When you're ace enough to become as internationally and culturally renowned as Monty Python, there's bound to be a bit of friction in the creative process. While there are many reports of creative competition (and subsequent lawsuits) around the Pythons, one act of censure seems to have been redeemed this morning in the form of new/old Monty Python and the Holy Grail animations that Terry Gilliam made, but were cut from the final film by other members of the group. Now, as part of the 40th anniversary BluRay of the film, these lost shorts have resurfaced.
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Specifically, Gilliam says in the commentary, "It was the animation that was cut out by the rather envious members of the group who were trying to restrain a young, talented animator, who could have gone on to become a great animator, but no, he was forced into live action directing to cover the scars." He says it like a joke, but the kind of joke in which a nugget of truth is buried.
We also learn from the commentary that Gilliam didn't actually draw any of the iconic illustrations in these interludes. His assistants, Katie Hepburn and Lucinda Cowell did the drawing, while he "was the guy who just cut out the terrible little characters and pushed them around. There’s not much to say about how it was done. It's the way all my animations were done. There were just little bits of paper that we moved around each frame. And then you would *boom* break off a little piece. It's not very interesting, it's just time-consuming."Other nuggets of information include the fact that God's face is actually that of cricket player W.G. Grace, and that Gilliam's mindset for the animations was not cinematic, but rather, "radio with pictures." Watch the full 14-minute video below.
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We also learn from the commentary that Gilliam didn't actually draw any of the iconic illustrations in these interludes. His assistants, Katie Hepburn and Lucinda Cowell did the drawing, while he "was the guy who just cut out the terrible little characters and pushed them around. There’s not much to say about how it was done. It's the way all my animations were done. There were just little bits of paper that we moved around each frame. And then you would *boom* break off a little piece. It's not very interesting, it's just time-consuming."Other nuggets of information include the fact that God's face is actually that of cricket player W.G. Grace, and that Gilliam's mindset for the animations was not cinematic, but rather, "radio with pictures." Watch the full 14-minute video below.