''Humdrum'' is a 1998 British animated comedy short film directed by Peter Peake. It was released in 1998 and produced by

Aardman Animations Aardman Animations Limited (also known as Aardman Studios, simply Aardman or Aardman Animation and stylised as AARDMAN as of 2022) is a British animation studio based in Bristol, England. It is known for films made using stop-motion and clay ani ...

and received an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

nomination for

Best Animated Short Film The Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film is an award given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) as part of the annual Academy Awards, or Oscars, since the 5th Academy Awards (with different names), covering the year ...

and a BAFTA nomination in the same category.

Plot summary

The film features two anonymous Scottish-accented Shadow Puppets (voiced by

Jack Docherty John Docherty (born 1962) is a Scottish writer, actor, presenter and producer. Career He first performed at the 1980 Edinburgh Festival Fringe with the comedy sketch group The Bodgers which he formed with George Watson's College schoolfriends ...

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 La Cucaracha ("The Cockroach") is a popular Mexican folk song about a cockroach who cannot walk. The song's origins are unclear, but it dates back at least to the 1910s during the Mexican Revolution. The song belongs to the Mexican genre. The s ...

) 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 Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult ma ...

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.

Cast

* Moray Hunter

Film technique

The film employs a distinctive

stop motion Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames i ...

cutout animation Cutout animation is a form of stop-motion animation using flat characters, props and backgrounds cut from materials such as paper, card, stiff fabric or photographs. The props would be cut out and used as puppets for stop motion. The world's e ...

technique to animate the shadow puppets, 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 Andy Price is a British television and film composer. He has scored more than 50 films for television and more than 25 productions for theatres around the country, including the Bristol Old Vic, National Youth Theatre and the RSC. Price has com ...

*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 Pete Atkin (born 22 August 1945) is a British singer-songwriter and radio producer, notable for his 1970s musical collaborations with Clive James and for producing the BBC Radio 4 series, '' This Sceptred Isle''. Early life Born in Cambridge, ...

, Maxine Guest, Claire Jennings, Terry Krejzl, Helen Nabarro, Lynda Ware *Producers: Carla Shelley, Michael Rose *Associate Producer: Julie Lockhart *Executive Producers:

Peter Lord Peter Lord CBE (born 1953) is an English animator, director, producer and co-founder of the Academy Award-winning Aardman Animations studio, an animation firm best known for its clay-animated films and shorts, particularly those featuring p ...

David Sproxton David Sproxton, (born 6 January 1954) is a British entrepreneur, best known as one of the co-founders, with Peter Lord, of the Aardman Animations studio. Sproxton was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) on 17 June 20 ...

*Written and Directed by: Peter Peake

External links

Homepage
*
''Humdrum'' on Vimeo

References