Japanese animation is full of the most imaginative mind-bending
imagery ever put to film. Though the work of Miyazaki's "Spirited
Away" and other films have received tremendous critical acclaim in
the USA, Katsuhiro Otomo's AKIRA is a cult classic that is one of my
favorite action movies ever made, animated or not. A boy named
Tetsuo is the subject of experiments designed to create super powered
psychics. While fighting off the side effects of the process, Tetsuo
freaks out in his room as the stuffed animals in his bed come to
life. The music is a creepy chorus of midgets chanting some weird
song from a tin can, while the animals walk around, start growing,
and drip milky pus from their bodies. If you even suspected your
teddy bear was going to kill you in your sleep before, this scene
settled it once and for all.
