Western Animation / Imaginaria

Imaginaria was a compilation of 13 CGI shorts released by Miramar Productions on VHS and LaserDisc in 1993, who produced the popular The Mind's Eye series. Most are multiple shorts edited together, but on the whole it's not as confusing as most examples of the method. It's notable for including The Adventures of André & Wally B., how well most of the shorts have aged and for its many memorable songs and instrumentals by Gary Powell.

The full list of shorts, according to The Other Wiki:

1. "Imaginaria" Where the audience is invited on a journey to a wonderous land of magical sights.
2. "Anything Is Possible" A continuation of the above, where we meet: a Fountain Pen with a taste for dancing and fancy dress, a fat airplane, reality warping butterflies, and a naked artist figure model. The wooden kind.
3. "Locomotion" Engine No. 9 has difficulty crossing a tressel on the way to his destination. Hilarity Ensues.
4. "The Adventures of André & Wally B." Andre wakes up in the woods to find a bee coming for him.
5. "All Shapes and Sizes" A catchy song set to Exactly What It Says on the Tin. One thing's for sure, they're always changing.
6. "Rubber Duckies" A duck spawned from an inner-tube explores... some sort of factory/nursery/studio.
7. invoked"Gourmet Records" A guy hungry for music, and records, looks for just the right song.
8. "Night Magic" Basically Toy Story meets The Brave Little Toaster in the city... Also, naked aliens.
9. "Down the Road" Watch as your tour guide drives you through the set of Earthquake and past the evil paperwork, all while singing about the joys on the road.
10. "Lucy & Remo" The epic story of two birds in love, and the mysterious window that separates them.
11. "Styro the Dog" A Badass Dog brags about how awesome he is.
12. invoked"More Bells and Whistles" One of the most EPIC music videos produced in the early Nineties. An early version of Animusic.
13. invoked"Going Home" It's time to leave.

Every Imaginaria segment was used alongside clips from the first two Mind's Eye videos on Canadian cable channel YTV's 1994-1996 "Short Circuitz" interstitials, primarily as filler back when the station was only required to run 8 minutes of commercials an hour. Independent superstation NTV (Newfoundland Television) adapted these videos into five "Computer Animated Art Festivals" in the 2000s alongside new post-production effects and pop music soundtracks, giving even more of a Mind Screw effect than before.

Can be found here or here on YouTube.

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Tropes exemplified in Imaginaria:

• Acme Products: The factory in "Rubber Duckies" has an ACME label on the door.
• Animate Inanimate Object: Fountain pens, salt and pepper shakers, various appliances in "Night Magic", and an inner tube that turns into a duck, to name a few.
• Alien Invasion: A scouting party for one seems to show up in "Night Magic".
• All-CGI Cartoon: A compilation of 13 CGI shorts.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: There's a giant man made of paperwork in "Down the Road."

• Determinator: Engine No. 9 from "Locomotion".
• Downer Ending: "Styro the Dog" ended with the police capturing him.
• Extreme Omnivore: Evidently, you can get music videos by eating records...
• Never Say "Die": Averted; "Lucy and Reno" outright says "they were sure that if you flew through that window, you would be dead."
• No OSHA Compliance: During "Down The Road" the Point-of-View camera/car drives through what appears to be some sort of industrial/oil refinery complex. Hopefully the driver of that flatbed got fired for all those unsecured barrels he lost.
• Roger Rabbit Effect: "Lucy and Reno" shows the birds flying alongside real, live-action children.
• Scenery Porn: For CGI ranging from mid-1980s to early 1990s? Plenty.
• Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: The Salt and Pepper Shakers from "Night Magic": Salt inexplicably has a pearl necklace, and the Pepper has a bow tie.
• Word Salad Lyrics: "Anything Is Possible" seems to have been written as the lyricist was watching the edited footage.

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