Peter Canavese
2005-12-18 20:24:30 UTC
"The Great British Public" says the darndest things....<I>creature comforts</i> tickles most effectively in its small doses, but its cleverness and craft are undeniable.
"The Great British Public" says the darndest things. That's the premise behind creature comforts, an endearing series of animated shorts that put the musings of the British public into the mouths of all manner of non-human animals. It all started with "vox-pop, found-sound, documentary-recording stuff" crudely animated by David Sproxton and Peter Lord, founders of Aardman Animation. A meeting of minds between Aardman and struggling animator Nick Park led, before long, to the Oscar-winning animated short "Creature Comforts."
In 2003, treating that film as a pilot, Aardman produced for the UK's ITV thirteen episodes running nine minutes and twenty seconds each. The episodes, each built on a common topic of conversation, are "the circus," "pets at the vets," "working animals," "the sea," "the garden," "feeding time," "the beach," "the pet shop," "what's it all about?", "being a bird," "is anyone out there?", "cats or dogs?", and "merry christmas."
The gag is creatively to heighten everyday confessions by apt choices of animals, giving new contexts to verbal references (in "working animals," a cockroach explains, "I've worked in a hotel...I'd help in a kitchen," and lab rats grumble about on-the-job conditions). Thus, anonymous stars are born, such as the married couple reborn as a cat named Captain Cuddlepuss and a dog named Trixie. Lying beside each other on the couch of a middle-class apartment, Captain Cuddlepuss lazily drawls his philosophies and gently bickers with the tentative inklings of Trixie.
Recurring characters appear in small doses in each episode, and though Captain Cuddlepuss and Trixie are my favorites, others will cotton to slugs Gary and Nigel (another amusing double-act), Fluffy (a depressive hamster), Muzulu and Toto (cheeky performing monkeys), gifted gabber Pickles the Guide Dog, or adorable baby birds Ted and Stan, among many other characters. The characters are distinct in part because of their regional dialects and largely for their social dynamic as individuals or in small groups. The detailed plasticene animation replaces reality with its own caricatured version that humorously details gestures, expressions, and background action that define each character's habitat.
Though kids will enjoy creature comforts, it's made with adults in mind, and the series improves as it goes along, moving from relatively obvious episodes built on settings (as in the 1990 short, set in a zoo) to jazzier, looser themes, like the meaning of life and the existence of aliens. Though those episodes are exciting, the series is perhaps best represented by "the pet shop," an extended metaphor for being plucked hopefully from the dating pool. creature comforts tickles most effectively in its small doses, but its cleverness and craft are undeniable.
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