Closed Mondays

Closed Mondays was co-created by Will Vinton and Bob Gardiner using clay animation, a stop-motion technique in which sculpted clay figures are repositioned frame by frame. Vinton later trademarked the term 'Claymation' and built a career around the technique. The film was produced in Portland, Oregon.

Yes, Closed Mondays won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1975, marking a major milestone for clay animation as an art form. It was the first Oscar-winning film of its kind and helped launch Will Vinton's career as one of America's most prominent stop-motion animators.

The short follows an intoxicated man who wanders into a closed art museum and watches as paintings and sculptures come to life through stop-motion transformations. Each artwork he encounters morphs and interacts with him, blurring the line between viewer and creation. The film runs roughly eight minutes and contains minimal dialogue.

Closed Mondays was Vinton's breakthrough, and he went on to produce the California Raisins commercials, the feature film The Adventures of Mark Twain (1985), and numerous award-winning shorts. The smooth clay-morphing technique pioneered in Closed Mondays became his signature style. His studio, Will Vinton Productions, employed dozens of animators at its peak before financial difficulties led to its reorganization.