Wallace and Gromit

[Roadstergal]

I love Wallace and Gromit, but I was a little leery about Nick Park's ability to make a full-length movie that still has the randomness and charm of the half-hour shows. But Curse of the Were-Rabbit is excellent. It never grows tiring, and I busted a gut laughing.  Most of the jokes would be lost on young kids. Well worth the money.

[indestructibleman]

fantastic.  i've been looking forward to this.
i'm doing CGI now, but stop-motion will always be my first love.

-will

[Cal Price]

Do you get to see Nick park's "creature comforts" series in the US ? they are ultra short things that are often used a fillers etc between TV progs over here and absolutely hilarious. Visually funny for kids with a subtelty for adults as well.

That picture took me back, when I was five (1951) the head of the school I attended had one exactly the same, a "Standard eight" in the same colour.

[Narcissus]

It was either goign to be Wallace and Gromit or Serenity tonight... and Serenity won me over. I'll no doubt see Wallace and Gromit but if I'm gonna spend the big bucks to see a movie in theatres its gotta be something visually spectacular and scifi's always satisfy.

[indestructibleman]

"Creature Comforts" is fantastic.  back when i was a kid they'd show that on Nickelodean sometimes.

i've an excellent dvd of Aardman shorts.

[Roadstergal]

Ja, my PI in undergrad was a big Aardman fan; I saw a lot of claymation shorts when I was staying with her one winter!  Everything that came out of that studio was fantastic.

[Mr.7]

How long would it take to make a whole 2 hour movie using stop-motion?

Probably too long

I havent' seen it yet so mabey it was worth every second

[Roadstergal]

You have to be seriously OCD to do this - and beyond pathological to do it as well as Nick Park does.  You can see the progression of skill from A Grand Day Out to The Wrong Trousers to A Close Shave to this movie.

[indestructibleman]

seriously, doing stop-motion requires you to be in an alternate mental state.

i had a shot on an undergrad film i did where i was animating seven characters simultaneously, as well as clouds moving behind them.

i did this without any gauges or markers.  i just kept in mind whose leg was going forward, whose arm was going down, etc . . .

if my phone had rung during this scene, i'm pretty sure i would have been mentally incapable of answering it.

for that film i built a little castle wall out of a cardboard box that i put grey clay on and carved 272 stone blocks into it.

for the record, i do not iron my underwear or arrange my silverware alphabetically.

-will

[indestructibleman]

btw, anyone who thinks doing cg requires less work hasn't tried it (or is doing shoddy work).

this is why i'm skeptical about any new piece of software that promises to make things easy.  it's animation.  it's not supposed to be easy.

-will

[thirdman]

Dang.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/Movies/10/10/aardman.fire/index.html

Monday, October 10, 2005; Posted: 9:14 a.m. EDT (13:14 GMT)
BRISTOL, England -- The company behind the new "Wallace and Gromit" film said Monday its "entire history" has been destroyed in a fire at a warehouse containing props and sets.

The roof and three interior walls of the Aardman Animations building in Bristol, west England collapsed after the blaze tore through the Victorian building, fire officials said

The fire broke out at about 5:30 a.m. (0430 GMT), with flames reaching 100 feet into the air. The cause of the blaze was being investigated.

A spokesman for Aardman said the building housed props and sets from the company's history, including its first three "Wallace and Gromit" films.

No one was in the building when the fire broke out. Aardman said the sets and props from its latest film, "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit," were not caught in the blaze.

Aardman has used stop-motion clay animation to create a series of acclaimed films, including three shorts featuring cheese-loving inventor Wallace and his resourceful dog Gromit.

The sets from those shorts -- "A Grand Day Out," "The Wrong Trousers" and "A Close Shave" -- are all thought to have been destroyed, along with those from "Chicken Run" -- Aardman's first feature-length release.

"Curse of the Were-Rabbit," Wallace and Gromit's first full-length feature, was released in the United States on Friday and topped the U.S. box office over the weekend. (Full story)

"Today was supposed to be a day of celebration, with the news that 'Wallace and Gromit' had gone in at No. 1 at the U.S. box office, but instead our whole history has been wiped out," Aardman spokesman Arthur Sheriff said. "It's turned out to be a terrible day."

Sheriff said the warehouse contained sets, props and models from the company's productions, from the children's cartoon character "Morph" through the Oscar-winning, anthropomorphic "Creature Comforts" series to the Wallace and Gromit films.

"Even though it is a precious and nostalgic collection and valuable to the company, in light of other tragedies, today isn't a big deal," he said.

Aardman was founded in 1972 and is closely associated with Park, who joined in 1986 fresh out of film school.

Park's "The Wrong Trousers" (1993) and "A Close Shave" (1995) won Academy Awards.

Park and Aardman's Peter Lord directed the 2000 feature "Chicken Run," which spoofed the World War II prison-camp classic "The Great Escape" with a cast of clay poultry.

[indestructibleman]

f*ck

[Roadstergal]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!

[starwalt]

Quite sad to hear that. A loss for movie making history to be sure.

RG, I enjoyed W & G though I only went along for the popcorn initially. My youngest son (17) is a big W & G fan, but wasn't aware there was a movie! A friend suggested it because she said "Any movie with bunnies has got to be good."

It was simply superb movie making. I loved the adult innuendo that children would be clueless to. Two  

[Gofer]

It's really a shame that all that work, material, and history was lost. Give 'em some support and go see the movie(or see it again, if you want).

I'm trying to figure out which was my favourite part of the movie--the dog fight(with the coin purse  :lol: ) or the "may contain nuts" on the box.

Somebody asked how long it would take to do a two-hour film in clay-mation... my girlfriend keeps saying it took five years. I don't know if that's accurate, but it certainly takes a long time to do.

[Daniely]

Me and my GF went and saw it a couple days ago. I have to say, it was really quite good. Especially the part about not liking her produce, and may contain nuts . We all started laughing, and I heard a kid sitting behind us asking his parents what was so funny. Good times .