While Disney's live-action adaptation of Beauty and the Beast might be pure fantasy, viral footage of a 'walking' table means it feels like we're in the 2017 remake. Toy Story already planted the ideas that our toys come to life and live out wild adventures when we're not in the room, but imagine if your furniture gained sentience as soon as your back was turned.
If robot dogs roaming the street wasn't enough, one clip of a 'horrifying' walking table is doing the rounds on Reddit, with followers not sure whether to be impressed or seriously creeped out by this crawling carpentry.
Shared in the r/Damnthatsinteresting subreddit, the video shows off a crawling table that's scuttling around someone's living room on a series of wooden legs.
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This bug-like table has given some people the ick, with most people asking why you'd want that thing in your house. The video shows that it's handy for bringing you a beer or the remote, but let's be honest, it's not the most aesthetically pleasing piece of furniture we've ever seen. Also, which section of IKEA would you buy it from? The standard table section or the corner for magical objects?
When one concerned viewer wrote, "That would freak the f**k out of my dog," another added, "It freaked the f**k out of my wife.." Someone else said: "My gf hates the robot dogs so I know she'll hate this. Can't wait to show it to her and ruin her night."
It turns out this walking table has a name, with it being a creation known as the Carpentopod. The work of programmer Giliam de Carpentier, the Carpentopod is a twelve-legged beast that functions as both a table and a walking nightmare. There's a whole blog on how the Carpentopod came to life, with work starting all the way back in 2008. Gilliam de Carpentier was apparently inspired by Theo Jansen’s Strandbeest sculptures an some software he wrote for optimized walking mechanisms.
Using a repurposed Nintendo nunchuk, the Carpentopod can be easily controlled to walk wherever, although the creator himself admits: "Is it honestly very useful? Maybe not. But is it fun to make it bring me a drink? Very much so."
Looking like something you might find in Silent Hill, we're also reminded of Elden Ring's horrifying walking mausoleums. In fact, the Carpentopod wouldn't look out of place in FromSoftware's inevitable sequel or some sort of Medieval-set episode of Black Mirror.
If you want to terrify your friends or pets, de Carpentier has some good and bad news. While he isn't making custom versions of the Carpentopod, he's made the linkage public domain. If you have the skills and fancy yourself as a bit of a carpenter, you could be able to whip one up for yourself. For most of us though, we'll likely leave the Carpentopod haunting our nightmares.