Closed Mondays
| Closed Mondays | |
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| Directed by |
Bob Gardiner Will Vinton |
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Release date
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Running time
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8 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Closed Mondays is an eight-minuteanimated film using animated, three-dimensional clay figures, created by Will Vinton and Bob Gardiner in 1974. It was produced by Lighthouse Productions, released by Pyramid Films in the United States, and won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.
The film opens with the words "CLOSED MONDAYS" written in white against a black background, filling the screen. Using a pull-back shot, the camera then shows the viewer that the words are part of a sign that reads:
A version of the film released on home video blacks out the "USUAL CRAP" part of the sign.
It is night. A small art gallery stands with its door slightly ajar and the lights on. A bulbous-nosed man with thinning grey hair, holding a brown bottle and apparently drunk, wanders in. As he shuffles through the gallery, a small abstract sculpture is transformed, imitating the man behind his back before returning to its original shape without his noticing.
The drunk sees a picture of colorful musical notes that form a circle around a jagged shape resembling a red staircase. The picture moves to upbeat music for a moment and then returns to normal. Doubting his own eyes ("HEY! What the...?!! Oh, no!" he mutters), the man looks again. The music begins to play, and a miniature man resembling the drunk skips down the stairs, stands on one of the circling musical notes, rides it for a while, then continues down the stairs to the bottom. The entire picture then becomes two abstract colored clay blobs that pulsate to the music. Suddenly the music stops and the drunk is back in the gallery, where he makes a critical comment ("What was that guy thinking of?!") and staggers away.
The man sees a sculpture of a computer-like device with large lips and gauges for eyes. He makes another comment ("I wonder what makes it work."), then laughs at the sculpture and flips a lever that starts it. The sculpture begins speaking rapidly and says it is a "replica of the model 505 type P electro brain," claims to be far superior to its creators, and carries out its "infinite mutation" program. The computer begins to stutter as it tries to say it has a short circuit and an error before changing into a talking globe, a talking apple, a colorful bust of Albert Einstein, a television, and finally a hand with smaller hands at the end of each of the fingers before entirely melting down into a shapeless mass of clay.
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Wikipedia