Intrigued by the idea of seeing her drawings move, Sally Cruikshank learned to animate while in college. Her love of surreal 1930s cartoons, as well as her desire to make her own amusement park, is evident in her wildly colorful and wonderfully detailed films. The psychedelic Quasi at the Quackadero, named to the National Film Registry in 2009, and other exuberant vehicles star a recurring cast of animalesque characters. Apart from creating her own films, Cruikshank has contributed animated sequences to many feature films, including Twilight Zone: The Movie, Mannequin, Loverboy and others. Cruikshank was among the the initial recipients for the Maya Deren Award for independent film and video artists, given by the American Film Institute, along with Stan Brakhage and Nam June Paik.