Watch Fear And Loathing In Adorable, Animated Form

1A4Video delivers a new animated short based on a popular film, and proves that even rampant drug use and paranoia can be cute as a button.

Initially published in 1971, Hunter Thompson’s Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas was supposed to be a relatively standard political commentary, but the author’s gonzo style and history of consuming frankly heroic quantities of narcotics changed the tale into something of an important meditation on America’s self-serving, egocentric nature.

In 1998 Terry Gilliam adapted the novel into a film starring Johnny Depp and, well, let’s just say that the flick is better remembered as an entertaining piece of psychedelia with lots of swears and quotable moments than as required viewing for burgeoning counter-culture types.

You wouldn’t expect this decidedly adult nature to lend itself to an animated adaptation and yet that clip embedded at top-right is exactly that: A one minute vignette which retells the story of Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas via cutesypoo characters who are equally as likely to get hopped up on goofballs and destroy their lives in entertaining fashion as their big screen counterparts.

This clip comes courtesy of 1A4Video, a YouTube user/account that does this sort of thing with films that likewise seem ill-suited for animation. All of 1A4’s clips are great fun, but there’s just a certain dissonance to the idea of a cartoon based on Thompson’s work that makes me smile. Plus, I so rarely get to be high brow around here. It’s nice to have a chance to wear a monocle at work.

Source: Boing Boing