Next (1990) User Reviews

Shakespeare in 5 minutes... and Loving it!

[medrjel · 10/10 · 9 February 2002]

This short is incredible, especially if you are familiar with the Bard's plays. Without saying a word, Will, the poor player, really expresses the meaning behind the plays, as well as making us realize what the plays are really all about. It was released on an Aardman compilation video years ago, and I wish I had gotten it then. I love it to this day.

It's a shame that this short came out of Aardman at the same time as the first Wallace and Gromit AND Creature Comforts, 2 other brilliant works of animation. I think it's one of the best overlooked shorts ever done.

Delightful, witty, and amazing!! A must see.

[LAWigley · 10/10 · 8 January 1999]

This short film from the Aardman animation tape is incredible.

Imagine William Shakespeare acting out his plays in total

silence -- what a challenge. So now you get the chance to

figure out all of the plays he's referencing!!! I'd classify

this as the ultimate Shakespeare final or the brain teaser of

the century. Unfortunately it's really too bad this video is

out of print. I'd buy 3 copies.

The best Shakespeare-related animation

[Rectangular_businessman · 10/10 · 25 July 2013]

This is one of the best shorts that I have ever seen in my entire life.

Not only the animation quality was excellent (Done with a naturalistic style, having an impressive level of realism) but also manages to be something incredibly witty and complex, summarizing the 35 Shakespeare plays in just five minutes.

"Next" is an excellent homage to Shakespeare, and personally I liked a lot the way in which it is also open to many different kind of interpretations and lectures. But simple words aren't just enough to make this short any kind of justice. It is one of those visual works that have to be seen in order to be fully appreciated.

All I can say about "Next" is that it is wonderful, being the best Aardman animation done before Nick Park joined to that studio. I highly recommend this to anyone.

The Bard auditions...

[myriamlenys · 9/10 · 3 June 2019]

...and discovers that being endlessly inventive, dauntingly intelligent and stunningly versatile just isn't good enough.

An excellent short animation, funny, lively and clever - and set to some grand music. Shakespeare's vast oeuvre is condensed, illuminated, analyzed and gently mocked - all of this within the space of a few minutes.

Here it's hard not to think of the flesh-and-blood "Reduced Shakespeare Company", which has compressed the totality of Shakespeare's plays, both comedies and tragedies, in a three-men show of some two to three hours length. (If you ever have a chance to catch the show, do so - it's well worth the price of admission.) It's pretty much the same kind of exercice, although in a different medium...