Creature Comforts (1989)

The first in what is likely to be a long series of reviews where I realize that I just watched something that I have seen before. Creature Comforts is an Oscar winning claymation short by Aardman Animations and director Nick Park (the team who brought you Wallace & Gromit).   It was later made into an animated series, on CBS in America.  As it was released in 1989, it’s likely that I saw it as a child, but it’s even more likely that I saw it during the lost years of my early twenties, when something to watch was invariably partnered by something to smoke. In the former case, this film would have been lost on me. In the latter case, it was just lost. The five minute film features animals in a zoo who are interviewed about their satisfaction with their living arrangements. Most fascinating is the fact that the dialogue comes from actual interviews conducted with London residents.  My favorite, the puma, was actually a Brazilian student, who is very disdainful of the English weather and his cramped London accommodation. As with Wallace & Gromit, the animation is brilliant, and the depth of expression that the clay figures convey is spot on. Funny and stunning and sweet and clever. Perfect.