Bathtime in Clerkenwell (2003)

In a black and white, two-dimensional animated world, it's morning and time for a sleeping man to wake. A cuckoo clock sends a series of birds to fly toward his head to chirp and wake him; ... See full summary »

Director:

Alex Budovsky

3 wins.

Storyline

In a black and white, two-dimensional animated world, it's morning and time for a sleeping man to wake. A cuckoo clock sends a series of birds to fly toward his head to chirp and wake him; he grabs each and tosses them back. They are relentless, and eventually manage to get him into a bathtub with the shower head spraying. Images of mechanical assembly lines appear by the tub while, outside, bobbies keep watch. The metamorphoses continue, heads fly, anarchy takes hold. The entire time, the soundtrack is a fast-paced, repetitive, wordless ditty of vocalese. Suddenly, we realize where we are.

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Plot Keywords:

bird | cuckoo clock | place name in title | fascist | 

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Genres:

Short | Animation

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Did You Know?

Connections

Featured in The Animation Show (2003)

User Reviews

A funny, cool and enjoyable short-come-music video

As the music plays we see lots of shadow figures mouthing along – most of these are small crows with rolling eyes. As they sing the song, the action continues with some of them having unfortunate run-ins with others. My opening sentences are usually plot summaries but I must admit that I'm struggling with a film that is essentially about nothing and really, I was surprised to find it on this site because, although I saw it at a film festival, my impression of it is that it also served as a music video for Real Tuesday Weld.

Regardless of what it should be classed as (I'll leave that for the pedants), the one thing that I am sure about is just how entertaining the whole short film is. First of all the music is pretty cool; I was trying to think of a way to describe it but have been struggling – it is repetitive and sounds like a mambo of sorts? Anyway, by itself the music is fun and I would listen to it again on its own. Luckily the animation is just as cool and as fun; again hard to describe but lots of cute and cool cut out crows singing along and lots of stuff happening. The animation appears simplistic (I'm sure it's not) but it is very effective and matches the mood of the music – both complimenting each other in fact.

Overall, it may be a music video as much as a short film but it works very well – it is cool, entertaining and fun in both the music and the animation and for both of these it is worth hunting the web for.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

17 September 2010 (Netherlands)

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Runtime:

3 min

Color:

Black and White Color