What on Earth!

This animated short proposes what many earthlings have long feared -- that the automobile has inherited the planet. When life on Earth is portrayed as one long, unending conga-line of cars, a crew of extra-terrestrial visitors understandably assume they are the dominant race. While humans, on the other hand, are merely parasites. An Oscar® nominee, this film serves as an entertaining case study.

[sticksmcfly]

I've been wanting to see this again for about 35 years. Finally figured out the right keywords and found it. Thank you for this post!

[KingThrillgore]

"the National Film Board of Mars"

Clearly a respectable and creatively minded organization, aimed at promoting the Martian perspective of life.

[Autostade]

Made in 1966, this film cannily does an in-house riff on the great NFB film composer Eldon Rathburn. Note how the composer Don Douglas cleverly starts the film using the music from the 1960 multi-award winner 'Universe' for which Rathburn - possibly the most under-celebrated film composer ever to have worked in the medium - created a signature score.

[ChrisPollitt]

"Although Ford had taken great care to blend into Earth society, he had skimped a bit on his preparatory research, and thought that the name 'Ford Prefect' would be nicely inconspicuous. Ford had simply mistaken the dominant life form. The Ford Prefect was, in fact, a British car manufactured in the 1950s. When he first arrived on Earth, Ford was almost run over while attempting to greet a blue Ford Prefect."

[inactiveuser]

Dear Canadians, your sense of humour is wonderful.

[RQBtv]

This is a great little animation. Both surreal and all-too-real at the same time. Very sixties too, and because of the year it was produced (1966) it's in pristine shape for its' age!

[Unguided]

Your earthling has been crushed into a cube.

[WilliamC]

The headlights on the cars said.... "salted beans" 😂

[bjb]

My dad used to hire films from the local library and show them in the driveway for all us kids to see, we loved this in 1967, I've been searching for this for years, thanksss

[roboko]

Pretty much sums up most American cities. Built for the automobile, but not for humans.
Of course that is a European perspective.
To Americans the car means 'freedom' because you have access to nothing without one in America.

[psilopsybr]

Non-stop funny, very clever. And very revealing. I couldn't stop wondering how real aliens might view our obsession with these destructive balls of steel.

[vanessamurphy]

I love when the two cars shake their asses...

[Kidzneurosciencecenter]

Nearly 60 years later, this satire of North America's car dependency still remains completely relevant from start to end.

If only we would take our own history and learn from it.

[benpepin]

I used to borrow videotapes full of NFB shorts from the library. This was a heck of a trip back.

[tiptopsound]

You can tell it’s vintage by the narration. That era of voiceover artists is gone. I bet there is not one v/o actor left that sounds like that.

[bloxburg_girl_]

This is amazing! I love how they see that cars appear to have faces, and how the film is actually about marshians mistaking cars for humans! It’s amazing how true this would be if there were life on Mars. There might be, who knows?

[Robeykr]

I remember seeing this on the International Animation Festival hosted by Jean Marsh. It's really too bad they can't release the series on home video. The problem must be the tangle of different copyrights involved. This is a classic. Oddly enough, I remember George Vandeman using this story (not the film itself) as a parable in one of his IT IS WRITTEN broadcasts.

[Trendyflute]

I saw this once on cartoon network in the 1990s and it always stuck in my head. It's brilliant; now as an adult who has both been a car enthusiast but also a civil engineer and someone with an environmental conscience, I'm pulled in several directions about what transportation needs are, what the environment's needs are, and if possible with whatever's left, maybe some of us can enjoy our vehicles a bit...the tone this struck is brilliant, and so prescient and fresh from the 1960s!

[angelicamata]

I saw this as a kid and have been searching for it every few years online. It's so great to finally see it again!

[manwalkingfreakshow]

I remember seeing this on the TV show "Hocus Focus" back in the "mime" years of the kids' channel Nickelodeon. This one stayed with me for quite a while. Glad I could find it again. Well done, scientists of Mars, indeed.