One Minute Fly
is an animated web series by Michael Reichert and Tim Zosel. Initially starting life as an eponymous short film in 2008, it went on to receive two sequels, "Fly to the Moon" and "Sweets", plus two bonus "Super Shorts" for Valentine's Day and Easter. Each main episode features the same base premise: a fly is born with a lifespan of only one minute, and seeks to do everything it can to live a fulfilling life within that time.
This series provides examples of:
- Artistic License – Paleontology: The first video is set in prehistoric times, as revealed by the placard below the title character's museum exhibit. While the plant and insect life are able to hide this to an extent, the video also includes a modern-day coati and bluebird.
- Drunk on Milk: The fly in the first installment gets drunk after biting a coati, ticking off two items on its bucket list at once.
- Exposed Animal Bellybutton: Despite being an insect, not a mammal, the main fly is depicted with a visible navel in "One Minute Fly", "Fly to the Moon", and "Happy Valentine's Day".
- Extremely Short Timespan: The main character of each video is a fly with only one minute to live; the first installment implies that this is a regular trait of the flies' species, with another fly being seen exhausting his lifespan and the main fly being described in a museum exhibit as "The Unique Prehistoric One Minute Fly".
- Four-Legged Insect: The flies in the video feature two arms and two legs.
- Harmless Freezing: The first video ends with the fly being preserved in a chunk of amber after a glob of tree sap falls on it. The fact that its timer remains frozen the entire time, allowing it to complete its bucket list in the process (i.e. it ticks off the final item, "get famous," by becoming a coveted museum piece), implies that the fly is alive and conscious in this state with no ill results.
- Once per Episode: Each mainline installment opens with a fly hatching from an egg and being confronted by the giant timer representing its imminent mortality.
- Race Against the Clock: Each mainline installment revolves around a fly attempting to lead as fulfilling of a life as possible within one minute.
- Speed Sex: The fly in the first video manages to "produce descendants" with a mate in the span of just one second.
- Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: The female fly seen in the first video and "Happy Valentine's Day" is depicted with prominent eyelashes and large, red lips.
- Titled After the Song: "Fly to the Moon" is named after the Kaye Ballard song "Fly Me to the Moon".
