Pipecleaner Dad finds
that Mom has dug up the backyard and converted it into an archeological
site. Her latest find: a giant plastic-handled screw driver from
an age long gone by. Mom's success as an Archeologist seems to
fluster Dad, almost as though his job wasn't as important. Dad
must learn to come to grips with his jealousy and at the same
time deal with his next door neighbors, Edith and Edna, two elderly
British spinsters who keep a UFO in their basement.
Production Notes
This is the 4th animated film I have made using these quirky Pipe
Cleaner characters; they have proved to be very popular in film
festivals throughout the world (please see list of festivals).
My co-producer Scott Sundholm and I brought Bonny Metoxen in to
do the many female voices and I, as always, voiced Dad and his
son Junior. We recorded the audio on this film on December 31st,
1996 (that's right, New Year's Eve day).
This time we shot in three locations; Robin did the lion's
share of the shots in his coffee-house basement studio, while
another animator, Sean Burns, set up a shooting space in his laundry
room to handle the close-up shots against photo backgrounds. 
Most of the film takes place on a new set, the "Backyard". Actually it's two backyards; that of the Dottleson's, which is all dug up and covered with dirt, and the yard behind that belongs to two old British spinsters, Edith and Edna (Bonny did a wonderful job supplying the voices for these two off-center characters). This is a cultured yard, filled with flowers and bird feeders, in sharp contrast to the Dottleson's yard. The same can be said for the frumpy design of Edith and Edna, built from yellow pipe cleaners.
This turned out to be, at 9 1/2 minutes, a longer film than
I had intended, and filming was slow. Animation wrapped in August,
and Scott Sundholm completed the editing in November of 97. This
took a bit longer as well because we were determined to do a film
finish. Jamie Haggerty added his wonderful music (I especially
like the "Mom's Waltz") and, along with sound effects,
the completed film was ready for festivals by March of 1998.