The Sweater (1980)

One of the things most engaging about this amiable animation is the transferability of it’s story. This is about a young lad who’s an huge fan of the Montreal Canadiens ice hockey team, but it could just as readily apply to anyone passionate about supporting their local team and determined to wear their colours. This boy plays with his friends against his other friends, and they all wear the same jumper - only his is the number 9 of the legendary Maurice Richard. It’s getting a bit tatty though, and his mum decides he needs a newer, bigger one. She is a catalogue shopper and so writes off to get him a replacement. His excitement turns to horror, though, as he opens the parcel to discover that they have mistakenly sent a blue Toronto Maple Leafs one by mistake. Over his dead body will he be wearing that… Well his mother insists and before we know it his ensuing temper tantrum sees him sent to the church to ask God’s forgiveness. Except, well he prays for one hundred million…? The animation itself isn’t really anything very memorable but the story resonates quite strongly. We all had our own sets of life and death priorities when we were children and we were all capable of throwing mighty (and ungrateful) strops when we didn’t get what we wanted - especially if that brought us into conflict with our peers. It’s told with a certain enthusiastic and slightly embarrassed fondness by the narrator recounting a tale from his own youth and is well worth ten minutes.