The Hole

One must consider the time. The fear of nuclear war hung over everything. We take two men and have them working underground, speculating on the future of our world. One is a bit alarmist and he other tries to put a good face on things. I thought the animation was bleak and engaging. Nice work with a harsh overtone.

Two construction workers - one Black, one White - engage in a wide-ranging discussion during their shift in THE HOLE of a New York City building project.

John & Faith Hubley (creators of MOONBIRD) strike pay dirt once more with this very engaging and thought provoking little film which makes astute observations about nuclear proliferation. The limited animation format is the perfect medium to illustrate the unscripted remarks of the two characters, voiced by Dizzy Gillespie & George Mathews.

Winner of the 1962 Oscar for Best Animated Short.

John and Faith Hubley's Oscar-winning cartoon "The Hole" features a pair of construction workers (voiced by George Mathews and Dizzy Gillespie) talking about accidents. They start by discussing the things that could happen in a construction site but then branch out into the possibility of a nuclear holocaust. One of them always imagines a worst-case scenario (which we see depicted).

At once a funny cartoon and a "Dr. Strangelove"-style warning about nuclear proliferation, this is a clever cartoon. The unpolished animation helps emphasize the working-class nature of the characters. It just goes to show that cartoons don't have to be "cute". After all, animation is simply another type of filmmaking, and it's one of the best ways to point out society's faults. I recommend "The Hole".

I've really grown to like the films of John and Faith Hubley, and something about their style always struck me as familiar, but I could never quite put my finger on it. Then I saw the introductory title "an observation by John and Faith Hubley," and it came to me – this film is a precursor to "Seinfeld!" Don't lambast me just yet, I'll explain. Anybody who has seen the series' DVD releases would undoubtedly be familiar with the bonus "Seinimations," directed by Eric Yahnker, which presented crude animations that synchronised with the many bizarre conversations of Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer. These snippets are worthwhile, not for their visuals, but for the vocal interplay between the contributing characters, and the essence of this idea was already entrenched in the films of the Hubleys, who typically constructed visuals around a spontaneous, free-flowing conversation between two people. 'The Hole (1962),' John Hubley's second Oscar-winning short, tackles, among other things, the nature of accidents, and whether the notion applies to nuclear war.

Two construction workers (voiced by Dizzy Gillepsie and George Matthews) are engaged in conversation as they work. The pair's interaction, as was the Hubleys' style, doesn't feel scripted in the least, following a natural pathway that begins with discussion of everyday issues and ends with the reality of nuclear war. Citizens in the early 1960s were, of course, faced with the height of the Cold War, and this is very much reflected in the cinema of the day. The characters in 'The Hole' reflect upon the possibility of nuclear war being caused by a technical glitch – a scenario terrifyingly brought to life in Sidney Lumet's 'Fail-Safe (1964),' – but one contends that even this can't be considered a passive, blameless "accident," as it is we who knowingly possess such a dangerous weapon with willingness to use it. Though the film's animation is not particularly handsome, lacking the bright, fresh colours of 'Windy Day (1968),' the conversation is most definitely worth hearing, and the ideas raised deserve more than a few seconds' contemplation.

No wonder construction projects all take such a long time! This short animation sees two labourers - voiced, unscripted, by Dizzy Gillespie and George Matthews getting on, leisurely, with their subterranean industry whilst chewing the fat about just everything from politics to the threat of impending nuclear war. Meantime, the creatively inspired animators give a natural and engaging impression of trying to keep pace with their ramblings, offering us some quite sophisticated visual accompaniment at times. The pace of the drawing and of the chattering is pretty continuous and you just know that something momentous is going to finish their day off. It's maybe just a little too long, but the two gents manage demonstrate enough of a friendly, pub-style, conversation to keep it interesting.