100 Greatest Animated Shorts / The Wolfman / Tim Hope
UK / 2001
Previous to this Tim Hope had taken up experimenting with CG to produce animated stage projections for his comedy act with actor Julian Barratt (later of the surreal UK comedy team Mighty Boosh). Using a friends borrowed computer Hope scanned and mapped simple cartoon drawings into ‘3D Studio’ software to create a wild mini universe loosely resembling the DIY approaches of British TV favourites Oliver Postgate or Terry Gilliam.
In this great example of a lo fi attitude to computer animation, Hope goes against the grain of CG at this time which was determinedly clawing its way towards total realism and proves that a determined individual with a cheap computer can come up with something more entertaining and interesting than a big budget production dictated by accountants and marketeers. Moving smoothly from Victorian serenity to total insanity in the space of three minutes the film tells a simple story of a man reciting a love poem to the moon, turning into a werewolf and attempting to eat the universe. Pure genius.
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!