The voices of each character were performed by residents of both a housing estate and an old people's home. Rather than the subject being one-sided or biased towards one viewpoint, there is a strong balance of opinions in the film, with some interviewees who are happy with their living situation, some who are not, and some who have a neutral opinion. These include Tracey, a depressed gorilla, a Brazilian puma, a mother opossum, and a young hippopotamus who complain about the cold weather, the poor quality of their enclosures and the lack of space and freedom.īy contrast, a tarsier, Alex, a former circus chicken, a turtle, and an armadillo praise their enclosures for the comfort and security they bring, and a family of polar bears, particularly one named Andrew, talk about both the advantages and disadvantages of zoos for the welfare of animals. The film shows various animals in a zoo being interviewed about their living conditions.
The film won Nick Park the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1990.
It was produced as part of a series called Lip Synch for Channel 4. The original Creature Comforts short film was five minutes and a few seconds long and was conceived and directed by Nick Park and produced by Aardman Animations, featuring the voices of British non-actors in the same vein as the "man on the street" Vox Pop interviews. An American version of the series was also made. The film later became the basis of a series of television advertisements for the electricity boards in the United Kingdom, and in 2003, a television series in the same style was released. It was created by Nick Park and Aardman Animations. The film matched animated zoo animals with a soundtrack of people talking about their homes, making it appear as if the animals were being interviewed about their living conditions. Originally Unaired Further episode: 25 June 2011Ĭreature Comforts is a British stop-motion comedy mockumentary franchise originating in a 1989 British humorous animated short film of the same name.
33 (1 special, 26 British episodes & 7 American episodes) ( list of episodes)