The Wire

Bay Area freelance director, designer, and animator Elliot Lim turns his obsession with HBO’s The Wire into a beautifully drafted, animated homage piece that will no doubt garner attention from show runners, title designers and networks worldwide.

Lim’s short animated take on the show’s opening credits elevates with smooth production values and gorgeous design that rings true to the spirit of the original in a way that is guaranteed to make fans nostalgic.

The Creators Project describes the animation as…

“It’s the roughest city you’ve ever missed… from afar, but in Bay Area-based animator Elliot Lim’s stunning tribute to David Simon’s award-winning HBO series, The Wire, a certain familiarity pervades the ever-seedy atmosphere, flipping The Blind Boys of Alabama’s Season 1 take on Tom Waits’ modern dirge “Way Down in the Hole”—the series’ “theme song,” if you could call it one—into a motion graphics masterwork that radiates with the warmth of Margaret Kilgallen, despite the desaturated, deadly subject matter. All Lim writes in his description is “I designed and animated this piece as an homage to my favorite show of all time, HBO’s The Wire,” but anyone who’s ever watched all of TV’s Tolstoyan epic will know—sometimes stories are better witnessed than told. ”

Design, animation: Elliot Lim
Music: “Way Down in the Hole” / The Blind Boys of Alabama.