Rushio Moriyama offers viewers a rollercoaster ride back to the style of 1920s with a pair of creatures attempting to steal a masterpiece worth $1M.
Macky and Eucky in Midnight Gallery (2015) is an eight-minute short by Rushio Moriyama that pays tribute to American animation from the 1920s and ‘30s. The cartoon is largely colored in black and white and has no dialogue; however, its use of jazz, classical compositions and nostalgic sound effects certainly make up for any character's inability to speak.
The short follows two creatures (Macky and Eucky) and their attempt to steal a piece of artwork from a gallery that’s worth $1 million. As they sneak through the facility after opening hours, the pair must avoid detection by several security guards and cameras that line its various rooms and halls. However, as one might suspect, the thieves aren’t as prepared as they should be and end up causing more and more chaos as the night progresses.
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Macky and Eucky in Midnight Gallery harks back to classic rubber hose animation of the 1920s. American cartoons such as Felix the Cat, Betty Boop, Popeye and even early works by Disney laid the foundation for this movement in which efficiency was prioritized. Without color, large sums of cash or the time needed to develop complex animation, American animators were forced to compromise and come up with innovative ways to make their characters both distinctive and easily duplicated.
Several factors make up this style’s aesthetic. The term ‘Rubber Hose’ is derived from characters lacking an underlying bone structure, which enables their limbs to bend and stretch into a multitude of shapes and sizes. This trait provides characters with an additional method of communication with the viewer, but also accentuates the comedic aspect of each cartoon as they’re able to perform in a way that would have been unexpected to the audiences of the time.
Rubber Hose animation would frequently employ the use of anthropomorphic animals and give its cast of characters only four fingers (or even fewer, in some instances) in an effort to save an animator time. While ‘pie-eyed’ (‘a pupil, notched with one highlight per eye’) characters would often be seen in the 1920s, Moriyama decided to use fuller and more expressive features within Macky and Eucky in Midnight Gallery. The Rubber Hose style would eventually fall out of favor after innovations were made by Disney, though there has been a minor revitalization of this movement with recent works such as Cuphead.
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Moriyama does a fantastic job of infusing his work with humorous and interactive moments. Both Macky and Eucky are compelling characters brimming with personality; despite their inability to speak, they manage to consistently engage with the viewer. Fourth-wall breaks are plentiful throughout the short, in which characters dial up or down the volume of the audience's YouTube player to highlight sneaky or alarming moments. At other intervals, viewers will likely begin to try and refresh their webpage when a loading circle begins to whirl midway through the cartoon's runtime. However, this intentional pause has been used to freeze the gallery’s security guards in place so Eucky can escape.
In combination with references to modern technology, these segments have brought the Rubber Hose style into the modern age and prevent Macky and Eucky in Midnight Gallery from simply being another carbon copy of cartoons from a bygone era. Moriyama has expertly allowed the action to flow from one scene to the next, which keeps the show's pace at a frantic level that will likely leave its audience wanting to rewatch it to catch any details they might have missed.
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While most animated shorts within this genre would leave the door open for a potential follow-up, Macky and Eucky in Midnight Gallery offers an ending that is more sinister and closed off than one might expect. Rather than our ‘heroes’ getting away with their dastardly act, they are instead captured by the paintings themselves, which come alive and enclose them into their canvases. The short's only technicolor scene is a marvel to behold and will almost certainly get any art lover excited, as famous works from Van Gogh to Picasso appear on the screen.
For anyone who enjoys American cartoons as much as they love Japanese anime, Macky and Eucky in Midnight Gallery is a must-watch. While its narrative and themes are uncomplicated, the short's animation style is so engaging that you’ll likely walk away with a craving for more. The Rubber Hose style may have fallen out of favor after the 1930s, but here’s hoping it will continue to reappear and eventually thrive in the future.
CBR Anime Features Writer Gregory Segal has been writing professionally for the last three years. In 2020, he would start his own platform, Mouthing Off Magazine, for aspiring young to gain experience within the world of journalism and have their works published. Today, Gregory works as a freelance writer who's favourite pastime is to read, research, and write about a variety of anime/manga and the themes they convey. You can follow him on LinkedIn or feel free email him at gregorysegal3@gmail.com.
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