gas Giant life.

  • me too, however i don't think it would be this recognizable.

  • Ditto.

  • too bad it could never be. all gas giants have alot of gravity so itd be impossible for a life form to support it's weight in just gas and if it went lower to were the gases become liquids, itd be crushed. in anyways, no gas giant has winds calm enough for life to settle in, best chance is it's moons.

  • Microbes could survive.