This is a post about 'The Big Story," a brilliant puppet film about Kirk Douglas. There's lots to say about it but none of it will make much sense unless I first discuss the 80s/90s TV show that paved the way for it, a British leftwing comedy called "Spitting Image." It was a topical show about what was then current in British newpapers. I don't think it ever played in America.
Above, some of the Spitting Image puppets. They were life size which allowed for the use of real life backgrounds. It was a great idea!
One day two of the show's ace character designers, Tim Watts and David Stoten, pitched an idea for a Spitting Image-type parody of Kirk Douglas. It would be a stop-motion short made with armature puppets. Tim Watts may (I'm not sure) have already pencil animated the film in 2D while he was at Cal Arts. Anyway, the producer, Rodger Law, agreed to bankroll it.
The Gods must have been on the artists' side because they were able to get one of the best impressionists ever, Frank Gorshin, to do Douglas' voice. He may even have influenced the writing which was based on real dialogue from Kirk Douglas films. I'm a Gorshin fan and so far as I know it was the best thing he ever committed to film.
Here's the finished short (above). Do yourself a favor and take a minute and a half to watch it.
Okay, what did you think? Not too shabby, eh? The film got the 1994 Oscar nomination but lost to a Wallace and Grommet-type 2D short called "Bob's Birthday." The Bob film was great but I still would have given the laurel to The Big Story. It contained ideas and techniques that seem fresh even today, and which might have strongly influenced computer animation when it came along.
The short payed off for Rodger Law because it allowed him to do several amazing Lipton commercials in the Spitting Image/Big Story style. That's one above.
Actually, I'm just assuming that Law was responsible for those commercials. Maybe it was Uli Meyer. I'm not sure.
Now here's where the story gets weird. The Spitting Image style rode a wave of popularity for several years then inexplicably ran out of gas and died. Oh, the caricature style lingered on in magazine covers but the film applications withered on the vine. "Why?" you're asking...but I don't know why. It just did.
That's tragic! It was a style that would have worked great in the Pixar era. Unfortunately the two styles never coincided.
Imagine what might have come about if Douglas' greatest animation fan, John K, had been green-lighted to do a Douglas-type 3D feature!
