Back in December I rewatched all of the old Wallace & Gromit films, and then thoroughly enjoyed their latest special that came out at Christmas, called Vengeance Most Fowl. You can see my thoughts about all of those in my comprehensive review post that I published shortly after Christmas.
Consequently, I thought I would further celebrate the amazing talents of Nick Park and the team at Aardman by checking out all of their other animated films as well, plus a classic TV series. I’m not interested in seeing absolutely everything they’ve done, as I don’t have the time or desire to do so, nor do I feel a strong urge to buy any of these titles I’m about to mention either. And this post isn’t sponsored of course. It’s just been fun to look at a selection of things that I either haven’t watched for ages or have never seen before, and I hope you enjoy reading about them!
Contents
- Creature Comforts
- Chicken Run 1 & 2
- Flushed Away
- Arthur Christmas
- The Pirates!
- Shaun The Sheep 1 & 2
- Early Man
Creature Comforts
Creature Comforts had a simple concept that worked brilliantly, although of course a lot of hard work had to be done to bring it to life. Interviewers went out and recorded vox pops with a wide variety of people, asking them questions about their lives that were carefully phrased and sometimes quite bizarre, in order to get amusing answers. Those responses were then put into the mouths of stop-motion animated animals, placing them in a completely different and therefore humorous context.
It’s designed to look like the animals themselves are being interviewed, even with a microphone visible sometimes. And as you don’t usually hear the questions that were asked, it just looks like they’re being very frank and conversational, in a manner that fits the topic at hand or the environment they’re in. The animations are also beautifully done, often with amusing visual gags alongside the creatures that are speaking. When there are multiple characters on screen, for instance, it’s always worth keeping an eye on the ones that aren’t talking, as they’re usually making expressions at the very least, and sometimes doing silly things, especially when there are children involved. So it’s very funny, and often quite adorable as well.
Thankfully, there’s an official Youtube channel for the series, where you can see the original Oscar-winning short set in a zoo from 1989, plus the complete Series 1 and Series 2 from 2003-2006, along with playlists of clips and even some behind the scenes footage. So they’re a lot of fun to look through. And for the visually impaired amongst us, there’s a lovely guide dog that pops up here and there e.g. in episodes about work, cats vs dogs and Christmas.
And elsewhere you can enjoy various spin-offs as well, including:
- The famous Heat Electric adverts from 1990 that followed the original short, which I remember fondly from my childhood, so it’s lovely to see them again.
- An animation for Comic Relief in 2007.
- Clips from the American series in 2007.
- The Creature Discomforts campaign from 2008, produced in collaboration with disability charity Leonard Cheshire, which had a positive impact.
- Celebrations of David Attenborough with the BBC in 2016 to mark his 90th birthday.
- A lockdown short from 2020 with the Born Free Foundation.
- Things We Love, a promotional campaign that the BBC ran last year, including a behind the scenes article.
Aardman have made many other TV shows of course, but this and Wallace & Gromit are the only ones that really interest me. I saw Morph when I was a kid, naturally, but I’m not interested in watching him now, or indeed any of their other children’s programmes. As for their adult animations, I have had a look at Rex The Runt and Angry Kid recently, which are both somewhat crude in terms of their animation and humour, because they’re available on the AardBoiled and Angry Kid Youtube channels respectively (along with other bits and pieces). But I didn’t get into those, just as I hadn’t done when I was a teenager, and I don’t think I really saw much of either series at the time. Angry Kid has a few funny moments, but not enough to keep me hooked, while Rex The Runt is just weird really, but it does have a lot of well known guest stars. A separate little series of sketches called Pib and Pog is amusing though, with each purporting to be an animation for children before they get increasingly violent with each other, rather like Itchy and Scratchy from The Simpsons.
