Next (1990 film)


Next is a short film created by Aardman Animations. Its full title is "Next: The Infinite Variety Show."

Plot

William Shakespeare auditions for an undetermined role in front of a bored Peter Hall with references to his play in under five minutes.

Cast

The film was commissioned by Channel 4 as part of a 5-part series of Aardman animations called "Lip Synch": Creature Comforts, Going Equipped, Ident, Next and War Story.
Peter was voiced by Roger Rees and is reading one of Hall's books. The halo indicates that he represents Saint Peter, and that Shakespeare is auditioning to get into Heaven. The film references all of 37 Shakespeare plays.
A clip of this short was shown in the 2003 documentary Animated Century.

Critical reception

On imdb, Next received a rating of 7.3/10 from 188 users.