Jul 17, 2023

Get to Know Indie Filmmakers Sally Cruickshank

In this series, we present some of the most interesting independent animation artists working today. Through their short films and other projects, these artists are changing the way we think about what animation as a medium can do.

This week, we present the dynamic, blissfully outlandish, and often unknown work of legendary American animator Sally Cruikshank.

In paragraph: vivid, eye-popping graphics that blend outlandish stories and characters with fantasy and early cartoon iconography. Cruikshank's work is a crossroads of early animation, underground comics, and surrealism, exploring the medium to its fullest potential, giving us a world where anything is possible and traditional borders and boundaries do not exist. Many of today's animators could learn from her freewheeling work.

Where to Start: Quasi at the Quackadero (1975). The film that made Cruikshank a household name has not faded with the years. A cross between psychedelia, Fleischer, and Ub Iwerks, "Quasi" is a bizarre sci-fi tale about two ducks and a robot who go to a bizarre amusement park, where they dabble in reincarnation, time travel, and telepathy.

Next to watch: Make Me Psychic (1978). A hippie/psychedelic feel that stitches together surrealism and early animation.

Other notable films: "Coney Shoes" (1972), "Ruthless People" opening credits (1986), "Frog-Like Faces" (1987), "Out of Your Head" (Sesame Street, 1996)

: Max Fleischer, Winsor McKay, and Dr. Seuss

: "I think I have a different concept of movement than most other animators. What bothers me about many animators today is that they have learned the language from other animators. The same hand movements, the same 'blink, blink, blink' when a character asks a question. Many animators don't try to draw the dynamics of movement and use them creatively. I am not a very good animator, but I think I have a sense of movement that creates an offbeat worldview." ("The Short Life of Sally Cruikshank", Starlog Presents Comics Scene #7, January 1982)

Currently working on: Cruikshank is currently working on a gouache drawing, which can be seen on her Facebook page Her last animated film was Spongebob Squarepants. Her last animated piece was drawn for a segment of the "Sponge Bob" episode "The Legend of Boo-Kini Bottom" (2017).