Hey so I know everyone says this, but you guys have an awesome site. Because of its awesomeness, I was compelled to share my own traumafession.
When I was a kid, my parents bought me this series of BBC animated Shakespeare movies. They probably thought that since they were animated, they were for children, right? So, so wrong. The Romeo and Juliet episode contained cartoon nudity and the Midsummer Night's one was even more sexual than that. But the one that sticks out to me the most would have to be the version of Macbeth.
This movie terrified me. I remember watching in rapt horror as the witches at the beginning changed their faces from old crones to horrible skeletons. The whole thing is pretty violent and dark but the worst scene for me was probably the scene where Macbeth kills Duncan.
That, or the scene where Lady Macbeth is doing her whole "unsex me" soliloquy. She is getting more and more frantic and then suddenly RIPS OPEN HER CHEST and some horrible beasts burst out! The animation is really beautiful and I'm sure this scene is supposed to represent all the hatred and lust for power inside her, but I was 6 and did not pick up on that just yet. Anyway, all of the episodes are pretty well done and they're fun to watch now but I still cringe when I see those scenes.
Pretty cool, yes, but as a kid I was not ready for that whole head-tearing-off thing.
Anybody else remember this show, or if there's a clip online somewhere?
I havent thought about this in years but I remember the family that lived across the street from me when I was a kid was Japanese and the three kids would play all these weird Japanese cartoons for me. Some had subtitles, some didnt (they would tell me what the people in the show were saying when there were no subtitles) and one of these movies was a cartoon ROMEO AND JULIET and it had cartoon nudity, which when you're a little kid is pretty shocking! We didnt know if the parents should be PROUD of us cuz we were watching The Bard or ashamed of us that we were watching Anime Soft-Core Porn!
I wonder if it was the same series dubbed into Japanese? Either that or every other country other than America is down with the naked and gore and we're just a bunch of freakin prudes!
The box set of these just took about 37 seconds to get on my Amazon wish list!
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And how about those voices? That's Zoe Wanamaker (Madame Hooch) as Lady Macbeth and Brian Cox (Mr. Kreeg from Trick 'r Treat, among others) as Macbeth…
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Now I'm gonna spend the rest of the day saying "The Scottish Play"…just to be safe.
WOW. I have been trying to find this movie for YEARS. I only saw the part with Lady Macbeth's soliloquy ( I must have been like seven at the time) and I just had to turn it off.
But it's been bugging me for years what movie it could have been. Thank you so much!