Canine excrement as an artistic metaphor

Doggy Poo

"This innovative DVD is a unique product that will help your child to understand some of life's sensitive problems. Your little one will have the opportunity to engage in this story while developing tolerance and an appreciation of nature. Doggy Poo lived on the side of the road and feels left all alone in this world. He believes that nobody needs him for anything and he is sad. Doggy Poo is searching for the meaning and purpose in his life. One day, Doggy Poo meets a lovely dandelion sprout who will help explain Doggy Poo's purpose in life.

Delightful cartoon animation and characters liven up the screen. Children will enjoy this product as it provides a platform for important conversation."

Well, children, this product sure is a platform for conversation alright. And an important one as well. So why not have it? :)

I heard about this Korean cartoon some time ago (see the Russian (foul-)language ;) blogger-review) and decided that it's pretty yucky but worth watching to widen cultural horizons. To the mixed feelings about the cartoon there added a host of prizes this piece of art has won:
-Telly Award Recipient: Telly Award Finalist awarded two "Bronze Telly" statuettes in the following categories:
^ Children's Audience
^ TV or Cable program - Children
- Gold Award Winner: National Parenting Publications Awards (NAPPA) 2004 Awards (Preschoolers)
- Best Kids Film: Spudfest Film Festival 2004
- Dr. Toy's Best Children's Vacation Products 2004
- Best Pilot Prize: The Tokyo International Anime Fair 2003
- The Best Pilot for Domestic & International Market: The Korea Culture & Contents Agency
- The Best Animation Prize: Donga LG International Festival of Comics, Animation Games 2003 - Excellence Award: Korea Cartoon, Animation & Character 2003
- Cartoons on the Bay 2003 : Selection of in the International Showcase in April 2003
- Big Apple Anime Fest 2003: Viewer's Choice Award

I decided to refrain from spilling my guts out on just the raw impressions, not having watched the picture. But after seeing it I can do nothing but agree with the creators on the fact that it really is "a philosophic and religious art piece" (a point of view revealed in an interview with the animators). Jokes apart, the Buddhist perspective as I see it revealed itself in utmost power. Remember, their references to muck and Buddha, and the wheels of rebirth and stuff... Mixed feelings still prevail though. Cultural axioms are shaken and re-evaluated. A miserable piece of seeing and talking doggy dung crying on a village road. A strong metaphor. New means of artistic self-expression and trying out fresh (*a-hemm*) daring forms. Allusions sparkle and vanish into disbelief.

It is not your direct and unsophisticated educational accounts of the kinds of poo expounded in children's books with cute language and lively pictures - the kind of which I stumbled upon when working in San Francisco's Union Square Borders Bookstore - and studied that printed word with surprise. Now, it's personified. It's not even the cheesy Mr.Hanky the Holiday Poo from South Park, - though it is the first parallel that comes to mind. (Duh, the picture of Mr.Hanky here is supposed to jump around... Well, imagine it is :))

'For everything, there is a reason for being'. Can't argue with this one. But here's what I've came up with after nervous giggles, peals of laughter and stifled sobbing at the end where the main hero find his (her? - to be more politically correct) glorious end in sublimation within the meaningful cycle of matter and life. Surprisingly, the following conclusion is somewhat in accord with my forsaken Ph.D. on cultural values (should I pick it up eventually?). The values attached to the phenomena of the exterior world are the products of human understanding, varied with time, place, development, surroundings or even deprivation. And these conventional values would not exist without their carrier - the human. Yep, something to think about.

For those unable to put your hands on this new symbol in philosophical animation, here's the online version of the cartoon - unfortunately only in Chinese.

But... What else is coming? I am not a great judge of all the things on the face of the Earth or their higher purpose, but I still have some conservative standards and am somewhat reluctant to shift my contemporary scale of what's decorous in art - at least as far as my own creativity is concerned. So far that is. ; ) But who am I to restrict artistic means of other demiurges? What's natural is not shameful. So should we now expect cinema heroes with profound subliminal messages, such as introspecting snivel? Snotty snot finding a purpose in free flying? Perky smegma discovering the outside world? Adventures of a curious pee? Dandruff in search of the meaning of brotherhood? I get the metaphoric part. BTW, knowing that at first Doggy Poo was a book, then a theatrical play and now a cartoon, to complete this cycle the next logical move would be to make a special-effects flick, with true-to-life visualization, where not people (like in a play), but computerized 3D sh*t broods over the vicissitudes of life and death, glaring around with tear-filled eyes.

It's a good cartoon