Video Madness: Creepy Adventures of Mark Twain

Well hello there, children. Today we’re going to go back into that big bag of strange I like to pull sh*t out of every once and a while. There are certainly some horrific overtones, but bizarre is the primary adjective at play here. This is a little segment from a movie you just might have seen in your younger years called “The Adventures of Mark Twain.”
[springboard type=”video” id=”374953″ player=”horn005″ width=”480″ height=”400″ ] If this looks familiar it’s probably because you’ve definitely seen these guy’s old ‘80’s claymations for the California Raisins. Hell yeah, you have, ‘cause those f*ckers are the sh*t. Does anyone remember their kick ass Christmas special? With those animated bells that were playing “Carol of Bells,” and that one goofy bell could never get the timing down? Great stuff right there. Fun for the whole family.

Today’s madness, however, is probably not fun for the whole family. Particularly if your family don’t much cotton to crazy ideas about reality being feed to children by a faceless, mask wearing entity calling itself “Satan.” Yep, we’re in some strange territory here, children. This clip, from a purely artistic standpoint, is fantastic. The stop motion work is is top notch and the production design is nothing to sneeze at either. I even enjoy the interesting concepts floating around in here, particularly in this form of animation, which is usually reserved for safer material. Well, unless you’re talking about Jan Svankmajer or the Brother’s Quay. Both of who’s work needs to get featured on Video Madness with the quickness. Maybe soon.

Apparently, this is based on some nonsense Mark Twain wrote near his death but never finished. It was posthumously released, but there’s some skepticism surrounding how much of it is actually Twain’s on words. I guess there are several versions of the tale, if you’re interested, all featuring elements represented here in this clip. I say, madness all around – and that’s exactly what we’re here for – a little madness. So, enjoy this unsettling clip, and remember, I’m pretty sure it was intended for a young audience. Keep that in mind.

Oh, and props to the Lady West, or The Brianimator, for re-directing my attention to this clip. I had seen it years ago and completely forgotten about it. Thanks lady. You’re the most!