Chicken Run 1 & 2
Chicken Run, released in 2000, was the first feature-length film produced by Aardman and Nick Park, in conjunction with DreamWorks, and I recently watched it again on BBC iPlayer, as it had been on TV over Christmas. I had seen it before, although not for a long time, so I didn’t clearly remember it. But it’s a lot of fun, and was a huge success at the time too. To this day it remains the highest-grossing stop-motion animated film of all time, raking in over $227 million, over 5 times the production budget of $42 million.
It’s about a large group of chickens who are trying to escape from a farm, which is run like a severe army camp by the evil Mrs Tweedy (played by the fantastic Miranda Richardson), and her… excuse the pun… henpecked husband (Tony Haygarth). The chickens are led by Ginger (wonderfully voiced by Julia Sawalha), who struggles to persuade her friends that they mustn’t give up, given their despondency after so many failed attempts to break free.
Hope then appears in the form of American rooster Rocky (portrayed marvellously by Mel Gibson), who ends up at the farm by accident. He’s quite full of himself and promises to teach them how to fly, only for it to transpire that he can’t, after which we do see a softer, caring side to him when he’s wracked with guilt. Nevertheless, the idea of flying out of the farm stays with Ginger. And with added urgency caused by Mrs Tweedy’s acquisition of a huge pie-making machine, Ginger takes inspiration from old rooster and former Royal Air Force member Fowler (Benjamin Whitrow) to get everyone together to build a plane. But when Mr and Mrs Tweedy discover this, they’re determined to try and stop them.
The chickens do of course escape successfully, and end up creating a happy village of their own on an island, which is where we join them in Chicken Run: Dawn Of The Nugget, released 23 years later and currently available on Netflix.
Ginger and Rocky (now played by Thandiwe Newton and Zachary Levi, who are just as good as the previous actors) have had a daughter called Molly (Bella Ramsey). But by forcing Molly to stay on the island, they’re inadvertently making her feel imprisoned like they were back at their old farm. So the determined youngster finds her way to the mainland and befriends another young chicken named Frizzle (Josie Sedgwick-Davies). The two of them end up on a truck with livery that promises it will take them to a happy chicken farm – only for it to turn out to be anything but joyful, with incredibly tight and very high-tech security measures. So while in the first film Ginger and co were breaking out of a farm, this time they have to break into one to find and rescue Molly before it’s too late, and it’s not an easy job.
They’re both great films, not least because of the beautiful visuals, all the funny gags and the enjoyable storylines with their little subplots. But it’s the characters that really make it work of course, because they’re all so distinctive and fun, and tug at your emotions sometimes too.
They’re also played by a fantastic cast in both films, some of whom I’ve enjoyed in other things. In particular, I loved Miranda Richardson as Queen Elizabeth I in the British sitcom Blackadder II, Zachary Levi as the title character in the American comedy-drama series Chuck, and David Bradley (Fowler in the second film) in his portrayal of William Hartnell and the First Doctor during the modern era of Doctor Who. So I was delighted to see them in the cast lists here.
Other characters include a couple of rats called Nick and Fletcher who like doing dodgy deals and end up helping the chickens with their plans. They’re quite amusing, and in the first movie are played by Timothy Spall (who I’ve seen as Mr Pettigrew in the Harry Potter films) and Phil Daniels (who was Grandad in Rock & Chips, the underwhelming prequel to Only Fools and Horses). Then in the second film they’re portrayed by comedian Romesh Ranganathan (who I’m not hugely into generally but he’s good here) and Daniel Mays (who I’ve previously seen in Series 3 of Line Of Duty).
Meanwhile, among the chickens there are some characters who are played by the same actors in both films, including the delightfully ditzy knitting enthusiast Babs (Jane Horrocks), champion egg layer Bunty (Imelda Staunton) and Ginger’s Scottish brainbox assistant Mac (Lynn Ferguson). Ginger has a great team around her, and it really feels like one big family, so you’re rooting for them all the way.
