Max Beeza and the City in the Sky

1977
Sound
24m

As sublime as it is silly, this ambitious animated short mixes a vision of a dystopian, tower block Britain with anarchic vaudeville humour

Another vision of 1984. Not Orwell's Airstrip One watched over by Big Brother, but Derek Hayes and Phil Austin's tower block Britain under the dubious guidance of Victor Troutskillet, and the subversive presence of Max Beeza. As the first animation students at the National Film School, Derek and Phil produced this extraordinarily ambitious short that treads a tricky tightrope between satire and silliness.

After producing animated sequences for the Sex Pistols film 'The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle', their company Animation City became one of the leading lights of the resurgence of the British cartoon industry in the 1980s and 90s.