
Indriķis 13, from Fantadrom, one of my favorite short films/cartoons ever. He is incredibly hard to do justice to.
For those who don't know/don't understand russian/don't want to track it down, Fantadrom is a soviet-era cartoon about Indriķis, an alien robot cat with a tv screen in his paw, two human astronauts, one boy and one girl, two computer-bots, and a nameless female alien cat. Indriķis and the female cat both have the ability to transform into anything they want - the robot by pulling a tab on his cheek and the alien by melting into liquid and reforming.
In the story, the boy and girl take off from earth into outer space in order to stop the two androids from playing rough with the satellite equipment in orbit, as well as to explore the psychedelic wonderland. Indriķis follows his friends, first as an airplane, then by surfing on a solar wind, and then as a giant pencil. They touch down on an asteroid, in a purple gooey puddle.
The girl waits in the rocket as the boy goes to find out what the androids are doing. Indriķis stays behind, in the puddle, which giggles, swirls around, and then becomes a liquid female cat. She has no legs, just ever-shifting droplets of goo, but resembles the yellow robokitty. She teases and plays with the robot cat while the boy observes the bumbling androids crash into everything, and in the chaos, the boy realizes he left the girl behind. He goes to get her and sees that she only has 5% oxygen left in the tank. He takes her to a grassy biodome and attempts to give her CPR.
Meanwhile, the robots try to escape in their rocket ship, which Indriķis and his friend are guarding. Both cats chase after it, but the robots smash the main display and activate a device that creates a black hole, which sucks Indriķis and the boy away from the girl and into the abyss. Inside are monsters and hallucinations that attack the boy, but he shoots an arrow from his magic crossbow which punctures a hole in the dark matter, pulling everyone back out.
They return to the biodome and Indriķis sees that the girl is going to die, so he reaches inside himself and pulls out a sphere of energy that represents his life-force and inserts it into the wall of the biodome, which turns it into trees. Meanwhile, inside the ship, the boy tricks the androids into watching a video of laughing children and then reprograms them, which makes them happy and benevolent. They exit and repair the satellite that they damaged, while the boy goes to check on the girl.
The trees have grown all around her, exhaling oxygen and reviving her, but the robot cat is drifting through the air, limp and lifeless. The children find him and and mourn, and bury him in a tomb of rubble with a headstone that reads "INDRIĶIS XIII -- A ROBOT DIED, SAVING A HUMAN".
Everyone is sad and the boy returns to earth, save for the purple liquid cat. She retrieves Indriķis' body from the grave and carries him down to the humans. She then produces a blue pill from her liquid rubber body and presses it into the robot's chest, which instantly awakens him. She kisses him and then flies away, leaving the yellow cat to rejoin his astronaut friends.
For those who don't know/don't understand russian/don't want to track it down, Fantadrom is a soviet-era cartoon about Indriķis, an alien robot cat with a tv screen in his paw, two human astronauts, one boy and one girl, two computer-bots, and a nameless female alien cat. Indriķis and the female cat both have the ability to transform into anything they want - the robot by pulling a tab on his cheek and the alien by melting into liquid and reforming.
In the story, the boy and girl take off from earth into outer space in order to stop the two androids from playing rough with the satellite equipment in orbit, as well as to explore the psychedelic wonderland. Indriķis follows his friends, first as an airplane, then by surfing on a solar wind, and then as a giant pencil. They touch down on an asteroid, in a purple gooey puddle.
The girl waits in the rocket as the boy goes to find out what the androids are doing. Indriķis stays behind, in the puddle, which giggles, swirls around, and then becomes a liquid female cat. She has no legs, just ever-shifting droplets of goo, but resembles the yellow robokitty. She teases and plays with the robot cat while the boy observes the bumbling androids crash into everything, and in the chaos, the boy realizes he left the girl behind. He goes to get her and sees that she only has 5% oxygen left in the tank. He takes her to a grassy biodome and attempts to give her CPR.
Meanwhile, the robots try to escape in their rocket ship, which Indriķis and his friend are guarding. Both cats chase after it, but the robots smash the main display and activate a device that creates a black hole, which sucks Indriķis and the boy away from the girl and into the abyss. Inside are monsters and hallucinations that attack the boy, but he shoots an arrow from his magic crossbow which punctures a hole in the dark matter, pulling everyone back out.
They return to the biodome and Indriķis sees that the girl is going to die, so he reaches inside himself and pulls out a sphere of energy that represents his life-force and inserts it into the wall of the biodome, which turns it into trees. Meanwhile, inside the ship, the boy tricks the androids into watching a video of laughing children and then reprograms them, which makes them happy and benevolent. They exit and repair the satellite that they damaged, while the boy goes to check on the girl.
The trees have grown all around her, exhaling oxygen and reviving her, but the robot cat is drifting through the air, limp and lifeless. The children find him and and mourn, and bury him in a tomb of rubble with a headstone that reads "INDRIĶIS XIII -- A ROBOT DIED, SAVING A HUMAN".
Everyone is sad and the boy returns to earth, save for the purple liquid cat. She retrieves Indriķis' body from the grave and carries him down to the humans. She then produces a blue pill from her liquid rubber body and presses it into the robot's chest, which instantly awakens him. She kisses him and then flies away, leaving the yellow cat to rejoin his astronaut friends.
Category Artwork (Digital) / Fanart
Species Housecat
Size 768 x 693px
File Size 330 kB
YES YES YES.
One tiny little thing - you might want to warn your audience that there are two versions of this episode in circulation! One is the original Latvian, and it's full-length. The other is the international release, and it was CHOPPED. They apparently redubbed it for European kids' shows, removed all the content that might be confusing for a non-Latvian, and didn't care that most of the plot went with it. The international edit also has "wacky" cartoon music -- it's still pretty good analog synth stuff, it just doesn't carry the same eerie mood as the original.
Thank you so much for spreading the word about this. Now, about your Rule 34 obligations... :D
One tiny little thing - you might want to warn your audience that there are two versions of this episode in circulation! One is the original Latvian, and it's full-length. The other is the international release, and it was CHOPPED. They apparently redubbed it for European kids' shows, removed all the content that might be confusing for a non-Latvian, and didn't care that most of the plot went with it. The international edit also has "wacky" cartoon music -- it's still pretty good analog synth stuff, it just doesn't carry the same eerie mood as the original.
Thank you so much for spreading the word about this. Now, about your Rule 34 obligations... :D

Kind of thought that the first episode was totally different to the rest of the 'series' - which is still quirky and amusing despite the strangeness of it all. Whether or not it was just a short film they expanded into a kids cartoon I don't know, but by googling it, it seems to be somewhat beloved by Latvian kids.
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