You can go behind the scenes for both films as well of course. There are some clips on Youtube about the original movie for starters. Then for the second film, Netflix has a 20-minute making of documentary on its streaming service and on Youtube, while BAFTA has a 13-minute feature on Youtube as well, both of which give very insightful looks at how the animation is prepared and produced. So they’re a nice way to celebrate two very enjoyable adventures.
Flushed Away
This 2006 film was the first adventure that Aardman produced using CGI rather than plasticine, given the inherent complexities of incorporating water into stop-motion animation. It was also the final film they produced in collaboration with DreamWorks, after Chicken Run (above) and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit. It’s available to buy or rent on Youtube and other platforms, so I rented it using some of the Google Play balance I still have left from a voucher I was given ages ago.
I had never seen it before, so I was intrigued to see that the writers included Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, famous for popular sitcoms The Likely Lads and Porridge, among many other things. They worked on this film with Chris Lloyd (who was executive producer on big US sitcoms like Frasier and Modern Family), Joe Keenan (who also worked on Frasier as well as Desperate Housewives) and Will Davies (a British screenwriter whose film credits include the Johnny English series). So that’s a lot of writers, but all with substantial experience of producing hit comedy shows or films. The cast list is also seriously impressive, with even bigger stars than Chicken Run had. And it all makes for a great combination.
The story is about a pampered pet rat called Roddy (Hugh Jackman), who is tricked into being flushed down the toilet by a sewer rat who takes over the house called Sid (Shane Richie). Roddy eventually finds himself in a rat city below ground that’s clearly been modelled on London above, and in trying to get away he meets Rita (Kate Winslet). She scavenges every day in her boat to try and make ends meet for her large family, and is potentially able to help Roddy get home. However, she’s also on the run from two rats called Spike (Andy Serkis) and Whitey (Bill Nighy), working for a large Toad (Ian McKellen), from whom she’s stolen a ruby. And Roddy clumsily makes things very difficult for her to begin with, so he has to be careful and persistent to earn her trust. Once he does, they both have to work together not only to get him home, but also to stop an evil plan by the Toad to wipe out everyone in the city.
So there’s lots going on, and it’s very enjoyable overall. Sure, the CGI, while a lot of effort has clearly gone into it, isn’t as charming or amazing as the stop-motion animation that Aardman are best at, but it’s still decent with expressive characters, fun action sequences and environments packed full of detail. There are also a ton of visual gags, both in the foreground and background, and some that need freeze-framing to properly appreciate (such as the shelf of DVDs that Roddy runs along early on, there are some great titles amongst them). Then there’s further humour in the action, dialogue, songs, etc, so the joke rate is pretty relentless on the whole. You could easily watch it a second time and spot plenty of things you missed first time around.
One thing I particularly love about this film is the soundtrack. Alongside a nice score by Harry Gregson-Williams, I was surprised to hear lots of classic songs that I know and like, including Dancing With Myself by Billy Idol, Are You Gonna Be My Girl? by Jet (familiar to many as the theme tune for the BBC stand-up comedy show Live At The Apollo), Bohemian Like You by The Dandy Warhols, Yakety Sax by Boots Randolph (famously known as the Benny Hill theme), Don’t Worry Be Happy by Bobby McFerrin, Proud Mary by Tina Turner, and two songs by Tom Jones (She’s A Lady and What’s New Pussycat?). There’s also Wonderful Night by Fatboy Slim, but I wasn’t familiar with that one, and it doesn’t grab me as much as other tracks I do know of his, but it fits well for the movie. Plus there are slugs that sing at various points during the film, and they’re quite amusing, including the little animations they have throughout the closing credits.
So all in all, I’m glad I checked out Flushed Away, having not been sure what to expect from it at first. It could never be on the same level as Wallace & Gromit or Chicken Run, but it’s still pretty good, thanks to its strong A-list cast, great humour and an excellent soundtrack.
Arthur Christmas
This festive flick from 2011 – the second that Aardman produced using CGI and the first of two movies they made with Sony – is also available to buy or rent on Youtube and other platforms, so again I rented it using some of my Google Play balance. And again it’s a movie I haven’t seen before.
