Humdrum
- 1998 (1998) (UK)
Humdrum is a 1998 British animated comedy short film directed by Peter Peake.[2] It was released in 1998 and produced by Aardman Animations and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short Film and a BAFTA nomination in the same category.[3]
Plot summary
The film features two anonymous Scottish-accented Shadow Puppets (voiced by Jack Docherty and Moray Hunter) who are sitting around a table with nothing to do. They explore and reject several options including watching television (the only thing on is 'some weird animation thing'), listening to the radio (but 'it's all the same rubbish these days' - in this case La Cucaracha) and playing chess (the white pieces have been eaten due to a bet). This is briefly interrupted when the doorbell rings and one character answers it to find a pesky dog (who is, in fact, a double-glazing salesman) before the other persuades him to enter into a game of shadow puppets. The first character is frustrated by his acquaintance's appalling representation of a cow and later his failure to recognize a rather fantastic rabbit (His misled guesses include a 'fireman chasing an igloo' and an 'Otter with two sausage strapped to his head'). After an amusing outburst from the poor fellow, his annoying partner accuses him of being 'shirty'. This leads him to explode, furiously crying "I'm stuck indoors playing 'Guess the misshapen beast' with someone who clearly wouldn't recognise a rabbit if it came to his house for tea, said 'What's up Doc?' and started burrowing into his head! There are blind people with no fingers who are better at shadow puppets than you! No wonder I'm a tad miffed!" An awkward silence follows this, until the doorbell rings and the first character goes to answer it and finds the second character's 'cow' shadow puppet, which moos. Despite being disappointed with being wrong about a cow's appearance, he simply responds to this with a cheery "Not today, thank you." and closes the door in front of the camera, thus ending the animation.[4]
Cast
- Jack Docherty
- Moray Hunter[5]
Film technique
The film employs a distinctive stop-motion cutout animation technique to animate the shadow puppets,[6] making them move in ways that traditional shadow puppets cannot but retaining the impression of being projected onto everyday backgrounds.
Credits
- Lighting Camera: Andy MacCormack, Jeremy Hogg, Toby Howell
- Design: Peter Peake
- Music: Andy Price
- Editor: Nick Upton
- Script Doctor: Richard Goleszowski
- Dubbing Editors: James Mather, Ben Jones
- Dialogue Editor: Tamsin Parry
- Sparks: John Bradley, John Truckle
- Technical Boffs: Janet Legg, Alan Yates
- Titles: Marc Day
- Cutting Room Assistant: Maggie O'Connor
- Production Assistants: Lisa Pavitt, Margaret House-Hayes
- Heap Big Thanks to: The Puppet Factory, Big Fat Studios, Pete Atkin, Maxine Guest, Claire Jennings, Terry Krejzl, Helen Nabarro, Lynda Ware
- Producers: Carla Shelley, Michael Rose
- Associate Producer: Julie Lockhart
- Executive Producers: Peter Lord, David Sproxton
- Written and Directed by: Peter Peake
See also
- List of stop-motion films
- Silhouette animation (a similar technique but with the light coming from behind)
External links
- Homepage
- Humdrum at IMDb
- Humdrum on Vimeo
References
- ^ AtomFilms ignites with Oscar noms-Variety
- ^ AllMovie
- ^ "Aardman Animations - Latest News".
- ^ Best Animated Short: Best Animated Short - 1999
- ^ BCDB[dead link]
- ^ Fresh From the Festivals: October 1999's Film Reviews-AWN
- ^ "Humdrum". Archived from the original on 12 October 2015. Retrieved 7 October 2018.
- v
- t
- e
- Animated Conversations
- Down and Out (1977)
- Confessions of a Foyer Girl (1978)
- Conversation Pieces
- On Probation (1983)
- Sales Pitch (1983)
- Sweet Disaster: Babylon (1986)
- Sledgehammer (1986)
- My Baby Just Cares for Me (1987)
- Barefootin' (1987)
- A Grand Day Out (1989)
- Lip Synch
- Creature Comforts (1989)
- Going Equipped (1990)
- War Story (1989)
- Ident (1990)
- Next (1990)
- Rex the Runt: How Dinosaurs Became Extinct (1991)
- Rex the Runt: Dreams (1991)
- Adam (1992)
- Never Say Pink Furry Die (1992)
- Loves Me, Loves Me Not (1992)
- Not Without My Handbag (1993)
- The Wrong Trousers (1993)
- The Morph Files (1995)
- Pib and Pog (1995)
- A Close Shave (1995)
- Rex the Runt: North by North Pole (1996)
- Wat's Pig (1996)
- Pop (1996)
- Owzat (1997)
- Stage Fright (1997)
- Humdrum (1998)
- Al Dente (1998)
- Viva Forever (1998)
- Minotaur and Little Nerkin (1999)
- Angry Kid (1999)
- The Deadline (2001)
- Len's Lens (2002)
- Angry Kid: Who do you think you are? (2004)
- The Pearce Sisters (2007)
- A Matter of Loaf and Death (2008)
- Dot (2010)
- Gulp (2011)
- Timmy Time – Timmy's Christmas Surprise (2011)
- Timmy Time – Timmy's Seaside Rescue (2012)
- Wallace & Gromit's Jubilee Bunt-a-thon (2012)
- A Pig's Tail (2012)
- The Pirates!: So You Want to Be a Pirate! (2012)
- Darkside trailer (2013)
- Sphere (2013)
- Ray's Big Idea (2014)
- Special Delivery (2015)
- Shaun the Sheep: The Farmer's Llamas (2015)
- Robin Robin (2021)
- Shaun the Sheep: The Flight Before Christmas (2021)
- Star Wars: Visions: I Am Your Mother (2023)
series of shorts
- Animated Conversations (1977–78)
- The Amazing Adventures of Morph (1980–81)
- Conversation Pieces (1983–84)
- Pee-wee's Playhouse (1986, Penny cartoons, Season 1 only)
- Lip Synch (1989)
- Rex the Runt (1998–2001)
- Angry Kid (1999–2019)
- Wallace and Gromit's Cracking Contraptions (2002–03)
- Creature Comforts (2003–07)
- Planet Sketch (2005-07)
- Purple and Brown (2005–08)
- Pib and Pog (2006)
- Shaun the Sheep (2007–present)
- Chop Socky Chooks (2007–08)
- Timmy Time (2009–12)
- Wallace and Gromit's World of Invention (2010)
- Canimals (2011–present)
- DC Nation Shorts: DC's World's Funnest (2012–14)
- Counterfeit Cat (2016–17)
- Star Wars: Visions ("I Am Your Mother"; 2023)
films
- Chicken Run (2000)
- Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)
- Flushed Away (2006)
- Arthur Christmas (2011)
- The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! (2012)
- Shaun the Sheep Movie (2015)
- Early Man (2018)
- A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon (2019)
- Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (2023)
- Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (2024)
- Morph (1977–present)
- Creature Comforts (1989–2011)
- Wallace and Gromit (1989–present)
- Angry Kid (1998–2019)
- Chicken Run (2000–present)
- Shaun the Sheep (2007–present)