Wormholes (found Stephen Hillenburg animated short film; 1992): Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 21:27, 29 May 2024

Title card

Status: Found

Date found: 08 Feb 2019

Wormholes is an animated short made by Stephen Hillenburg, best known for creating SpongeBob SquarePants. The short was made in 1992 while he was in the California Institute of the Arts (A.K.A CalArts) as a student for his thesis piece, and was funded by the Princess Grace Foundation.

Plot

There is not much of a concrete story in Wormholes. Hillenburg describes the short as a short about the theory of relativity and "relativistic phenomena". The short starts off with shots of molecules running through a fly's body when it pans away to someone driving down a street with abstract buildings, structures, and moving parts. The person later stops at a gas station, near a diner with people eating. There is a sign with multiple equations flashing, and it cuts back to the same shot of the car driving mentioned earlier, but progressively going faster and faster. The car then becomes thinner and thinner, and multiple equations can be seen in the sky until the car can be seen in its normal state driving down a road past multiple thin structures with faces. It then turns into a jackpot of strange lines and doodles, until it suddenly cuts back into the car with the fly, where it flies to the driver's watch. The fly is then seen in multiple equations around it until panning from the car. The short then ends with the footage flashing back between the world and one of the fly's eyes. The equations were real physics formulas used in the theory of relativity.^[1]

Availability

The film was shown at various film festivals, to critical acclaim, and even won an award at the Ottawa International Animation Festival for "Best Concept".^[2] It even received attention from sources like the LA Times and New York Times. Despite this, the film ended up lost, most likely because it wasn't intended to be viewed outside of CalArts and film festivals.

A student at CalArts that worked with Steven Hillenburg did have a copy, however, and gave it to one of his art students, Nick Smith. Smith then uploaded the video to his youtube channel, where he said in the description of the video that he thought it was a "necessary duty to the animation/Spongebob enthusiast communities, especially for the purposes of education and closure". Smith also announced that he uploaded the video on the subreddit r/obscuremedia.^[3]

Gallery

The full short.

External Links

Stephen Hillenburg's IMDb page, which mentions Wormholes. Retrieved 07 Apr '21
Stephen Hillenburg's Wikipedia page, which mentions Wormholes. Retrieved 07 Apr '21

References

↑ LA Times article on the short. Retrieved 07 Apr '21
↑ Ottawa International Animation Festival's 1992 winners, where Wormholes is mentioned. Retrieved 07 Apr '21
↑ Reddit post where Smith shared the short. Retrieved 23 Apr '21

[1] LA Times article on the short. Retrieved 07 Apr '21

[2] Ottawa International Animation Festival's 1992 winners, where Wormholes is mentioned. Retrieved 07 Apr '21

[3] Reddit post where Smith shared the short. Retrieved 23 Apr '21

[1]

[2]

[3]

