Creature Comforts

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This article is about the television show. For the album by Black Dice, see Creature Comforts (album).

Creature Comforts
Format	Comedy, Animation
Created by	Nick Park, Richard Goleszowski
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of series	2
No. of episodes	27 (List of episodes)
Production
Producer(s)	Aardman Animations
Running time	10 minutes
Broadcast
Original airing	1989, 2003
External links
IMDb profile

Creature Comforts was originally a 1989 short film made in United Kingdom about how animals feel about living in a zoo, and later became a series of commercials for Heat Electric. In 2003 a television series in the same style was released.

1 The original film
2 The series
3 Regular characters
4 Miscellaneous
5 American version
- 5.1 US version staff
6 Creature Discomforts
7 DVD Releases
8 See also
9 References
10 External links

[edit] The original film

The original 5-minute film Creature Comforts was conceived and directed by Nick Park, and produced by Aardman Animations featuring the voice acting of common, everyday members of the British public, in the same vein as the "man on the street", Vox Pop interviews. It was produced as part of a series called Lip Synch for Channel 4 and can be found online exclusively at AtomFilms.

The film shows various animals in a zoo being interviewed about their living conditions. These include turtles, a female gorilla, a family of polar bears and a melancholic puma who complains about the lack of "space" and the "grass with pollen that gives me hay fever every day!"

The dialogue was created by interviewing residents of a housing development, an old folks' home and a family that lived in a local shop (the polar bears). Clay animation was then created that attributed the answers to zoo animals. One of the most popular characters was the puma. He was in fact a Brazilian student who lived in a hotel and was talking about his own situation. (Source: DVD audio commentary).

This soon led to a series of British television commercials for the Electricity Board which were made in the same style, featuring a closing voice-over by Johnny Morris. Ironically, many members of the public mistakenly believed these commercials were advertising gas heating, the main competitor to electricity.

[edit] The series

In 2003, a series of Creature Comforts films was made for the British television network ITV by Aardman Animations, with episodes directed by Richard Goleszowski. This series since aired as re-runs on Comedy Central, usually late at night. Starting in 2005 it has also aired in Australia on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, in The Netherlands on Veronica, on pay-TV channel US.TV and on internet peer-to-peer TV Joost Aardman Animations Channel.

A 30-minute special in which the regular characters attempt to perform and interpret the Christmas carol "The Twelve Days of Christmas" was first aired on December 25, 2005. The special was broadcast in Canada on the CBC on December 26, 2005.

Humour pervades all aspects of the series, for example:

A highly philosophical speech given by an amoeba.
An alligator praising her neighbourhood, the sewer.
Animals being scared of their own terrain (hydrophobic sharks and walruses, birds afraid of heights, etc.)
Background details such as:
- Insects swarming into a gap in the paving stones when a slug mimics a bird call.
- Greys blinking in unison.
- A lab mouse being interviewed while another mouse with a human ear on his back walks by.

The series gently mocks the constructed performance sometimes given by members of the general public when being interviewed for television vox-pops and documentaries. This includes the attempts to present a cogent but simple conclusive answer to a general question — a sound bite — and the attempts to present a cheery spin on a complex issue while the subject attempts to hide their personal issues and problems with the issue.

[edit] Regular characters

The following characters make regular appearances throughout the first series. These animals are always portrayed by the same interviewees to maintain consistency throughout the series.

Pickles the Guide Dog - A guide dog with an optimistic outlook and a high-pitched, exaggerated laugh.
Fluffy the Hamster - A depressed hamster who has a pessimistic view on everything including: the beach, clowns etc.
Trixie and Capt. Cuddlepuss - A dog and a cat respectively who seem like a bored, married couple who argue over cats having bad breath or Yorkshire terriers wearing lipstick.
Gary and Nigel - Two garden slugs who seem like gardening professionals and get crawled on by ladybirds. Nigel's wife is rather overweight and is reported to be on a diet (of leaves).
Sid and Nancy, the Shed Rats - Two rats who seem to be married. Sid wishes to build another shed so he can listen to the football, however Nancy thinks he wants to view pornography.
Ted and Stan - Baby birds, possible brothers
Victor the Geordie Mouse - A friendly mouse with a Geordie accent. His son has diabetes.
Frank the Tortoise - Frank first appeared in an advert sponsporing radiators. He likes a lot of foods involving chips.

