Ever wonder what kind of film David Lynch might have made when he was twelve years old? What if his oddball creative sensibilities were pretty much set at that age (which I suspect they were), but he still retained a normal 12-year-old boy's obsession with farts?

Speculate no more, for we have arrived in DUMBLAND, a series of flash-animated shorts written, produced, animated, voiced and mixed entirely by Lynch himself... so there's absolutely no one else to blame for this squiggly nightmare journey through a psychotic suburban funhouse. This is hardly new thematic turf for Lynch, to be sure, but you've probably never seen it depicted quite like this. The eight short episodes - which premiered on Lynch's pay-to-play website DavidLynch.com - are around 4 minutes in length, and have no thematic connection to each other apart from the three main characters:

The Dad (called "Randy" on the website, though he is not named onscreen) is a walking stereotype for the worst kind of drunken, violent, hairy, mouth-breathing redneck you could ever possibly imagine. Given to expressing himself through a stream of guttural grunts, pants and curses - or simply with his toaster-sized fists - The Dad lords over his suburban kingdom by keeping his wife in a constant state of abject terror. Hair standing on end, eyes crossed and babbling in barely-controlled hysteria, The Wife is prone to eye-bugging seizures, and is apparently capable of transforming into an alluring beauty when her head is squeezed really, really hard. Their offspring is a balloon-headed, androgynous creature (he looks kind of like an alien) who watches Dad with wide-eyed fascination and occasionally finds the wisdom to protect him from his own stupidity.

The various misadventures experienced by this nightmarishly dysfunctional family unit center around some kind of alteration of The Dad's routine, which usually winds up annoying him to the point of violence. Examples include a treadmill running at crash-test velocities; a neighbor with a stick lodged in his mouth; a sick uncle who repeats a litany of odd behaviors including farting, projectile vomiting and punching people in the face; a chorus line of ants who sing a sweetly Lynchian tune to their adversary ("When we look at you/We see an asshole…"); and a monstrous mother-in-law who has even The Dad quaking in fear of his testicles.

This collection will surely have audiences divided. I'm betting that those unfamiliar with Lynch's idiosyncratic style should keep their distance, and some of the more highbrow Lynch fans will undoubtedly be put off by the crude and juvenile material trotted out here. Personally, I was pretty entertained throughout - after all, it would take a lot for a cartoon to wear out its welcome in 35 minutes. I would consider the ants' song-and-dance routine to be on par with some of Lynch's best material - in the spirit of the "Everything is Fine" number performed by ERASERHEAD's Lady in the Radiator, except raunchier. The soliloquy muttered by The Dad's chuckling cowboy friend about killing things and chopping their heads off is another laugh-out-loud moment (especially if you know people like that, which I'm embarrassed to say I do). So if the phrase "I'm a one-armed duck fucker" sounds amusing to you, you're in for a treat. If not, well... that line's from one of the series' more benign moments, so you might be in for some pain.

Speaking of pain, it was a bit disappointing to see this weird little treat packaged in such a bare-bones presentation, with no supplements and no explanatory material from Lynch by way of a commentary, interview, or even text (unlike his short film collection and other recent re-releases). You can either play all the episodes, or select them by number (not title), but that's all you get, except for a few additional fart noises. I'm sure there's plenty of information about the series at the website, but unless you're a subscriber, you're not gonna learn much.

The image is presented fullscreen with the action in a window-box matte, which accentuates the comic-strip panel look of the series. It's clear and sharp, much as one would expect from a black & white line-drawing cartoon. The stereo soundtrack is sharp as a nail; all the dialogue (voiced by Lynch, who alters his voice digitally for each character), eerie music and creepy sound effects come through clearly. The only distortion is intentional, such as the ambient effect of a scratchy turntable.

If you've seen Lynch's early work like MEN GETTING SICK, THE ALPHABET, THE GRANDMOTHER and ERASERHEAD, none of these cartoons will strike you as particularly out of place among the artist's collected works. They employ Dadaist patterns of repeated behaviors and looped sounds among an unsettling mix of harsh brutality and childlike cheerfulness, all within a growing ambience of dread that creeps up on you almost unconsciously, for no discernible reason. Sounds like prime Lynch to me...