100 Greatest Animated Shorts / The Big Story / Tim Watts & David Stoten

UK / 1994

A simple idea brilliantly realized, The Big Story features an argument between caricatures of a young Kirk Douglas (a reporter) and an old Kirk Douglas (an editor), in the Hollywood style black and white newspaper office they work in. Tempers are just starting to flare when another familiar face strides into the room for the climax of this micro-classic.

The angular features are captured brilliantly in the shadowy noir setting and enhanced by the excellent voice mimicry provided by Frank Gorshin (the Riddler from Batman). The film picked up an unexpectedly wide audience when Quentin Tarantino liked it so much he requested it was screened before his hit Pulp Fiction for its cinema release. Animated in its entirety as an elaborate pencil test before the stop frame animation took place, this 2D version is also well worth checking out.

Tim Watts and David Stoten were formerly caricaturists and designers on the satirical puppet show Spitting Image. A follow up feature film was under discussion for some time featuring many other Hollywood caricatures but securing permissions was found to be problematic. The talented Watts and Stoten went on to work on many other films, Watts animated on The Thief and the Cobbler and The Tale of Despereaux, Rise of the Guardians and Home, storyboarded and animated on Corpse Bride and created character designs and animated on Arthur Christmas, while Stoten storyboarded Corpse Bride, Mr Bean’s Holiday, Gnomeo and Juliet and the hit TV series Charlie and Lola.

Note: The 100 greatest animated shorts is an list of opinions and not an order of value from best to worst. Click here to see all of the picks of the list so far. All suggestions, comments and outrage are welcome!