@@ Line 2: / Line 2: @@
 |title=<center>Wormholes</center>
 |image=Wormholes_title_screen.png
-|imagecaption=Title
+|imagecaption=Title card
-|status=<span style="color:green;">'''Found'''</span>
+|status=<span style="color:green;">'''Found'''
-|datefound=8 Feb 2019
+|datefound=08 Feb 2019
-|foundby=[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCidPD6SA7gdhSwIGYOllLPA Nick Smith]
+|foundby=[https://youtube.com/channel/UCidPD6SA7gdhSwIGYOllLPA Nick Smith]
 }}
+'''''Wormholes''''' is an animated short made by Stephen Hillenburg, best known for creating ''SpongeBob SquarePants''. The short was made in 1992 while he was in the California Institute of the Arts (A.K.A CalArts) as a student for his thesis piece, and was funded by the Princess Grace Foundation.
-Wormholes is a animated short made by Stephen Hillenburg, most known for creating Spongebob Squarepants, and was made in 1992 while he was in the California Institute of the Arts (A.K.A CalArts) as a student for his thesis piece. The short was funded by the Princess Grace Foundation.
+==Plot==
+There is not much of a concrete story in ''Wormholes''. Hillenburg describes the short as a short about the theory of relativity and "relativistic phenomena". The short starts off with shots of molecules running through a fly's body when it pans away to someone driving down a street with abstract buildings, structures, and moving parts. The person later stops at a gas station, near a diner with people eating. There is a sign with multiple equations flashing, and it cuts back to the same shot of the car driving mentioned earlier, but progressively going faster and faster. The car then becomes thinner and thinner, and multiple equations can be seen in the sky until the car can be seen in its normal state driving down a road past multiple thin structures with faces. It then turns into a jackpot of strange lines and doodles, until it suddenly cuts back into the car with the fly, where it flies to the driver's watch. The fly is then seen in multiple equations around it until panning from the car. The short then ends with the footage flashing back between the world and one of the fly's eyes. The equations were real physics formulas used in the theory of relativity.<ref>[https://latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-may-21-ca-calarts21-story.html LA Times article on the short.] Retrieved 07 Apr '21</ref>
-== Plot ==
+==Availability==
+The film was shown at various film festivals, to critical acclaim, and even won an award at the Ottawa International Animation Festival for "Best Concept".<ref>[https://imdb.com/event/ev0001323/1992/1 Ottawa International Animation Festival's 1992 winners, where ''Wormholes'' is mentioned.] Retrieved 07 Apr '21</ref> It even received attention from sources like the LA Times and New York Times. Despite this, the film ended up lost, most likely because it wasn't intended to be viewed outside of CalArts and film festivals.
-There is not much of a concrete story in Wormholes, making it very hard to describe. The short is described by Hillenburg as a short about the theory of relativity and "relativistic phenomena". The short starts off with shots of molecules running through a fly's body, when it pans away to someone driving down a street with abstract buildings, structures, and moving parts. The person later stops at a gas station, near a diner with people eating. There is a sign with multiple equations flashing, and it cuts back to the same shot of the car driving mentioned earlier, but progressively going faster and faster. The car then becomes thinner and thinner, and multiple equations can be seen in the sky, until the car can be seen in it's normal state driving down a road past multiple thin structures with faces. It then turns into a jackpot of strange lines and doodles, until it suddenly cuts back in the car with the fly, where it flies to the driver's watch. The fly is then seen in multiple equations around it, until panning from the car. The short then ends with the footage flashing back between the world and one of the fly's eyes. The equations were real physics formulas used in the theory of relativity.<ref>[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-may-21-ca-calarts21-story.html LA Times Article]</ref>
+A student at CalArts that worked with Steven Hillenburg did have a copy, however, and gave it to one of his art students, Nick Smith. Smith then uploaded the video to his youtube channel, where he said in the description of the video that he thought it was a "necessary duty to the animation/Spongebob enthusiast communities, especially for the purposes of education and closure". Smith also announced that he uploaded the video on the subreddit r/obscuremedia.<ref>[https://reddit.com/r/ObscureMedia/comments/aooeoa/reddit_i_found_wormholes_the_thoughttobelost/ Reddit post where Smith shared the short.] Retrieved 23 Apr '21</ref>
-== Availability ==
-The film was shown at various film festivals, to critical acclaim, and even won an award at the Ottawa International Animation Festival for "Best Concept".<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/event/ev0001323/1992/1 Ottawa International Animation Festival's 1992 winners, where Wormholes is mentioned]</ref> It even received attention from sources like the LA times and New York Times. Despite this, the film ended up lost, most likely since it wasn't intended to be viewed outside of CalArts and film festivals. A student at CalArts that worked with Steven Hillenburg did have a copy, however, and gave it to one of his art students, Nick Smith. Smith then uploaded the video to his youtube channel, as said in the description of the video that he thought it was "necessary duty to the animation/Spongebob enthusiast communities, especially for the purposes of education and closure". Smith also announced that he uploaded the video on the subreddit r/obscuremedia.
-== Gallery ==
+==Gallery==
 {{Video|perrow  =1
    |service1     =youtube
-   |id1          =https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSlTKa-wP60
+   |id1          =rSlTKa-wP60
-   |description1 =The short
+   |description1 =The full short.
 }}
-== External pages ==
+==See Also==
+===SpongeBob SquarePants Media===
+*[[Astrology with Squidward (found series of "SpongeBob SquarePants" Nickelodeon animated shorts; early 2000s)]]
+*[[A Day With SpongeBob SquarePants: The Movie (unproduced unauthorized direct-to-DVD mockumentary film; 2011)]]
+*[[Got Chocolate Milk? (found "SpongeBob SquarePants" animated tie-in commercial; 2001)]]
+*[[The Humpback Hop (found full version of "SpongeBob SquarePants" production music; 2002)]]
+*[[SpongeBob's Nicktoon Summer Splash (partially lost bumpers from Nickelodeon channel block; 2000-2001)]]
+*[[SpongeBob: Re-Hydrated (partially lost "SpongeBob SquarePants" animated short; 2003)]]
+*[[SpongeBob SquarePants (partially lost deleted scenes of Nickelodeon animated series; 1999-present)]]
+*[[SpongeBob SquarePants "Behind Closed Doors" (partially found storyboard jam comic of Nickelodeon animated series; 2000s)]]
+*[[The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (partially found deleted scenes of film based on Nickelodeon animated series; 2004)]]
+*[[SpongeBob SquarePants "Reef Blower" (non-existent original dialogue of Nickelodeon animated series episode; 1999)]]
+*[[SpongeBob SquarePants "Sailor Mouth" (lost uncensored version of Nickelodeon animated series episode; 2001)]]
+*[[SpongeBob SquarePants "Shanghaied/You Wish" (found alternate "Patchy the Pirate" segments of Nickelodeon animated series special; 2001)]]
+*[[SpongeBob SquarePants "SpaceBob InvaderPants/Krabs' Army" (lost production material of cancelled Nickelodeon animated series episodes; 2015)]]
+*[[War Blowers (found full version of "SpongeBob SquarePants" production music; 1999)]]
+===Other Hillenburg Media===
+*[[The Intertidal Zone (found Stephen Hillenburg educational comic book; 1989)]]
-[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0384864/ Stephen Hillenburg's imdb page]
+==External Links==
+*[https://imdb.com/name/nm0384864/ Stephen Hillenburg's IMDb page, which mentions ''Wormholes''.] Retrieved 07 Apr '21
+*[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hillenburg Stephen Hillenburg's Wikipedia page, which mentions ''Wormholes''.] Retrieved 07 Apr '21
-[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hillenburg Stephen Hillenburg's Wikipedia Page]
+==References==
+{{reflist}}
-== References ==
+[[Category:Found animation]]
+[[Category:Found films]]
+[[Category:Found media]]