It shows the impressively slick, sophisticated and high-tech operation by which Christmas presents are now delivered to children around the world by Santa and his huge battalions of elves. Yet despite how perfect a system it seems to be, a clumsy accident means that a bike is left behind in the command centre, which a little girl in Cornwall had requested. And nobody in charge seems to be that bothered, as a tired and overworked Santa (Jim Broadbent) feels it’s impossible to deliver it on time, and his eldest son Steve (Hugh Laurie) agrees that missing just one child out of millions worldwide is a minuscule margin of error, so it’s not the end of the world.
Santa’s youngest son Arthur (James McAvoy), however, finds this very distressing, as he’s been reading and responding to all of the children’s letters, and remembers this particular girl. And he’s determined not to let her down. He’s eventually able to persuade Santa’s father and thus predecessor in the role, Grandsanta (Bill Nighy), to help him, and the two of them end up travelling in his old sleigh pulled by his old reindeer, accompanied by Bryony (Ashley Jensen), an eager little elf who’s a whizz at wrapping. But with Grandsanta out of practice, and out of date with the modern world, the journey is fraught with problems, and it looks like the girl will never get her bike after all. But of course she does in the end, just in the nick of time.
The film has another stellar roster of acting talent, and there are several people who I’m a fan of in other things. Among the names I’ve already mentioned, I loved Jim Broadbent as corrupt detective Roy Slater in Only Fools And Horses, while Hugh Laurie is best known to me for his comedy performances in Blackadder and Fry & Laurie, and to many others for his leading role in the American drama House. I’ve also enjoyed Ashley Jensen as the nurse in the Ricky Gervais series After Life, and Bill Nighy has popped up in several other films I’ve seen. Beyond that, Imelda Staunton (who was also in Chicken Run) stars in the film as Mrs Claus, and some of my favourite voices among the elves include Monty Python member Michael Palin (as an elf called Ernie Clicker who helps Steve), Andy Serkis, Robbie Coltrane and Red Dwarf star Danny John-Jules.
Overall, therefore, the movie does have festive charm, an action-filled adventure, amusing moments and a great cast. But I don’t think it’s as good as the previous films I’ve watched. I didn’t find myself fully engaged with some of the characters (I preferred Jim Broadbent’s portrayal of Santa in the unrelated film Get Santa 3 years later for instance), the design of the humans felt a bit odd (and yes, I know it was deliberately done so they didn’t look too realistic), there weren’t quite as many great gags as in the previous films I’ve seen, the scene-setting text that regularly appeared in the corner was very small and hard to read, and there weren’t any rock or pop songs on the soundtrack to grab my attention this time. Justin Bieber‘s terrible cover of Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town over the credits was very easy to skip, but the score by Harry Gregson-Williams and Bill Nighy singing Make Someone Happy are nice, albeit not very memorable.
So for me the movie is good, with a nice story, some impressive visuals and a fair amount of amusement to be had. And there are also some interesting behind the scenes features posted by Sony on Youtube, including a main video called Unwrapped, and others about the CGI, the family dynamic, designing Grandsanta and more.
But because I feel I’ve seen Aardman do better, I wouldn’t say it was amazing, nor would I rate it alongside other Christmas films I really like. So I’m glad I tried it, but it isn’t something that I’ll feel the urge to go back to.
The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists
I’ve never seen this 2012 film in the past, but as it’s available for free on Amazon with my Prime subscription, it was easy for me to check it out. It marks a return to stop-motion animation (and is the first for Sony in this form), which is good to see as I do prefer it over Aardman’s CGI. It’s also Aardman’s first film to be based on a book, which shares the same name and is written by Gideon Defoe, who also wrote the screenplay for this adaptation. In America it was called The Pirates! Band Of Misfits, however, as Gideon’s books weren’t well known over there and they wanted a different name.
