Mr-Fusion This must be what tripping balls feels like. "Quasi at the Quackadero" paints a world of . . . well, it's like "Yellow Submarine" on acid. The colors are vibrant, the character designs are macabre, and it starts to sear into your brain after a while. I'd seen this before (middle of the night, in a theater setting) and I don't think my assessment has improved with being fully alert. And it just seems to go on and on. I'm not really sure it it's arty or some deranged '70s children's show, but I'm not getting the joke. 5/10

Hitchcoc This is one of those things that defies description. Some sort of outrageous critter and his two pals go to the Quackadero, which is some sort of amusement park. There aren't the usual rides. Instead it's a trip inside the head of these people. One is a hall of mirrors where you can see yourself ten years from now or one hundred years from now. The latter is simply a decomposed skeleton. Another brings dreams to life. It's raucous and pretty senseless, but it vibrates with energy. It reminded me a bit of "Yellow Submarine." The animation is good and the characters really unique. There is a plot line that features the female of the group wanting to get rid of Quasi. But beyond that it's the carnival acts.

tavm Just watched this Sally Cruikshank animated short on YouTube. Recently awarded the United States National Film Registry list by the Library of Congress, this film has the title character of Quasi invited to go the the Quackadero by his girlfriend along with a little buddy. Lots of weird and wonderful things happen when they go to this place and they're not very easy to describe though if you're a fan of many '30s animation that came from the Max Fleischer studios, you may have a really tripping good time watching this, at least I did. The music also seems to be from the period I just mentioned and, well, just watch the thing if you're in the mood. Okay, so once again this thing is on YouTube...

scrabbler Wonderful, psychedelic short film about a lazy guy (Quasi) who fritters his time away at the Quackadero, which is a kind of crazy carnival. I last saw it in Cambridge at a little place called Off the Wall that showed really obscure short films. As I remember it, the animation is reminiscent of The Simpsons or Jonathan Katz - sort of shaky lines. The film was very atmospheric and kind of took you back to the early 70s. One of the funnier "exhibits" was the Past Lives Pavilion, where people could go to relive things that supposedly happened to them in earlier lives. I remember one poor guy with his wife watching himself in some kinky hotel room or something and saying at the end, "That never happened to me!" And yes, Sally did make several of the Sesame Street cel animated shorts. You can get her other films on a DVD from her website, funonmars.