Creature Comforts (1989)

Director:

Nick Park

Writers:

(more)

Release Date:

15 July 1989 (UK)

Genre:

Animation | Comedy | Short | Family

Plot:

A humourous and thought provoking view of what animals in zoos might be thinking about their captivity and surroundings.

Plot Keywords:

Zoo | Animal | Turtle | Polar Bear | Koala

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 4 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Julie Sedgewick

...

Interviewer (voice)

Directed by
Nick Park

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Nick Park		uncredited

Produced by
Alan Gardner	....	assistant producer
Sara Mullock	....	producer

Cinematography by
Andy MacCormack
Fred Reed
Dave Alex Riddett		(as David Alex Riddett)
David Sproxton

Film Editing by
William Ennals

Sound Department
Aad Wirtz	....	dubbing mixer (as Aard Wirtz)

Visual Effects by
Greg Boulton	....	models & sets
John Parsons	....	models & sets
Cliff Thorne	....	models & sets
Michael Wright	....	models & sets

Camera and Electrical Department
Andy MacCormack	....	photographer
Fred Reed	....	photographer
Dave Alex Riddett	....	photographer
David Sproxton	....	photographer

Animation Department
Nick Park	....	animator

Other crew
Debbie Smith	....	animal sculptor

Production Companies

• Aardman Animations
• Channel Four Films

Distributors

• Northern Arts Entertainment (1996) (USA)

Also Known As:

Runtime:

5 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:S | Iceland:L | Argentina:Atp | Portugal:M/6 | UK:U

Company:

Aardman Animations

Trivia:

The film's soundtrack is a mixture of actual interviews with shut-ins and zoo attendees, and semi-acting. The leopard was a Brazilian friend of director Nick Park's who hated England. Park told him to pretend he was a leopard in the zoo for the interview.

Quotes:

Andrew Polar Bear:Do you eat lions?
Dad Polar Bear:No, I don't eat lions, Andrew.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in The Creature Comforts: Shy! My Home Konase, Shy! (2009)

Good short, but nowhere near as good as some of Aardman's other shorts.

I first watched this short on the DVD Creature Comforts, which contains this and 3 other Aardman short films. Creature Comforts was the short that stood out to me least as being great. Now, the other shorts ranged from excellent to pure genius, so I'm not putting this down, it just isn't as good as the others.

Several animals are being interviewed at the zoo. For 5 minutes, we get to hear the perspectives of all sorts of zoo animals and their thoughts on the living conditions and how well they are treated. Animals such as a lonely gorilla, a lemur with eyesight problem and some sort of lion from Brazil all give their input in this sort of humorous short.

The best part of this is the animation. So many jokes are thrown in, mostly in the background, making this really feel like it was filmed at a zoo. The interviewed animals, for the most part, are just saying things that would be truthful, and though some humor could be taken from them, it's not usually funny to here the poignant ideas of animals who feel crowded and scared in their small cages. It's more interesting than funny, and because of the mixture of interesting ideas and fun animation full of sight gags, Creature Comforts is a fun short film, but still falls short to some of Aardman's other claymated masterpieces.

My rating: *** out of ****. 5 mins.