Generations grew up on Saturday morning cartoons and Disney classics, but the world of animation is maturing towards older audiences — giving rise to open psychedelic imagery and discussion. Though the current psychedelic renaissance allows shows like Rick and Morty or The Midnight Gospel to freely invite audiences along on the hallucinatory trip, cartoons throughout history have leaned on psychedelics experiences as inspiration. Defining what is psychedelic and what is not is a subjective decision, but mind-expanding and visually stimulating experiences appear across decades of cartoons and continue to impact current psychedelic animation.
Why Do We Have Psychedelic Cartoons?
Psychedelic hallucinations are easily communicated through animation. How else would someone mimic the swirling distorted colors and morphing objects experienced while hallucinating on psychoactive substances? Animation lends itself to bizarre and otherworldly visual manipulations, making psychedelic imagery prevalent in generations worth of beloved cartoons. Cartoons are also an arena where behavior deemed inappropriate to show in the flesh, like using substances or being sexualized, can be freely expressed in cartoons. Buckle up to explore this trippy history of psychedelic cartoons.
Dumbo
Starting in the early 1900s, animation grew popular as adult entertainment, much too expensive and new-fangled for children. During World War II, cartoons helped create wartime imperialist propaganda for adult audiences and military members. In 1941, in the midst of producing 32 propaganda films for the US government, Walt Disney released the notably psychedelic, Dumbo. During the low point of the movie, Dumbo, separated from his mother and ostracized from the other elephants, decides to drink some water that unbeknownst to him has alcohol in it. After Dumbo and his mouse friend gulp down the tainted water, they proceed to have a vivid hallucination of pink elephants on parade.
The elephants first appear as bubbles and transform into bizarre and somewhat sinister distortions, morphing from elephants to bulbous masses all while performing in a cacophonous orchestra. Apart from the mixing patterns, strobing background and popping neon colors the scene serves a psychedelic purpose. As the audience accompanies Dumbo on his overwhelming visual trip they also experience the ending relief as the elephants dissipate into comforting sunrise clouds. During his trip, Dumbo experiences his first flight, though he cannot recall it, and the story shifts away from bleak reality and towards hopeful imagination.
The pink parade of elephants serves a mind and plot expanding purpose. It distorts the already overwhelming realities of everyday life into colorful fantasma that pushes the boundaries of what is possible, allowing a depressed elephant to fly.
Yellow Submarine
Legal psychedelic substances saturated the 1960s music scene, clearly depicted in The Beatles’ 1968 film The Yellow Submarine. The team of animators drew inspiration from pop art and used colorful kaleidoscope patterns to draw audiences’ eyes and attention throughout the hour-long musical film. The animated Beatles, voiced by actors for the majority of the film, live happily as “Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” in a colorful underwater countryside. Happy in their yellow submarine, nestled next to tall blue mountains, the crew explores music in harmony until one day the music-hating Blue Meanies attack. Expelled from their home that is now drained of color and creative freedoms, they embark on a journey seeking connection and healing. Eventually, they come together united and bring color back to their old home even making peace with the Blue Meanies.
The Beatles admittedly experimented with psychedelic substances and their artistic branding leaned on psychedelic visuals. In both their lyrics and in Yellow Submarine, the Beatles paint an absorbing narrative complete with otherworldly landscapes and explorations of love and life. Apart from the meshing of many animation styles, strobing neon flowers and hypnotic patterns, the film brings the audiences along on a visual psychedelic trip. The audience is included in the story — the film ends with a singalong — and therefore is sucked into the trippy world of The Beatles.
Mission: Magic!
The 1970s marked the beginning of the crackdown on psychedelic substances in the United States. Despite best efforts to eradicate psychoactive substances from the public consciousness, they remained largely inspirational into the following generations. By the ’70s cartoons reigned supreme with youth audiences and animators flocking toward children’s content.
In 1973, Australian musician Rick Springfield was desperate to burst his way into the pop music market. What better way than a children’s cartoon complete with musical numbers and wacky adventures? Mission: Magic! only ran for 16 episodes but created a blueprint for shows built around a kooky teacher taking her students on various educational adventures. In Mission: Magic! Miss Tickle uses a magical gramophone to transport her students on different trips where they work together to solve mysteries. The intro and musical numbers are wild: characters flash between different neon colors, spin and fly around the screen and Springfield’s guitar emanates spinning hypnotic spirals. Here again, we see the psychedelic imagery paired with story arcs, acting as a vehicle for the audience to journey alongside the characters.
Heavy Metal
The 1980s marked the beginning of a cartoon renaissance. Shows like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Transformers and Care Bears sold millions of dollars worth of merchandise as television producers worked to capitalize on the children’s market. Apart from making money, the boom in animated shows began expanding the possibilities for cartoons. Music videos had long utilized animation and in 1981, the popular music magazine Heavy Metal inspired an animated series that brought together a star-studded cast and iconic soundtrack. While children’s cartoons were profitable, this American-Canadian collaboration was anything but kid-appropriate. Not only are psychoactive substances consumed in the film, but the fantastical galactic setting also allows characters to explore death and morality in new and expansive ways.
