Oh, Willy... | Animate Materials

Notes on the film

Constructed from a blend of soft textiles, Oh Willy… is a melancholy portrait of grief. When the film’s titular protagonist returns to a naturist colony to witness and mourn his mother’s death, he removes his tailored clothing to reveal a plump body sculpted from felted wool. This material allows the filmmakers to touch on obscenity with an emotional sensitivity. The felted bodies of the characters lean into a narrative of loss and rediscovery of maternal care, capturing the impression of a hazy recollection of textile memories.

lighting captures felt in more or less detail to capture the softness of the tone
lighting captures felt in more or less detail to capture the softness of the tone
lighting captures felt in more or less detail to capture the softness of the tone

Felt puppets and sets are often warmly lit to amplify their fuzzy textures and convey a sense of homey comfort. Oh Willy… relies on this convention to form an analogy between nature and the maternal body – alternately soft and scratchy, soothing and abrasive. When the grieving son squeezes through the torn mesh of a perimeter fence and ventures into the bush in pursuit of his forgotten inner child, the felted wilderness envelops his hirsute body like a vast woolly womb. As Willy’s character becomes increasingly exposed – physically and psychologically – the film contrasts the freedom of his childhood with the restraints of social adulthood. The warm lighting of the outside world is radically opposed to the cool tones and desaturated walls of Willy’s childhood home, becoming dramatically dark as Willy confronts his grief directly.

warm tones are used to create a sense of nostalgia

As a stop motion material, felt comes with limitations that need to be worked into the aesthetic of the film. The heat of studio lighting leads to shrink over time, restricting the amount of time each shot can be worked upon. Additionally, the material stiffness decreases the level of motion the puppets can perform. Reacting to these restrictions, animators de Swaef and Roels limited the movement performed by the characters and frequently cut to different landscape shots. These adaptations helped capture the slowness of grief and connect the scenery surrounding Willy with his personal emotional journey. In the film’s more still and contemplative shots, the artists incorporated another feature of felt – loose fibers. By blowing on these fibres between shots, the artists brought movement to otherwise stationary scenes, creating the impression of air and wind that enfolds the characters into a natural environment.