Vibe like it’s your formative years again. You’re 15, and at the request of a cooler, older friend you dig up a series of slightly-pitched up streams of Fritz the Cat on Dailymothion. Or it’s the mid-2000s and you’re peeping Newgrounds animations during a middle school typing class, looking over your shoulder in order to tab over to your assignment.
andrewdude1’s “KEEP OFF THE GRASS” is as crass, rapid-fire, and aesthetically primal as any seminal D.I.Y. animation I’ve seen. The Ohioan artist employs retro squash-‘n-stretch movement, the minimal design and color palette of early web-cartoons, and the blissed-out psychedelia you’d associate with an Adult Swim bumper to a surprisingly cohesive effect. He carefully prunes his work to a visual and aural mumble, depicting exaggerated cartoon violence in the most understated tone possible. The result is alarmingly soothing — it’s as subtle as the police sirens that phase through a closed window, blending into the murmur of the cityscape outside.
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