Distributor:
Madman-AV Channel Certificate: PG | 150
minutes | All Region Available to buy Extras: Yes
ANYONE
IN IT WE KNOW?
Some
claymation figures!
WHAT’S
IT ABOUT THEN?
A
collection of 24 award winning
animated shorts from Aardman
Studios (home of Wallace and
Gromit and the Chicken Run
movie).
SO
IS IT ANY GOOD?
A
truly inspired collection, often hilarious, frequently poignant,
sometimes bizarre and always entertaining.
Aardman
was founded in the 1970’s by Peter Lord and David Sproxton who first
achieved fame with their character Morph which featured in Tony Hart’s
long running children’s art show, later with the inspired Creature
Comforts set of ads and of course Nick Park’s oscar winning Wallace
and Gromit trio of classics they achieved world wide recognition – all
the time of course they were producing extremely clever animations, some
for the BBC, some for Channel 4, some as stand alone short films, even
music videos (their video for Nina Simone’s My Baby Just Cares For Me
from 1987 is just delightful, I can remember seeing it first time around
in my youth on Top of the Pops and being amazed by the cleverness of it
then and it still holds up today).
There
are some great little pieces on display here, highlight of the
collection has to be the brilliant Wat’s Pig (1996) a medieval tale of
twins switched at birth, one becomes King the other a humble farmer,
from 1997 is the superlative Stage Fright – a sometimes scary tale of
how the coming of cinema affected the music hall, there are some quite
sad and melancholic shorts (Down and Out, Confessions of a Foyer Girl)
which used real conversations brought to plasteceine life. But to be
honest all of the shorts are a pleasure to watch, Aardman Classics lives
up to its billing and is a definite must see.
ANY
SPECIAL FEATURES?
A
behind the scenes commentary; biographies of the directors and animators
and a behind the scenes photo gallery.
