on March 28, 2007
This classic, Oscar-winning claymation helped put Nick Park and Aardman Animations (creators of Wallace and Gromit) on the international map in 1991. Creature Comforts provides a humorous peek into the complex lives of zoo animals. Listen to a puma talk about his need for “space” or a turtle talk about his satisfactory zoo cell.
As one of my personal favorites, this short creates an astounding level of naturalism with its animated characters. Park was able to do this by using natural dialogue captured from real interviews with local British residents. Add this to Aardman Animation’s ability to create wonderful character interpretations and you’ve got something special. Although some say it looks dated (being from the pre-digital era), the idea is still as fresh and contemporary as any today.
In 2003, Creature Comforts was taken to British airwaves with a series of half hour episodes based on this 1989 short. Look for the upcoming American version to be broadcast within the coming months on CBS (their first animated series in 13 years).
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[...] dir: Suzie Templeton, 5:38—We like stop-motion animation here at ShortoftheWeek. The first two reviews we posted, Game Over and Creature Comforts were both stop-motion (though we’ve inexplicably ignored the form since), but we are not blind to the perceived diminishing of its stature. The dawn of CG brought about a lot of eulogizing on stop-motion animations behalf—the hallowed art of O’Brien and Harryhausen, was technologically doomed to become a lost art, or so it was said. To an extent that prognostication can be said to be true. Certainly the days of seeing even hints of stop-motion employed in big-budget films like Terminator or Willow are behind us, let alone carrying action films like one of my favorites, Clash of the Titans. The recent remake of King Kong, one of the greatest and most beloved stop-motion films, is proof in the pudding so to speak. But here we are over a decade into the era of full-cg and stop-motion clings stubbornly, dare we say, even vibrantly. [...]
[...] By Sondhi | December 2, 2007 dir: Wolfgang and Christoph Lauenstein, 7:23—A platform floats in a neutral space. Strange men, identical except for the numbers on their back, appearing as though out of some dystopian future, must work in concert to prevent the platform from tipping. The emergence of a strange box, a new development in this closed and sterile space, disrupts the tedium but also the teamwork, as each man wants to individually inspect and enjoy the box—threatening them all as the platform becomes increasingly unbalanced. Directed by German brothers Wolfgang and Christoph Lauenstein, Balance is a remarkable piece of animation that has held up very well through the years. Winner of the Academy Award for Best Animated Short in 1989 , it has been featured in a few animation collections on video, including the now sadly out of print, “The World’s Greatest Animation”, where it headlined alongside another famous film we reviewed on this site, Nick Park’s Creature Comforts. But thankfully the internet has saved us once again and this film has been uploaded to at least half a dozen user-generated content sites. These uploads might be unauthorized, but I doubt the Lauenstein brothers care as it is sure to act as a great calling card for the their commercial film production house. In fact Balance is a perfect reel highlight for commercial direction, because it displays simple confidence in concept. The film uses stop-motion to animate, but is ultimately not much to look at. It is not pretty and the character motions lack the artistry and polish of some of the more experienced practioners of the craft. When made though Cristoph was still in school for his Fine Arts degree and so in the midst of such brilliance this is easily forgiven. What shines here instead is idea and execution. A film without words, is frequently an exercise given to young animators and film students alike. New storytellers often overwhelm audiences with exposition, so instead are asked to concentrate on telling a story visually, focusing on expression and craft to carry a viewer through. It is often given as a beginner’s exercise yet it is so hard. It is hard to simply to tell a story that makes sense, let alone interest your audience, let alone be true to a theme, all of which Balance does. In execution, the film is accomplished. The cuts do a fine job of relaying the action, the physics of balance are realistic enough, and key actions by characters are imbued with a forceful purpose. Several memorable shots punctuate the film, and prove haunting. As for idea, it works as a parable and allegory, and more remarkably the two contrast. It strikingly moralizes the dilemma of human beings working in cooperation. Like a story out of Game Theory, if the men were to cooperate they could all enjoy the box together, but it is selfishness that dooms them. Add though a context. A time and place to the film’s creation. Germany, 1989. If you do you realize a whole host of additional readings and levels are available to enjoy. The fact that the men are identical but for their numbers, is this not a oft-used metaphor for the anonymity desired of those in a Communist society? That they are all the same and thus interchangeable? The cooperation they display at first is perhaps indicative of form of Socialism and the box, what is the meaning of the music it plays, the dancing it inspired? Radio Free Europe used to broadcast American music, such as the jazz heard coming out of the box, into Communist countries throughout the Cold War. The box becomes a symbol of possibility, of what is outside the closed system, which inevitably undermines the system. And so a parable about selfishness becomes an allegory about German society and Soviet Communism at its fall. The sad and ironic ending of Balance, who is at fault? The men that fail to do what is best for them? Or the system that fails to acknowledge this human quality? These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]