Arguably one of the strangest cartoon series ever produced. Clutch Cargo debuted in 1957 and is undoubtedly the grand prize winner in setting new heights (lows?) in limited animation.

You've seen Conan O’Brian have a conversation with a still picture of a celebrity with another mouth superimposed over the photo. Well here's where it all started.

Sometime in the 50's, I can't find out exactly when, Edwin Gillette invented what he called "Synchro-Vox." Real human mouths were filmed speaking dialogue and then superimposed onto the animation cells. The results were just flat out weird.

Pedantic Moment Dept.

If the word "gestalt" means the sum is greater that the whole of the parts then ...

The Clutch Cargo series is one of the only examples I can think of ... of a negative gestalt. The sum is less that the whole of the parts.

A bongo, a flute, and the narrator start off another less-than-thrilling episode.

Here's a fine example of Limited Animation.

Full animation is 24 frames per second.

In this 30 second clip I don't think there are 30 drawings in the whole thing!

Sometimes you just have to sit back and admire that sort of audacity.

I was showing a Clutch Cargo cartoon to my daughter and she thought it was creepy that their mouths were sooooo red.

"They showed this to kids?!" she asked.

They were creepy. When I was a kid everything on TV was in Black & White so who noticed? But in color Clutch and the gang look like poorly animated vampires who just finished "dinner."

From Don Markstein's Toonopedia: http://www.toonopedia.com:
"... In any case, its place in animation history is secured by the fact that, long anticipating The Mighty Mightor, Jonny Quest et al., it may have been the first cartoon in American television to emphasize adventure over humor."

I'm sticking with my first statement: It was just flat out weird.