Operation Foggy Hedgehog

I’ve only ever seen one example of cut-out animation that I can remember before this week’s class, and that’s South Park. Needless to say, South Park, while distinctive and funny (not for everyone, of course), is not the best example of animation (a fact the show seems to happily embrace) with cut-out images. I’ve seen Flash animations done using ‘cut-out’ animation, but, again, I rarely see truly amazing examples of this.

Then we saw Hedgehog in the Fog in class on Thursday.

I have praised many of the films Professor Leeper
has shown us, both in terms of content and in technical feats. Hedgehog in the Fog is just…astounding. The animation is incredible; I think some people would have difficulty believing that the film was animated with cut-outs. While the film was certainly supplemented by other effects, primarily the titular fog, the quality of the film is only improved by those additions.

The characters themselves, outside of the Hedgehog and the Bear, are mysterious and alien to our main protagonist, just as the fog that seems to have summoned them. This gives the film an interesting concept; the Hedgehog regularly visits the Bear, so he is familiar with the area, but the mere presence of the fog wipes away that familiarity. With the changing of only one variable, the entire scenario is drastically altered. Even the simple task of walking to a friend’s house is suddenly made all the more intense by this one variable. One event can change everything.

I’d love to see more artists take on this style and try to experiment with what they can do. I wouldn’t recommend it to the South Park guys, not when they’re under a tight schedule to produce episodes, but for animators with time on their hands and the flexibility to experiment this would be an interesting project.