In the 1975 comedy classic Monty Python and the Holy Grail, King Arthur and his brave-ish knights set out to find the Holy Grail. Little did they know that 40 years later, Monty Python fans would find a Holy Grail of their very own—14 minutes of previously unreleased animation for the film by Python member, avid animator, and the film’s co-director, Terry Gilliam.
The footage was released on the official Monty Python YouTube channel. Along with the footage, Gilliam provides commentary on his creative process and explains (jokingly) that the other Pythons cut the footage from the original film, because they were jealous of his skills and were afraid of being overshadowed by animated snails (or something). “It’s the animation that was cut out by the rather envious members of the group, who were trying to restrain a young, talented animator. A man who could have gone on to be a great animator, but no, he was forced into live-action filmmaking to cover the scars,” explained Gilliam.
The animation will be included on a new Blu-ray release of the film, to mark the upcoming 40th anniversary of the cult classic. “This in fact is probably the only reason to buy this new Blu-ray version of the film, for the new animation,” jokes Gilliam in the video’s commentary.
[h/t: The Verge]
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