It tells the story of the Pirate Captain (played by Hugh Grant, heading up yet another excellent cast, with Sherlock star Martin Freeman by his side), who dreams of winning the Pirate Of The Year award. But he and his amateur crew aren’t very successful, and are derided by the more experienced pirates who keep getting the title. He then stumbles upon the Beagle and meets Charles Darwin (brilliantly played by Doctor Who legend David Tennant), and is informed by the scientist that his parrot Polly is actually a dodo, a species thought to be extinct. Charles knows that this could win him the Scientist Of The Year award for discovering it, and convinces the Captain and his crew to travel to London with him.
To Charles’ fury, however, the Captain uses Polly to win the award for himself, in the belief that it will help him to win the Pirate award as well. Unfortunately, the big prize is actually a meeting with Queen Victoria (Imelda Staunton being marvellous yet again), who hates pirates with a passion. But as she wants the dodo for her petting zoo, she pardons him instead of beheading him, and eventually persuades him to part with Polly for a huge amount of treasure. It’s more than enough to win the Pirate award, yet things turn sour when everyone learns of his pardoning and his crew discover that he sold Polly. So the Captain tries to get her back, only to discover a terrible truth about the Queen, and has to work with Charles to put things right.
It’s a fun way to spend an hour and a half, with the usual plethora of visual jokes alongside the eventful story, which has some nice little twists as it goes along. Again I love the cast, which also includes Brian Blessed as the roaring Pirate King, while the voices behind some of the other pirates include Lenny Henry, Russell Tovey, Brendan Gleeson and Ben Whitehead (now known as the new voice of Wallace).
The music is very good too, with the main score by Theodore Shapiro, and the inclusion of tracks like Swords Of A Thousand Men by Tenpole Tudor, London Calling by The Clash, You Can Get It If You Really Want by Jimmy Cliff and Alright by Supergrass to name my favourites, alongside Ranking Full-Stop by The English Beat, Fiesta by The Pogues and I’m Not Crying by Flight of the Conchords, which I didn’t know so well but were still good. And Sony have also posted some bonus clips and behind the scenes material on Youtube as well, which are short but fun to look through.
So I’m pleased to have watched yet another movie from Aardman that was previously unknown to me. Again, I would still put Wallace & Gromit and Chicken Run above it easily, but it is fun. There was even the possibility of a sequel involving cowboys at one point, but Sony decided not to go for it so it never happened, which is a pity.
Shaun The Sheep 1 & 2
Shaun originally appeared with Wallace & Gromit in A Close Shave, but then went on to have his own spin-off show for children, which is still going. And while I’m not interested in watching that, as I’m far beyond the demographic it’s made for, I knew that his movie from 2015 was slightly more aimed at a family audience. So as it’s been on TV and BBC iPlayer recently, I decided to give it a look out of curiosity.
I assumed I’d only see a little bit of it, but it drew me in and I ended up watching the whole thing, as it’s both sweet and amusing to see Shaun and his woolly friends trying to rescue the farmer after he has an accident in the big city and loses his memory, while also trying to avoid capture by a nasty animal control worker. It’s very silly of course, but there are lots of nice gags along the way.
It’s also impressive that it works so well considering there’s no dialogue whatsoever, because Shaun and his friends are so wonderfully expressive. Plus I had narration from the audio description, which was really useful as it pointed out various details I wouldn’t otherwise have noticed.
I was also pleasantly surprised by the soundtrack, which featured some songs I hadn’t expected at all. Feels Like Summer by Tim Wheeler is a nice song specially written for the film that’s important to the plot, but then the film also hits you with bangers like Rocks by Primal Scream, Search For The Hero by M People, Bad To The Bone by George Thorogood & The Destroyers and House Of Fun by Madness to name my favourites. So kudos to Aardman for introducing children to some classic tunes.
