It’s hard for any public figure in the midst of their glory days to imagine a time when they won’t be adored, feted or valued beyond measure, when the spotlight will move on to younger, more beautiful souls and they will be left alone in the dark, railing against the dying of the light, much like Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard who famously proclaimed “I am big. It’s the pictures that got small.”
And now thanks to the marvellously imaginative talents of Steven Cutts we know it happens to even beloved animation figures too.
In this hilarious and yet desperately poignantly sad piece of animation, we find out that time has well and truly moved from Jessica and Roger Rabbit whose passionate love affair has devolved into an endless procession of fried chicken meals, and by the sounds of Jessica’s gravelly voice, a raging nicotine habit, Skeletor (now a call centre drone trying to sell life insurance policies; oh the irony), ALF (now a minimum wage worker at The Chicken Palace, Jessica’s home away from home) and even Dastardly Dolittle and Mutley who are now running a food van selling burgers.
Life isn’t pretty, a welter of vanished stardom, failed dreams and non-existent animation work, and you can help but feel sorry for once-beloved characters as they struggle to live life far from the celebrity lives they once led.
Only He-Man, who seems to have owned up to his true sexuality, seems to have escaped unscathed, living the high life, and naturally enough, the designer of a range of lingerie.
It’s an inspired, incredibly clever look at the passing of time through the eyes of many of our favourite characters, one that will hopefully remind us not to turn to excessive chicken consumption in our declining days.