Jul
23
2007
Flash Animated Philosophy From South Park Creators
Trey Parker, one of the creators of South Park, was raised in Colorado, where his father attempted to teach him Buddhism. Now, years later, Parker and his animation pal Matt Stone have brought to life the teachings of Alan Watts, the comparative religion expert and philosopher. Under the FurryCarlos Productions banner, the two tapped South Park animators Chris Brion and Todd Benson to keyframe three of Watts’ recordings, which can be viewed below.
Life and Music
Prickles and Goo
Appling
I believe two more Watts recordings were animated by this team, but there are no credits - Madness and I.
Tags: South Park
July 23rd, 2007 at 9:21 pm
These are fucking brilliant!
July 23rd, 2007 at 11:04 pm
I’m with Sean: these animations are brilliant. As a teenager I read The Way of Zen by Alan Watts. Never heard the man speak. Had no idea he had such a great sense of humor - the book I read was rather dry.
July 24th, 2007 at 2:58 am
HA!
Funny and insightful. They’re nutty. I love this guy’s voice too.
July 24th, 2007 at 5:01 pm
Woah, English mysticism, get in! And he looks the part on his Wikipedia page too.
Kind of reminds me of Jake Thackray, though for no other reason than he also had a great voice and a wonderful turn of phrase.
July 24th, 2007 at 6:26 pm
PRICKLES not pickles
piece out
July 26th, 2007 at 10:58 pm
“Life and Music” is the best. I bet he author hangs out with Doglas Adam (Hitch Hikers guide to the Galxy).
July 27th, 2007 at 4:51 am
Superb.
There’s an Alan Watts podcast you can subscribe to, and I highly recommend it: http://www.alanwattspodcast.com/
July 27th, 2007 at 3:40 pm
these be cool
July 27th, 2007 at 9:31 pm
I agree, Life and Music is the best one. It made me angry because of all the time that I’ve wasted chasing illusory goals set up for me by a blind education system.
July 27th, 2007 at 9:46 pm
Matt & Trey Rock, and also Zen !
July 28th, 2007 at 9:59 pm
I love it!
Definitely going to look up more of this fellow.
PS- Soulkeeper, you missed the point.
July 29th, 2007 at 2:34 am
Where can we find more of these?
July 29th, 2007 at 10:05 pm
Ever hear of Roy Masters and the Foundation of Human understanding??? http://www.fhu.com
Same or similar schtick.
voxcox@msn.com
July 30th, 2007 at 6:20 am
Brilliant
July 30th, 2007 at 9:26 pm
The rocks that come alive are discworld trolls.
July 31st, 2007 at 4:58 am
I love these. I really enjoy how he cracks up as he laughs at the concept of a big crash of a chorus.
The best Watts book I’ve read is Tao: The Watercourse Way, where his sense of humour and wonder really shine through in the writing. Apparently he found real joy at the end of his life.
July 31st, 2007 at 3:41 pm
nothing special,,
August 5th, 2007 at 6:03 am
aw, way to kill it.
I think these’re pretty awesome. You can find the rest of them at http://www.freshminds.com/animation/alan_watts_theater.html
I like the last one on the page called “I” a lot too, it’s pretty funny. SOME of these animations don’t add a lot to the audio, but you’ve gotta respect them for doing something so cool and different.
August 5th, 2007 at 6:06 am
url got cut off:
http://www.freshminds.com/animation/
alan_watts_theater.html
August 8th, 2007 at 1:31 am
Perhaps we’re all starting to ‘get it!’…(there is hope)
An exciting time to be living on this planet.
August 15th, 2007 at 1:49 am
really makes you stop and think.
August 15th, 2007 at 11:17 pm
I really learned a lot from these. They’re funny and entertaining, but what leaves you with a good feeling after all of it is that they’re true.
August 27th, 2007 at 6:58 am
you can listen to Alan’s podcasts from his website
alanwatts.com
September 6th, 2007 at 3:28 am
Thanks for reminding me of the brilliance of Alan Watts’ recordings…It’s been a long time since WFMU played them at drive time.
Remember, the only way to do a sink full of dishes is one dish at a time….
September 6th, 2007 at 6:31 pm
yes, these are super!!! I agree with you!! The journey is what counts and not the destination!
Susan in italy
September 10th, 2007 at 7:55 pm
here is another at: http://www.yozef.com/theroom.html
December 5th, 2007 at 12:08 am
these are great. thanks for putting them up!
my favorite alan watts book is The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are.
December 14th, 2007 at 8:40 pm
fhu.com….foundation of human understanding..this reminded me a lot of Roy Master’s teachings. He is a brilliant man.
January 6th, 2008 at 10:43 am
these are fantastic!
January 8th, 2008 at 12:48 am
i thought it kinda sucked. animations were pretty good though
February 10th, 2008 at 11:56 am
- I\’m not exactly sure what this has to do with Disney dvd and video (that\’s what I was searching on MSN when I saw a link here), but I\’m glad I got a chance to read your blog. Thanks!!
April 2nd, 2008 at 6:06 am
[...] Posted by NaterGator By the way, this is great: The audio is an Alan Watts bit: Flash Animated Philosophy From South Park Creators | Cold Hard Flash: Flash Animation News, Videos a… I’ve heard a fair bit of his stuff, its pretty good. He died in the 1970s, I think. [...]
April 7th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
[...] Alan Watts - Flash animations Great flash animations with voice overs taken from Alan Watts’ famous lecture series. [...]
April 15th, 2008 at 9:08 am
hello my friends from across the seas and around the world all i have to say is wow alan watts is the shisnit. Well if your into flash animation checkout offthewall-productions.com
May 5th, 2008 at 11:02 pm
[...] on a couple motion pieces done on Alan Watts recordings ala South Park. Originally posted on Cold Hard Flash. For one the animation is great, I think Trey and Matt would approve. I am not sure who made these [...]
May 18th, 2008 at 9:22 am
[...] от создателей South Park можно посмотреть на сайте coldhardflash.com. И один мультик перевёл Дмитрий Честных [...]
May 29th, 2008 at 10:25 am
Check out the Pacifica Radio (KPFK in LA)archives at:
http://www.pacificaradioarchives.org/search/search.php?PHPSESSID=76ecdeacd7a0a9247c40ce660e0b6a74&QI0=Alan+Watts&QI2=
For a huge collecion of Alan Watts talks. He’s a great Buddhist “splainer” and a South Park creations are perfect vehicles for slaining Watts’ take on Buddhism.
June 21st, 2008 at 5:24 am
[...] Filosofie s kapkou southparkovské břitkosti [...]