Techno-Cracked | |
Director: | Ub Iwerks |
Animator: | Shamus Culhane |
Music: | Carl Stalling |
Producer: | Pat Powers |
Distributor: | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
Country: | United States |
Color Process: | Black and White (black-and-white) |
Runtime: | 8 minutes |
Language: | English |
Techno-Cracked is a 1933 Celebrity Productions, Inc. animated short, directed by Ub Iwerks and featuring Flip the Frog.[1]
In this satire of the Technocracy, Flip the Frog is nearly killed by a menacing robot he builds to work for him.
Flip would rather not mow the lawn. He reads an article from "Unpopular Mechanics" entitled "Technocracy: Why be a Slave - The Mechanical Man Works While You Sleep". Flip makes his robot out of household parts but gives it a Jack-o'-lantern for a head. The mechanical man cannot follow directions and begins mowing down everything in sight. Flip blows up the robot with a stick of dynamite and finishes the lawn by himself.
When the robot mows the welcome mat it reveals the word Nerts, a possible reference to either the card game or to a popular expression of the time -- "nertz". Some have speculated that Techno-Cracked may have been photographed in two-strip Technicolor.