Next (1990 film)
8 /10 1 Votes
Duration Language English | Director Barry Purves Country UK | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Release date 28 November 1990 (UK)
14 December 2002 (Olomouc Animation Film Festival, Czech Republic)
7 June 2003 (Worldwide Short Film Festival, Canada) Based on Plays of William Shakespeare | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Next is a short film created by Aardman Animations. Its full title is "Next: The Infinite Variety Show."
Contents
Plot
Imdb explains the plot: "William Shakespeare, without saying a word, gives a quick run through of all his plays in a very special audition."
Cast
Production
The film was commissioned by Channel 4 as part of a 5-part series of Aardman animations called "Lip Synch": Creature Comforts (1989), Going Equipped (1990), Ident (1990), Next (1990) and War Story (1989). Imdb explains: "The "sunburst" which rotates behind William Shakespeare in the "Cymbeline" sequence was not present in the original storyboard nor fabricated for this purpose. Rather, it comes from a clock which was discovered by the director, by chance, in a skip nearby the studio on the day that scene was to be filmed."
Peter looks like Peter Hall and is reading one of Hall's books. The halo indicates that he represents Saint Peter, and that Shakespeare is auditioning to get into Heaven. The film references many Shakespeare plays.
A clip of this short was shown in the 2003 documentary Animated Century.
Critical reception
On imdb, Next received a rating of 7.3/10 from 188 users.