And this year I found it. I'd always remembered it wasn't a cartoon or live action - but something in between. So it turns out it was the scenes of 'death' from Jim Henson's "The Storyteller". Just something about the creepy face that did it as a kid. Was definitely a strange sensation to connect it all and see the images anew. Humans/memories/brains are weird. (The Storyteller, Season 1, Ep 5 - it's on Amazon Prime in Canada)