Here’s
something fun: stop-motion PC! Haunted
Hogmanay is an animated television short that’s comically spooky and very, very
Scottish. Definitely an amusing way to
spend half an hour.
The
story finds Jeff, a paranormal investigator, joining a ghost hunt at the behest
of his unscrupulous brother-in-law Thurston.
Jeff adores the tales of Morag Lachlan MacLachlan, the ghost of an
executed criminal who allegedly haunts Edinburgh every Hogmanay (that’s the
Scottish term for New Year’s Eve,) but Thurston is out to turn a profit. He plans to debunk the myth, film it, and
sell it as the pilot for a TV series, making a mint in his get-famous-quick
scheme. You can probably guess which of
them is right as to the existence of the ghost.
Jeff is
a fun role for PC. He’s bright but timid,
easily flustered. While he relishes the
thought of seeing a real ghost, he’s long-sufferingly irritated at being
dragged into one of Thurston’s capers, and he’s not exactly lion-hearted in the
face of danger.
As for
the animation, it’s a different experience to hear PC act without seeing
him. His appearance often lends an
intensity to his work (his sharp eyes, his toothy grin, his mind-of-their-own
eyebrows,) and it’s interesting to see what kind of character he creates with
just his voice. I can’t quite picture
him playing someone as nebbish and put-upon as Jeff in live action, certainly not
in 2006.
In
addition to the pre-Eleventh-Doctor get-up and the requisite cockamamie hair,
as you can see from the picture, Jeff believes in monsters and constructs his
own gadgets – his unfortunately-acronymed Spectral Anomaly Detector is a
prototype made from an old toaster.
Clearly, someone is a Doctor in training.
One
more Jeff-and-Thurston romp, coming tomorrow.
In the meantime, here are my first thoughts:
Accent Watch
Scottish
ghost-hunter!
Recommend?
In
General
– Sure. It’s a fun stop-motion adventure
that’s not overly kiddish, and I like the animation a lot.
PC-wise – Quite possibly. Jeff is an amusing doormat, and I think it’s
interesting to see actors you’re used to in live-action take on animated roles –
different skillset for sure.
Warnings
Light spookiness
and criminal activity. A little drinking
and a bit of bathroom humor.
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