Creature Comforts
1989 · 5m · UK
Directed by Nick Park
Genres: animation, comedy, documentary
Tones: darkly comic, tender, whimsical
Zoo animals, brought to life through Aardman's trademark claymation, are voiced by unscripted interviews with real British residents discussing their living conditions — creating a wry mockumentary where complaints about cramped housing and bad food land differently coming from penguins and jaguars.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Vox-pop Brits sync'd to claymation zoo animals — the gag still lands because Park gave a jaguar with a Brazilian accent a whole personality in five minutes. Charming without nausea.
Park's vox-pop claymation invented a comic register that Aardman has lived on since, and its restraint is still surprising. The YouTube link is dead, which is the persistent problem with Aardman uploads.
Real vox-pop audio lip-synced onto clay-animated zoo creatures - the gap between mundane British complaints and the species delivering them is the whole comic engine. YouTube has yanked the URL though, so the vault link is dead.
Reviews
Creature Comforts is a brilliant and hilarious short which richly deserved to win the 1990 Oscar for best short film.
The strength of Creature Comforts tied back to its unscripted dialogue. Done right, there's nothing like it in animation.
Festivals
- Academy Awards 1991, Winner
- BAFTA Film Awards 1990, Nominee
- Hiroshima International Animation Festival 1990, Special Jury Prize
- Cartoon d'Or 1991, Winner