“Kill Me Now”: An Artist’s Plea For Help?

By
on

Apparently, somebody wasn’t having a good time on the production of Illumination Entertainment’s The Lorax.

(via Aryeh David Zucker on Cartoon Brew’s Facebook page)

Also in Cartoon Brew...

  • Burger Ad Bliss

    whopperad

  • Illumination Plans
    CG Remake of “How
    the Grinch …

    grinch-illumination

  • Animation Dominates
    the Top 20 Highest
    Grossing …

    brave-promo
  • http://zeteos.blogspot.com/ mick

    become an animator they said, it’s a man’s life they said, three square meals a day… It would have all been fine but for that indomitable accountant’s village

  • wever

    I’m more surprised at how it took people THIS LONG to spot it!

  • Kyle B

    I thought the joke was supposed to be that the kid wasnt enjoying being forced into family game time.
    Leave it to Amid to assume it was an artist’s manifestation of depression and nothing else.

    • feep

      LOL Amid, come on. It’s an intentional gag.

      But no yeah, someone on production seriously hates his job so much and is being mistreated so harshly that he placed this message that got past all the lighting, effects, animation and rendering passes, screenings and more, as a cry for help. Yeah.

      • http://zeteos.blogspot.com/ mick

        In fairness, if this is an intended gag, it is pretty well hidden. A first year animation student could stage it better. If there is a screen grab of the joke more prominently displayed I’d agree it was intentional.

      • Trevor

        This would be the exact type of gag that probably had a longer shot to point it out better, but was cut for time. Or some exec thought it was too complicated for a general audience to understand. So now you have this subtle gag that not many people will see, and an internet that over-analyzes it

  • MovieRatIan

    I think the joke is that’s what the lead kid character had spelled since he didn’t want to play this…ball Scrabble game in the movie. I hated this film but that explanation seems a lot more likely than an animator revolting in some sneaky way (more likely, not impossible, it’s not like I’m the guy that hid it).

  • http://www.elliotelliotelliot.com Elliot Cowan

    That’s how I felt watching it.

    • wever

      You can save this image and repost it whenever you’re discussing online about a movie you hated watching!

  • Mister Twister

    This is BRILLIANT.

  • Bud

    Reminds me of the “Cheney” shotgun shells the old lady in Ratatouille used at the beginning of the film.

  • Taco Wiz

    ..I made it onto Cartoon Brew.

    I feel like a celebrity.

    • axolotl

      Yeah, don’t lie. IT WAS ME.

      • Ju-osh

        I am Spartacus!

      • http://dailygrail.com/ Red Pill Junkie

        I’m Keyzer Soze!

  • http://www.moviecappa.blogspot.com Mike Caracappa

    It’s an amusing thought, but considering the hundreds of people in production this goes by I think someone would of pointed it out if it weren’t intentional.

    • Kyle Maloney

      Despite that many eyes on any given production its not impossible for things to slip by.
      Case in point.
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5I5UyBkBNY

      I know its not a hidden message, but you would think something That obvious would have been caught, but nope. Lee Unkrich was surprised when I pointed it out to him.

  • larry

    You can sneak stuff into hand drawn shows but it has to be like 3 frames on ones at the longest.

    • Chris Sobieniak

      That’s usually the case. When it’s on the screen longer than that, you know it was probably planned that way or such.

  • Owen Kent

    We do this stuff at work in advertising all the time.

    Just drawing a penis or a rude word on a prop will get you in trouble- the trick is to make two panning objects overlap awkwardly to reveal the hidden message (or penis), while their individual textures are completely innocent when viewed alone

  • Gobo

    The kid was bored out of his skull while playing endless board games with his family — thus, KL ME NOW. Kinda like me while watching THE LORAX.

  • Jody Morgan

    Maybe it’s supposed to be “key lime now”?

    Mmm, key lime pie…

  • bones

    I’m waiting for people to spot the stuff I wedged into every piece of crap I worked on!

  • Pedro Nakama

    So I guess if you’re not a sheep.. ahhh I mean Facebook member, you can’t read it.

  • anonymous

    When will the Lorax be out on dvd?

  • Aymanut

    Seriously, there’s no way that this made it past all stages of production if it was from disgruntled employee. It’s just a gag.

  • Ryoku75

    I think its a visual gag, something a bit rare these days.

    • Chris Sobieniak

      We need more of that I feel. It gives you more time to sample those inner details than to just swim by carelessly.

  • Jody Morgan

    “Top Post”?