As a wee lad whose brain was still growing and developing, I was in equals parts fascinated and perplexed by reruns of Monty Python’s Flying Circus. I most loved Terry Gilliam’s wild animations. Of the actors, the broad and cartoonish-looking John Cleese was my undeniable favorite. And, by whatever skewed reasoning of childhood logic, I felt quite confident that Graham Chapman was the leader of the comedy troupe and that his name was Monty Python. Maybe it was because he played the military character who routinely interrupted all the absurdity to comment angrily on its silliness. It made sense to me at the time. Probably didn’t hurt that he played the central character in Life of Brian and Holy Grail, or that it seemed (to me) that the group stopped existing when Chapman died of cancer in 1989. Chapman was of course not the central figure in Python, but like any great band, the group could/would never be truly be Python without him.
Which makes the upcoming animated film A Liar’s Autobiography an interesting novelty, as it will re-unite Graham with his fellow Pythons — in voice form at least (though Eric Idle does not seem involved). The film, which combines a variety of animation styles, is an adaptation of Chapman’s comedic and fictionalized account of his life, A Liar’s Autobiography (Volume VI), which was first published in 1980 and co-authored in parts by David Sherlock, Alex Martin, David A. Yallop, and Hitchhiker’s Guide author Douglas Adams. Twitch has a trailer for the film. Can’t say it looks great, but count me in for a watch.