I caught it last year (my Junior year of high school) when my AP US History teacher played duck and cover for us. I remembered atom ant when watching it.
As a kid I had no idea of the ramifications of this Atom Ant promo. He just single handedly stopped mutual Atomic destruction and defeated the four horseman of the apocolyps.
Since there's only three of them I think it actually refers to the nuclear triad rather than the horsemen of the apocalypse: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_triad
@@muzzleflash2483 The man is only riding one horse. And since the man has only 3 heads (not 4) I'm pretty sure it's not a reference to the four horsemen.
"It is such a big explosion. There is no time to sit around or wait. It can smash in buildings without any warning..." This line always gives me chills.
VideoGameFan15 The Autistic Sword-Swallower heck no. Like the 1st reply on this comment said, the voice recordings were all from a Cold War instructional video telling people how to react in the event of a nuclear attack. They're so nonchalant and unassuming in tone when talking about the extinction of humanity that it's just utterly disturbing. Give the Cold War vids a watch sometime if you ever want to be creeped out.
The first horseman has some pretty deep symbolism. The three heads are a reference to Hobbes leviathan which is a social contract theory based on a power keeping men in check and ensuring security. The leviathan supports the ideas of nuclear deterrence and mutually assured destruction through the fact that the bombs are so dangerous that no one will want to use them. This is why the leviathan is seen trying to sell smiley faces to people on the streets. He wants people to feel happy and secure and he does this by bragging about how dangerous the nukes are. The 2nd horseman is straight forward and the 3rd one seems to speak on environmental issues as gas is emitted and he shoots flame Hazard symbols, however I could be wrong. The fourth horseman is also straightforward but notice he only plants bombs on the nations that own nukes. As far as I know those 4 nations (Britain France US Russia) were the only nuke owning states at the time of atom ants running.
The third horseman certainly seems to represent the evolution of industry during (and perhaps even after) the cold war; it has a body made of buildings, automobiles for feet, a rocket booster for its left thigh, a smokestack for a hat, a grand clock for its eye, and what appears to be a water tower for a nose, (it could also be sputnik, which would indicate its part in the space race). It was around this time that rapid industrial growth was really starting to take its toll on the world at large.
I'm guessing they're supposed to be, in this order: Conquest, War, Pestilence and Death. I don't know if there's a clear connection between the smile salesman and conquest, but the rest are alot more straight forward in that regard.
Pretty much, the music at the beginning, the paper craft style, and the steam monster thing at 1:00 are what freaked me out. Plus, I was like 10 when I first saw this.
These were good times. Before the rent. Before the debt. Before the drugs and before the agonizing paralysis from my fractured spine. Lets go back. Please God?
I just realized something. Atom Ant may have prevented all those bombs from going off, but he failed to take down the criminal that was responsible for planting those bombs there to begin with. O_o
Wing Adept well that and he up and outright murdered whoever was in charge of that tank. Oh and he never stopped the bloodthirsty warlord that ordered the tank around in the first place.
The Atom Ant used to scare me, but I stopped being afraid of it at some point. And then I realized that Atom Ant is capable of stopping what seems like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Incredible.
This terrified me when I was little, especially bc it always came on late at night. I mean, it’s still kinda freaky, but now I appreciate the art and the effort that went into making it
Jonas Odell, the shorts creator, is quite known for his unique blend of animation styles in his other works. He did the Jabberjaw Groovie as well as the Josie and the Pussycats one called Musical Evolution. I recommend you check them out. You'll see some similarities in animation styles.
The guy who directed this shirt, Jonas Odell, won a PromaxBDA award for Best Mixed Media animation for this. He was also responsible for the other Cartoon Network Groovies of Jabberjaw, and my favorite one Josie and the Pussycats in Muscal Evolution.
Out of all the shorts this one is still my favorite. Mainly because even though I was raised in the 2000's I grew up with a cold war nostalgia. I always loved the idea of atomic energy and this one always hit me close to home. I miss the old Boomerang/Cartoon Network..