[edit] Miscellaneous

A special short was aired in the US as part of Red Nose Day 2007.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] American version

Starting June 2007, CBS planned to broadcast seven episodes of an Americanized version of the show, featuring ordinary American people providing the voices, in the same vein as the British original. The series was titled "Creature Comforts" and was seen Monday nights at 8PM ET/PT from June 4 to June 18, 2007;^[1] the series was also simulcast in Canada on the CH system.

CBS also created a web presence with the help of the Creature Comforts staff. A behind-the-scenes collaborative account/blog of each episode was posted in conjunction with the 3 short-lived airings.^[2]

The American version was co-produced by Aardman Animations and The Gotham Group.

Seven episodes of this series were produced. However, the series ran for only three episodes before being cancelled by CBS due to low ratings. Its remaining episodes were never shown on television.^[3]

A standard DVD of the show's seven episodes was released on October 9, 2007 by Sony, now entitled "Creature Comforts America". Currently there is no Blu-Ray version, even though the show was mastered in 1080 HD 16x9.^[4]

On February 8, 2008, the show won an Annie Award for "Best Animated Television Production" of 2007.^[5]

In Australia, public broadcaster ABC Television began airing the American season in Australia on February 18, 2008, having aired the original British version since its inception on both ABC1 and the digital only ABC2.

On April 24, 2008, Animal Planet will pick up the first season of the American version. It will be broadcasted in both SD letterbox and native HD formats.

[edit] US version staff

Executive producers: Miles Bullough, David Sproxton, Peter Lord, Nick Park
Executive producer: Kit Boss
Producers: Kenny Micka, Gareth Owen
Directors: David Osmand, Merlin Crossingham

[edit] Creature Discomforts

A series of four ads highlighting disability and featuring the voices of disabled people telling of their experiences premiered on ITV on Christmas Day 2007.^[6]^[7]

[edit] DVD Releases

DVD Title	Country of Release	Region	Date of Release	DVD company	Catalog Number	Notes
Creature Comforts	United States	1	November 28, 2000	Image Entertainment	ID0106CUDVD	The original 1989 film presented in widescreen. Also includes the other Aardman animations Wat's Pig, Not Without My Handbag and Adam
Creature Comforts - Series 1, Part 1	United Kingdom	2	November 17, 2003	Momentum Pictures		The first half of Series 1, the original 1989 film, and other extras
Creature Comforts - Series 1, Part 2	United Kingdom	2	April 5, 2004	Momentum Pictures		The second half of Series 1, featuring many extras including ITV 1 indents, Heat Electric ads, and more
Creature Comforts - The Complete First Season	United States	1	September 27, 2005	Sony Pictures Home Entertainment	08694	Features the original 1989 film in fullscreen as an extra
Creature Comforts - Complete Series 1	United Kingdom	2	October 31, 2005	Momentum Pictures		2-disc set of the first series.
Creature Comforts - Series 2, Part 1	United Kingdom	2	November 21, 2005	Momentum Pictures		First half of Series 2, plus many making of extras.
Creature Comforts - Series 2, Part 2	United Kingdom	2	February 20, 2006	Momentum Pictures		Second half of Series 2, plus extras
Creature Comforts - The Complete Second Season	United States	1	October 24, 2006	Sony Pictures Home Entertainment	14823	2-disc set of the Second Series and the "Merry Christmas, Everybody" DVD release [see below]
Creature Comforts - Merry Christmas Everybody	United States	1	October 24, 2006	Sony Pictures Home Entertainment		Also included in the Second Series DVD release
Creature Comforts - The Complete First and Second Seasons	United States	1	October 24, 2006	Sony Pictures Home Entertainment		2-Disc set of the First and Second Series
Creature Comforts - Complete Series 2	United Kingdom	2	November 6, 2006	Momentum Pictures		3-disc set of the Second Series and "Merry Christmas Everybody"
Creature Comforts America - The Complete First Season	United States	1	October 9, 2007	Sony Pictures Home Entertainment		The seven episodes made for the cancelled American version