I also had a look at the 2019 Farmageddon sequel, also on BBC iPlayer, about an alien that crashes on to the farm so the sheep have to try and help it get home. But it’s even sillier than the first film and is clearly aimed much more at children, so it isn’t quite as good and I didn’t watch it all, instead just skimming through it to get a general sense of the action. But visually it’s as beautiful as always, there were still a few moments that made me laugh, and I liked the fleeting glimpse of Wallace & Gromit in their first adventure early on (not the first time that Aardman have tucked away sneaky references to their other productions in their films). And again the audio description on iPlayer was helpful, which I notice isn’t available on the Netflix version. So it looks like a great movie for kids, but it didn’t grab me as much as the first one.
Early Man
This 2018 movie is the final production that Aardman released in cinemas, before Netflix snapped up the streaming rights to their films the following year – where, as it happens, this adventure is also available, so that’s where I watched it. And again I was completely unfamiliar with this one heading into it.
It focuses on a Stone Age tribe led by Chief Bobnar (Timothy Spall), in which the most central character for the story is a young lad called Dug (Eddie Redmayne), who is keen to try hunting bigger things than just rabbits for their food. Other members of the tribe are played by people like Richard Ayoade, Johnny Vegas, Gina Yashere and Fast Show star Mark Williams, to name those I recognised and am most familiar with, while animator Nick Park himself made the noises for Dug’s pet boar Hognob.
They’re forced out of their happy little valley, however, by a Bronze Age tribe headed by Lord Nooth (Tom Hiddleston), and Dug accidentally gets taken into their city, where he discovers a game they love to play in front of a huge stadium audience called football. And in an arguably foolish attempt to get their land back, he challenges them to a game, which is duly accepted.
The only slight problem is that the Stone Age tribe have never heard of football. But having discovered that their own ancestors also played the game, Dug is confident they can do it, and attempts to teach the rest of his tribe, with little success. He then has to sneak back into the city to get another ball, whereupon he meets Goona (played by Game Of Thrones star Maisie Williams), who he strikes up a rapport with, as she loves football but isn’t allowed to take part in the championships as she’s a girl. So she agrees to help Dug, and implements a detailed training regime for his tribe. The big match itself is then quite eventful and unusual, under the watchful gaze of the city’s Queen Oofeefa (Miriam Margolyes), as Lord Nooth does his best to make it difficult for the Stone Age players. It’s obvious who wins, of course, for a story like this, but it’s interesting to see how they do it.
Along the way, it’s fun to see the extra little details that have been included as usual, such as the prehistoric equivalents of today’s technology, whether it be using an insect like an electric shaver, or a Message Bird to deliver communications (voiced by Rob Brydon, who also plays the two football commentators and one of the Bronze Age players). The score by Harry Gregson-Williams and Tom Howe is nice too, although I’m not hugely into the rock and pop songs that have also been included this time. The best and most famous track is easily I Predict A Riot by Kaiser Chiefs, which is far better than the awful cover of Tiger Feet by New Hope Club, which doesn’t come close to Mud’s original that I’ve loved since my childhood.
Overall, therefore, it is a fairly good film, with stop-motion animation that can’t be faulted and a decent cast, but there’s nothing exceptional about it either. The story’s told well enough, even though at a basic level it’s very predictable, while there are plenty of jokes, but not all of them really work, as some of the football puns feel rather corny and obvious. And as I said just now, the music is good, but nothing from it really jumps out at me. So it’s an enjoyable enough way to spend an hour and a half, but I won’t be in a rush to see it again and i don’t think it would warrant a sequel. It was just another film that was worth a look out of curiosity. You can also see some clips and behind the scenes features on Aardman’s Youtube channel.
Conclusion
So that concludes my look through Aardman’s films, and I’ve enjoyed exploring them. Some are naturally better than others, and none beat the classic Wallace & Gromit, but the stop-motion animation and general attention to detail is consistently amazing, and there’s both heart and humour packed into them. So they have a lot of charm and offer something for everyone, and it’ll be interesting to see what else they come up with in the future. Hopefully more Wallace & Gromit one day!
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