Funnily enough after watching this after over a decade i thought to myself "the music reminds me of aqua teen for some reason" only to find Michael Kohler is a composer for Aqua Teen Hunger Force.
When I first saw this on TV, I admit I had no idea about the deeper themes of this short. The Four Horsemen motif and nuclear bomb threats went completely over my head. "This is very, very important."
I remember not really liking this bumper when I was younger, but now I love it. I love how the music, visuals, and narration all work really well together.
Lakashia Williams Yeah, it's like they predicted for these things to happen in the world (or they were just echoing what was really going on in the world during that time).
Animation Bliss! probably one of the reasons its creepy is the fact that the narrator talking is taken from one of those old film they showed people in the 60s to tell them of the dangers of nuclear weapons. you know one of those old duck and cover videos.
Jonathan Vasquez Please elaborate Because to my knowledge the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse were Conquest (or Pestilence depending on the translation), War, Famine and Death (unless we're talking about the game Darksiders)
Violet thebat Not really predictions, common strategic knowledge when it comes to nuclear war is to target major cities as they have the most people which will give you the most casualties.
This terrified me as a kid. I was, unfortunately, informed about atomic bombs when I was way too young, and so I understood exactly what this short meant.
+UnwantedStudios3 Lol this is a guess but are you asking this satirically to make fun of 90% of the other comments saying "fun fact, this is from a cold war psa yadda yadda" or are you actually asking because you don't know?
there were so many wild sensibilities in the cartoon network groovies that perfectly applied to the shows and how they remembered. the 90's and the early 2000's were probably the time that CN was the most forward looking when it came to animation and aesthetic
This short was always super boring and long to me when I saw it on boomerang. Now it’s surprisingly one of my favorites, aesthetic wise at least, mainly because of what they were able to get away with using symbolism.
its so crazy that cartoon network used to do such creative promos with music and animation that im still awestruck over all these years later. to give such original and amazing things for a channel directed at kids, not undermining what entertains them, seems almost unreal, now. it felt nice when an entire channel seemed to love cartoons just as much as their viewers.
Thats not subliminal messaging, that is called "Symbolism" its a literary and entertainment technique to add depth to work and give it more meaning. Certainly it can be subtle, but its not anything insidious.
i don't know why peope hets scared for this, you must remember the original Aton Ant show was on air in the 60's, and the cold war was for 1947 to 1991, I always liked watching this on T.V.
Didn't realize how much of a bad ass he was. Literally speaking, he basically pulled off an Ironman/batman with carrying the nuke into space. Atom ant, atomic bad ass.
i like how the horseman of death has the same design for when he places bombs in most of the countries, but looks stereotypically french when he places one near the eiffel tower
My birthday is tomorrow and watching all the groovies are making me cry! God we've came a really long way! Now I understand what my mom said about loving these days, ur going to miss the hell out of them!!!!!
i used to like never hearing the “we must all get ready now” and i never understood the concept of Atom Ant. i just waited for my show to be aired and not pay too much attention. now i love this, i listen to it on loop at times.
As a kid these the concepts shown flew over my head and I just appreciated music (it helps that it’s a remix of the original Atom Ant theme song.) now as an adult I appreciate the imagery even more, especially how the whole video aside from the final bits is a whole reference to the intro of the Atom Ant show. Even down to the bit of Atom lifting weights before giving the robot the smackdown.
I always loved this. When Cartoon Network became CN, I used to think of this as Cartoon Network's warning to viewers about the impending doom. He, the hero ("His job is to help protect us!"): Boomerang New Danger: Current CN The "Bright Flash" or the Atomic Bomb: The conglomeration of new shows that will flood the network. Boomerang is the hero that helped save some of the old Cartoon Network. Oh how I miss the 1997-2002 period. That was it's peak
@@monster-mecha_enthusiast_2002 Duck Dodgers was awesome. Love that show to bits. I agree it had it's good moments beyond 2002, but 11 years ago, I didn't think as rationally. Personally, I think it was at its best around that time range, maybe extended a few years. 1995 - 2005 possibly.
