Creature Comforts

This is the old version of the soon-to-be TV series of Nick Park's Aardman Animations. Basically they record voices from real interviews talking about a certain subject, for example they mention about food and where they are living. When they have recorded these voices they use their genius to match this talking with a suitable character. All the characters are wild and zoo animals talking. There is a lion, tortoises, polar bears, a panda bear, a female gorilla, a hippo (with one behind her pooping) and many other animals made of the genius Plastercine. There is now quite a good TV series of this one-off show of interview made animation. The quality of this animation is obviously the fact that everything moving is made of Plastercine, it deserved the Oscar! As part of Aardman Animations, it was number 15 on The 100 Greatest Cartoons. Very good!

I think this is my favourite Aardman animation and it's probably the simplest. The interviewer takes a delightfully comedic ping at the dreaded television "vox pop" by going to a zoo where she interviews an host of the occupants. Some are perfectly happy in their centrally heated, double glazed environment where they are fed and watered regularly, others - like the Brazilian lion need space, more space and then even more space. Oh, and water that he can can drink and swim in! The chickens steal the show for me, especially the two in the background who mimic the wave to the camera thing whist their pal is extolling the virtues of life in captivity. The dialogue entertainingly parodies the kind of nervously inane comments you get from the public when they are interviewed for the telly and it's genuinely funny. The stop motion clay-mation and the attention to the detailed depth of the characters and the scenarios as they relate their stories makes this a must watch.

Before the "Wallace & Gromit" series and "Chicken Run", Nick Park made a splendid debut with "Creature Comforts", in which several animals in a zoo explain how unhappy they are to be in cages. If the cartoon is goofy, then they play it to good effect, and it has a good message. I've always thought that Nick Park not only has great ideas for cartoons, but that his claymation style is quite neat, with the bug eyes and rectangular mouths.

Other interesting cartoons of this style include not only the "Wallace & Gromit" series, but also "Wat's Pig" and "Ident". The last two are fascinating, if bizarre.

this is a short claymation movie from the makers of "wallace and Gromit" shorts and the full length major motion picture "chicken run." To the uninformed, this is a collection of brief interviews with zoo animals about their daily habits, and religion, feed habits, etc. but, what is really going on here is even better. The makers of this movie went to nursing homes and recorded interviews with the residents, Then animated animals for the voices. So, really when you watch this you are listening to the views of elderly people as animals. I personally find this to be a very interesting idea. 10 all the way

'Creature Comforts (1989)' is absolutely brilliant. Taking the audio from real interviews with the public and transposing it onto talking animals is nothing short of genius. It recontextualizes the characters' answers and gives them a new meaning that fits with the flick's subtle anti-zoo messaging. More importantly, it makes both elements - the audio and the animation - much funnier. The juxtaposition between the very normal, unrehearsed dialogue and the wonderfully fluid, somewhat silly stop-motion animation is brilliant. It has such a distinct effect. The short truly is remarkable; it's no wonder that the concept was explored in a television series (also brilliant) soon after. If you ever needed even more poof that the people at Aardman (and Nick Park, in particular) are some of the most important creators of animated content in the last thirty-five years (on top of Wallace and Gromit, Shaun The Sheep and Chicken Run, that is), then look no further than this, one of their earliest efforts. The talent was clearly there right from the start. This is a seminal stop-motion short and I highly recommend it. 8/10.