Man Spends Three Years Making An Amazing Animated Short Film With Paper Puppets
A new short film called “Gruff” is getting a lot of attention, as it should, because it’s a masterpiece made over three years by one man. Julian Curi drew all of his characters and backgrounds by hand on paper, manipulated his drawings like puppets before the camera, and used computers to erase the wires.
The story is a labor focused on the star, secret agent Hazel, and her emotionally distant father. Curi said he wrote the Hollywood ending that he didn’t get to experience with his own emotionally distant father, who passed away from cancer. And the process he went through to bring the story to life is extraordinary. He shot it all by himself in a single car garage, with much of the set using Amazon boxes. Lots of glue, magnets, lighting and camera work bring the paper puppets to life.
