Gary Larson's Tales from the Far Side
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Gary Larson's Tales From the Far Side is an animated short film created in 1994 by Gary Larson, based on his The Far Side comic strip. It was first shown as a Halloween special on US television, and later was awarded the Grand Prix at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival.
The film is loosely structured, jumping between several simple stories. Many of these situations use staple cliches of horror films, such as undead monsters and the dark and stormy night. The stories sometimes turn macabre, but are presented in a lighthearted fashion. They are mainly as those in the printed comic, including lots of background throwaway gags from well-known panels.
The characters and settings are all common to Larson's work, such as aliens, anthropomorphic animals and other objects, and cowboys in the Old West. The art style is essentially the same as that of The Far Side, though the film necessarily adds animation and sound effects.
The animation was completely made in Vancouver, Canada at the now defunct International Rocketship. It was directed by animator Marv Newland.
The film features an original music score by jazz guitarist Bill Frisell. Some of the compositions from the soundtrack are included on his album Quartet.
In 1997 it spawned a sequel, Tales From the Far Side II. Both films were released on VHS and DVD and can be purchased from The Official Far Side website but only by US citizens as they don't ship overseas.
It is worth noting that two versions of Tales From the Far Side were released. The original airing has a slightly different audio track. The final scene with Bob's Monster truck originally contained Exploding Kids. The later release contains, the less macabre, Garden Rakes.
