New Teletubbies art video is a creepy adaptation of the children’s show, replete with blood, spiders, and more spooky elements. Originally running from 1997–2001, Teletubbies imagines a world where four colorful creatures — Dipsy, Po, Laa-Laa, and Tinky-Winky — lead their onlookers to explore the world through television affixed to their stomachs. Teletubbies is an immensely popular kids show that has gone through numerous reboots and TV movies.
Now, a new art video from @lemay.jf reveals a Teletubbies world turned far more sinister. The black-and-white video begins with what appears to be a benign image of Tinky-Winky, unassumingly moving his eyes. Sun Baby looks down at the Teletubbie, cooing sweetly. Then, the turn of a windmill changes everything. Tinky-Winky’s head is sliced open, to reveal blood and an eyeball underneath.
The chipper music scoring the video soon devolves into a horror-esque, discordant melody. The skin continues to be peeled off of Tinky-Winky’s head, as the eyeball underneath moves and a spider protrudes from his face. Sun Baby is also turned far more sinister, as their smile expands into a wide, devious grin, and their head grows to have over a dozen full, blinking eyes tacked onto it.
It is amazing how quickly Teletubbies is able to seem like a horror movie in this art. Given the fluidity of this descent to Sun Baby evil, it seems like Teletubbies could be the subject of the next great mascot horror film. Mascot horror — being the genre that transforms classic children’s iconography into slasher killer and other horror plots — has been trending in recent years, due in large part to Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey and its sequel. From The Mean One to the in-production Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare, it seems more mascot horror is announced every day.
Blood and Honey director Rhys Frake-Waterfield has already mentioned his interest in a Teletubbies horror, but nothing has been announced. In a number of ways, Teletubbies would already be ripe for a horror adaptation. Its whole concept — colorful humanoid but alien-like creatures with television stomachs — is surrealist in and of itself. It is this surrealism that can turn on a dime from uncannily chipper to grotesque in a quality chipper. This art video makes it even easier to envision how Teletubbies could go through such a menacing transformation.
As amusing as it is to imagine, Teletubbies is unlikely to be made into a mascot horror any time soon. The difference between the kids’ show and something like Winnie-the-Pooh is that the latter has characters that are now in the public domain. This is why one sees phenomena like two Steamboat Willie horror movies being developed this year after the character entered the public domain. Unbridled by the restraint of copyright infringement, this makes it easier for low-budget scary movies to make a mascot horror on the cheap, something the recently-developed Teletubbies could not benefit from.
Source: @lemay.jf / Instagram