''I Met the Walrus'' is an

animated film Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby still images are manipulated to create moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Animati ...

directed by Josh Raskin (known for his musical project Kids & Explosions) and produced by Jerry Levitan. It stars Levitan and

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer-songwriter, musician and activist. He gained global fame as the founder, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the Beatles. Lennon's ...

. The film's pen illustration is by James Braithwaite and computer illustration is by Alex Kurina.

Summary

The film is based on an interview of John Lennon by Jerry Levitan in 1969. Levitan, then 14 years old, tracked Lennon to his hotel room at

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

's King Edward Hotel after hearing a rumour that Lennon had been sighted at the Toronto Airport. Jerry made his way into John Lennon's suite and persuaded John to agree to an interview. The animation is based on Levitan's 30-minute recording of the interview, which was edited down to 5 minutes.

Production

The film was created in 2006-2007, produced by Jerry Levitan and supported by a grant from Bravo!FACT. It premiered March 22, 2007 at This is London, a Toronto nightclub. Since then, ''I Met the Walrus'' has appeared at film festivals around the world. ''I Met The Walrus'' has since been adapted as a book, authored by Jerry Levitan and published by

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the "Big Five (publishers), Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group USA, Hachette, Macmi ...

Accolades

It has won many awards including a 2009 Daytime Emmy in the New Approaches, Daytime Entertainment category, Best Animated Short awards for the

American Film Institute The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the History of cinema in the United States, motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private fu ...

and the Middle East International Film Festival. The film was nominated for an

Academy Award 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 ...

by the

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., with the stated goal of adva ...

. It was also included in the Animation Show of Shows.The Animation Show of Shows (Volume 35)
/ref> It was selected to be one of 25 YouTube videos to be part of the first Guggenheim Museum/YouTube Play "A Biennial of Creative Video".

References

External links

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Bravo!FACT-funded Short Nominated for an Oscar
from Bravo!Canada {{DEFAULTSORT:I Met The Walrus 2007 short documentary films Canadian animated short films Cultural depictions of John Lennon Documentary films about the Beatles Films about John Lennon Canadian animated documentary films 2007 animated short films Articles containing video clips Canadian short documentary films 2000s English-language films 2000s Canadian animated films Canadian musical documentary films Animated films set in the 1960s Films with archival recordings Emmy Award–winning programs English-language short documentary films English-language Canadian films