Here's a Claymation Crime Story Where Dick Tracy Is an Egg

A bacon pimp, an olive forensics specialist, and two dicks color this food crime procedural.

by Diana Shi

August 21, 2016, 12:05pm

All screencaps via

Graft, deception, crime, and pink donuts. These are a few of the motifs that crop up in the meticulously animated short film, Hardboiled. A stop-motion project, currently in progress, helmed by music video and commercial director, Peter Sluska. Sluska recruits a team of voice actors to star in his quasi-crime/comedy short, including George Irving, the original voice to the fiery-haired Heat Miser from The Year Without Santa Claus.

The short film, which plays with the themes and vernacular of classic detective and mobster films, does not shy away from a well-executed pun. Populated with a cast from the food pyramid, the potency of food jokes is an entertaining and extremely well-studied display of movie knowledge and animation skill. According to the short’s Indiegogo page, the film boasts 13 tasty food-related puns.

Sluska details in a campaign video, his 10-years-in-the-making project is a chance to take back the craft of “a hand-made film in a digital era.” Find a short preview of Hardboiled’s progress, filled with “felonious pimps and all sorts of denizens you would expect in an any urban underworld” here:

According to the short’s Indiegogo page, the film stands at 80% of its full-feature completion. To further support Hardboiled—and bring the perp behind the “eggicides” to justice—visit its social media pages on Instagram and Facebook.