Creature Comforts-Episodes 1-6 (2003)

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General		Extras
Category	Animation	Menu Animation & Audio Featurette-Behind The Scenes-Creating Creature Comforts Featurette-Behind The Scenes-Bringing Creature Comforts To Life Game-Who's Missing Short Film-Oscar-winning Short Trailer-Wallace And Gromit In Project Zoo Theatrical Trailer DVD-ROM Extras
Rating
Year Of Production	2003
Running Time	53:58 (Case: 89)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Richard Goleszowski
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	The Great British Public
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$24.95	Music	Rory McLeod

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.75:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, in all episodes!

    Aardman Animations have been around for quite a while now, but really probably only entered most people's consciousness with the successes of Wallace & Gromit, Chicken Run & the original Creature Comforts, an Oscar winner for Best Animated Short in 1991. This original short is included in the extras of this disc but it is not the focus. The focus is a TV series based on the original short, made in 2003. Although he is still with Aardman, the creator of the original short, Nick Park was not directly involved. His current project is a Wallace & Gromit feature film. I loved the original short, and was very keen to review this disc.

    As with most of Aardman's work, the animation used is based upon plasticine models, painstakingly moved for each and every frame. Each day's work can produce 3-4 seconds of screen time. That's right 3-4 SECONDS! The process involved here is that a number of interviewers were sent out to interview ordinary people by asking them a combination of straight forward questions like What do you think of clowns? mixed with some slightly more oddball ones. This resulted in a large collection of soundbites. The best of these were chosen and then people involved in the project, such as the director, mimed to the voices in an exaggerated way in order for the animators to be able to work out how to move the models to correspond with the voices. Based upon the nature of each voice and the comments made, the team then decided which animal would best suit the voice, such as slugs, worms, seals, dogs, hamsters, monkeys and many more. Once the choice was made, the animators set about matching a plasticine model of the animal to the chosen voice. The result is hilarious, as we enter the world of the family pet, or creatures in the garden and get an insight into their fears, desires and opinions.

    The disc includes 6 episodes of the series with different themes, each one focusing on animals in a different environment. Each episode runs for approximately 9 minutes. The episodes are:

• The Circus - Features circus animals talking about their lives, their opinions about clowns, performance anxiety, and so on. The highlights are the dancing bears, trapeze cow and a seal who plays music.
• Pets at the Vets - Uses interviews obviously done in Doctors' waiting rooms and shows how animals feel waiting to see the vet. Includes dogs, monkeys and many more.
• Working Animals - Shows animals at work including police dogs, cockroaches, battery hens, lab mice and my favourite, a worm on the end of a fishing line who tries to keep his spirits up.
• The Sea - Sea creatures talking about their fears of the ocean and other sea creatures. Watch out for some great background jokes.
• The Garden - The lives and views of the creatures in your garden including slugs, frogs, worms and many more.
• Feeding Time - Animals discussing food and what they like to eat. Includes discussion of the state of British cuisine, how too many people eat chips and a gourmet guide to poo!

    There is some very funny stuff here and if you were a fan of the original short you will certainly get a kick out of this. Personally, I think the original short was a little more consistent but it only ran for 5 minutes so I suppose that is an unfair comparison. Regardless, this is a lot of fun and if you like the work of Aardman Animation you will certainly enjoy this.

Video

    The video quality is very good, of the quality you would expect from modern well-produced television.

    The feature is presented in a 1.75:1 aspect ratio 16x9 enhanced which is probably the original aspect ratio.

    The picture was clear and sharp throughout, with no evidence of low level noise. There was some very light grain throughout.

    The colour was excellent, and well saturated with no colour artefacts.

    There were no noticeable artefacts of any kind.

    There are no subtitles.
    

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is very good but considering that most of the sound is dialogue, your home theatre will not get much of a workout.

    This DVD contains one audio option, an English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack encoded at 192 Kb/s.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand and there was no problem with audio sync.

    The theme of this series by Rory McLeod is perfectly suitable, being fun and whimsical.

    The surround speakers added some mild atmosphere when there was music but this is pretty rare. The subwoofer was not used.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The menu was cute, included some rude noises and was fun, although slightly fiddly.

Creating Creature Comforts (23:39)

    A fascinating making-of featurette which shows the painstaking process used to create such small amounts of animated footage. It is obvious that these people love their jobs despite the detail involved. Includes interviews with the originator of the idea, Nick Park, the director of the current series, Richard Goleszowski and various other crew members. Well worth watching.

Bringing Creature Comforts to Life (3:52)

    This featurette is comparisons of storyboards to the crew acting out the voices to the final production. A three way storyboard comparison for a small number of sequences.

Who's Missing

    A simple game involving choosing the home of three of the characters from the series. If you get all three correct you gain access to character profiles for each of the three. Pretty easy!

Oscar Winning Short (5:17)

    This is the original Creature Comforts Oscar-winning short from 1989, which is very funny indeed, especially the Brazilian jaguar. An excellent addition! This is 4x3 and a little grainy.

Wallace & Gromit in Project Zoo (2:08)

    Trailers for a video game featuring Wallace & Gromit.

Trailer (2:09)

    A trailer advertising the release of this DVD.

DVD-ROM extras

    This includes 3 amusing posters for animal medical treatments (including colonic irrigation!), 8 soundbites from the series and links to the Aardman and Creature Comforts websites.

    This DVD is available in the same format in Region 2 and does not seem to be available in Region 1, although the original short is. You may as well stick to the local product.

    The video quality is very good.

    The audio quality is very good.

    The disc has a good selection of interesting and worthwhile extras including the original short.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall