100 Greatest Animated Shorts / The Man With The Beautiful Eyes / Jonathan Hodgson
UK / 1999
Hodgson’s elegantly designed short ‘The Man with the Beautiful Eyes’ was another great animated film made for UK’s Channel4 in the days when they funded quality animation for the small screen. From a poem by Charles Bukowski, it’s a story of children who encounter the dropout owner of the overgrown garden where they play, to the horror of their suburban parents. Designed by Johnny Hannah the film is informed by Hannahs and Hodgson’s admiration of Bukowski’s writing and visually by American/ Lithuanian artist Ben Shahn, early 20th century English artist Edward Bawden and 1950’s Blue Note record covers.
The film, made non digitally, shot on film using paint, ink and collage, starts dreamlike and becomes more like a nightmare as the adults fears and prejudices (as fears and prejudices always do) turn a small town haven of innocence into somewhere nasty and scary.
Hodgson, who’s cites other inspirations as being naive outsider art and the random unsophisticated scribblings of children, had already made short films ‘Feeling My Way’ (1997) and ‘Camouflage’ before he left London’s Royal College of Art.
He often has a lo fi approach to drawing and animation, which he combines with skilful use of colour, texture and perspective to create the visual poetry that he sometimes refers to as his ‘bad animation’. If this is Hodgon’s bad animation I very much look forward to his good stuff.
Note: The 100 greatest animated shorts is an list of opinions and not an order of value from best to worst. All suggestions, comments and outrage are welcome but please don’t shoot us, it’s only a list!