DumbLand

I'm gonna tip the scales here a bit and say I enjoyed this. However, the cartoon is really only going to appeal to those who have very absurdist tendencies. It's definitely something that most people will not get, as is the nature of absurdism.

the animation is horrible, but yes, that's the point. The main character is foul mouthed, violent, and stupid. no redeeming qualities whatsoever. his wife shrieks and wails, apparently just barely capable of the most basic communication skills. most of these stories completely lack any kind of point.

but again, that's the point ;)

If non sequiters, foul language, and complete and utter randomness are your thing, you're going to love this.

It is really short, so I would probably rent instead of buying.

Since September of last year, I have been borrowing four to six films each week from the Harold Washington Library, which boasts an impressive DVD collection. (The HWL truly is a circulating library: three-quarters of its films are out at any given time!) Recently, I was thrilled to find The Short Films of David Lynch. Yesterday, knowing little about the animated series, I picked up Dumbland. I'm here to report that, for David Lynch fans, watching the eight episodes is half an hour well-spent.

The most remarkable feature of these brief pieces are their soundtracks. Each episode has its own rhythm. Respiratory and digestive systems provide percussion. Outrageous voices accent pauses' ends. Physical violence supplies the beats. Chirping birds and buzzing sockets brush along the edges. Many other elements fill out the orchestra. The pacing of the crude animation often keeps in sync with the sound, but the soundtrack itself struck me as Lynch's primary interest in creating and disseminating this work. In a way, these eight shorts are unique Lynchian rhythms.

That said, the situations are odd, ugly, profound, dumb and funny as hell. And there's enough space within them to reflect on how absurd we humans can be. I can't say that I'll watch the collection again, but for anyone who revelled in the movements that is the suite Inland Empire, Dumbland is worth half an hour of your time.

In April 2017, I watched all the eight episodes of this American black comedy cartoon on YouTube and it is the most bizarre and disturbing cartoon I've ever seen!

It's about a caveman-like man who lives in a house along with his frazzled wife and squeaky-voiced son.

Randy's son Sparky looks like an extraterrestrial.

His wife has terrible problems.

The style of this animation is basically a child's drawing.

I picked up the "Dumbland" DVD around this time last year, despite the poor marks other sites had given it. I consider myself a David Lynch fan, even though his output has been erratic (in terms of both quality and content) over the past three decades. The first time I watched "Dumbland," I was dumb-founded and more than a little angry at the end of its 33 minutes--the animated series of 8 short episodes, previously available only to paying members of Lynch's website, was a total wash...awful sound, awful stories, and probably the worst animation known to man (at least a child's flipbook of drawings wouldn't cause a migraine). Near the end, I was semi-entranced by the dancing ants who sing a taunting song at our obnoxious, white-trash 'hero,' thinking a little of Lynch's bizarro craft was clawing at the surface. Foregoing a review then, I decided to watch the DVD a second time before giving an opinion. (I know Lynch well enough to realize his films often play better upon repeated viewings.) Well, the time has come. One year later, "Dumbland" is...still not that great, but a little better than my initial viewing. I don't care what pretentious justifications you have for this fitting into the Lynch Pantheon of Strange, its (clearly deliberate) efforts to be a subversive, "anti-entertainment" come across as obnoxious all the same: not only is the animation horrible, it is incredibly abrasive on the 'ol eyes (the white is so bright, in fact, that it is like watching black squiggles dance on a fluorescent lightbulb); and the sound mix is also poor, with the 'hero's screams louder than any other character. Again, I have no doubt that Lynch intended ALL of this, but if this is his new tactic of alienating audiences, it's pretty lame to stoop to aural/visual abrasion for its own sake.

That being said, the first 2-3 episodes have a certain quirky humor that is not apparent upon an initial viewing--trouble is, the gags (along with that damned animation) become VERY repetitive after that. Lynch's imagery of suburbia is crude and bizarre, including a panicked, scarecrow-haired wife; an androgynous embryo of a child; a blood-vomiting uncle; duck-f*cking neighbors; ants with attitudes; smiling flies; and tanks driving down the street, among other strange happenings. All of this is pure Lynch, and while "Dumbland"'s crudity doesn't merit "Eraserhead"-style analysis and debate, it ultimately makes for a low-budget, low-class, low-expectation, and low-level hypnotic experience (though that could just be attributable to the spiral that starts each episode).

The amount of times the central character brings up the concept of hypothetically defecating in his own backyard... beautiful.