The plot centers around a green glowing orb known as the “sum of all evils” and contains all the dysfunction and chaos of societies throughout time and space. As the orb continues to grow larger and more powerful there is a final battle between good and evil inspiring a fallen warrior race to rise again. These explorations of morality and mortality often go unacknowledged in a society full of people simply trying to get through each day. Apart from the trippy animation, the explorations of life’s biggest questions in a setting free from the bounds of reality are similar to the dissociation and processing associated with psychedelic experiences.
The Simpsons
The market for more mature cartoons blossomed in the 1990s, spurring the rise of TV networks dedicated solely to cartoons. Though Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon focused primarily on children’s content this surge made waves in adult animation with shows like King of the Hill and Beavis and Butthead hitting the air. Even on network television, psychedelic experiences and visualizations came to life through the timeless characters of The Simpsons.
In 1993, during their fourth season, Lisa Simpson drinks carnival ride water and proceeds to have a terrible hallucination. Only a year later Marge drinks some water tainted by a rival town and sees the kitchen walls melting and that night’s dinner roast opening the oven door and professing to be overcooked. Some speculate that this is an LSD gag and it would not be far off, considering the Simpson’s writers frequently reference cannabis and other psychoactive substances.
One of the trippiest episodes in Simpson’s history is season eight episode nine where Homer eats the world’s spiciest chili pepper and proceeds to embark on a mysterious trek complete with melting faces and a coyote spirit guide — voiced by Johnny Cash. Just as previous cartoons used psychedelic trips as a vehicle for a character’s journey towards understanding, Homer’s chili-induced voyage leads him to have a better understanding of his love for Marge.
SpongeBob Squarepants
By the early 2000s, Cartoon Network created Adult Swim, a late-night show of cartoons meant for adult audiences. Shows like Robot Chicken and Family Guy were able to explore mature topics but some of the most psychedelic cartoons of the 2000s remained in children’s programming.
Though it first aired in 1999, SpongeBob Square Pants really hit its stride in the 2000s. Generations of children know who lives in the pineapple under the sea. One of the most memorable trippy scenes is in the inaugural season: Squidward’s desperate attempts to avoid hanging out with Patrick and SpongeBob end up taking him on a journey through time and space ultimately teaching him the value of presence.
While traveling through time and space, Squidward gets stuck in an in-between dimension. Here the screen strobes to different colors as he rockets through a spiral into an abyss of white nothingness. Ambient voices whisper that he is alone and small colorful squares morph into the world around him. This isolation is uncomfortable, especially for a kid’s show, but brings into question universal needs for companionship.
Adventure Time
In the 2010s, Cartoon Network pushed the boundaries of youth animated programs, putting out shows that defied the stereotype of simplistic kids cartoons. In 2010, Pendelton Ward created the multiverse of Adventure Time. The show follows a boy and his dog on an adventure throughout fantastical worlds battling against the ever-strengthening forces of evil. Not only is the animation full of colorful blobs morphing into creatures, characters who stretch and twist beyond the realities of everyday life, and kingdoms made of candy, it explores larger questions of meaning and the roots of division. Psychedelic cartoons do not always involve consuming substances. Watching a single episode of Adventure Time is a trippy experience and following the plot through its entirety is an existential journey.
Rick and Morty
Today, psychedelic cartoons are more prevalent than ever, partially because society is more aware and accepting of the expansive power of psychedelic experiences. Shows like The Midnight Gospel openly discuss psychedelics and animate visuals that bring the audience along into new and experimental frames of mind. One of the most popular psychedelic cartoons is Rick and Morty, where Rick and his grandson Morty travel the dimensions of the universe meeting aliens, fight hierarchical systems and develop their relationship as a family. In the second season, Morty encounters a gaseous being, voiced by Jemaine Clement, that brings Morty into its cloud and through the delicate spirals of the universe, all while singing a David Bowie-inspired ballad “Goodbye Moonman.”
As Morty’s body gets sucked into a rotating pinwheel, his skin sheds, molding him into a mass of pink ribbons only to reform as a human butt farting out the very same gaseous cloud responsible for this hallucination. The song echoes, “the worlds can be one together cosmos without hatred.” The scene ends as Morty’s suspended head spills rainbow waterfalls out of his mouth, the cloud singing: “and everything is one in the beauty.”
The combination of music, messaging and visuals paint an immersive psychedelic landscape that brings along a novel frame of mind. Hallucinogenic imagery and experiences provide inspiration for animators and artists alike. Psychedelic cartoons can help audiences get deeper into the plot, setting and frame of mind needed to enjoy a piece of art.
What are some of your favorite psychedelic cartoon moments? We would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. If you’re into psychedelic television and film, make sure to subscribe to our newsletter for updates on the latest content.
