Creating 'Creature Comforts : The Award-Winning Animation Brought to Life from the Creators of 'Chicken Run' and 'Wallace and Gromit

by Andy Lane, Nick Park (Foreword)

Creature Comforts captured the minds of the world with its use of innovative animation and voices of ordinary people. With microphone in view, creatures in a zoo talked about their lifestyle and what they missed about their freedom. That short film took on a life of its own, and later spawned the massively popular Heat Electric campaign in the UK, recently nominated as one of the top three advertising campaigns ever produced in Britain.

Now Creature Comforts are back! A highly anticipated series is scheduled for transmission in Autumn 2003 on ITV1 with world-wide broadcast deal in negotiation, and will feature the original Creature Comforts stars (who can forget Frank the Tortoise and his classic `off and onable’ catchphrase), along with almost 100 new characters. Talking to camera on themes such as home life, the garden and the seaside in vox pop style, our Plasticine friends will once again endear themselves to the public.

Creating Creature Comforts goes behind the scenes of both the original film and new series, examining its influence on the world of animation and film plus interviews with the creatives behind the scenes and famous fans. From Oscar success and the early advertising campaign of the 1990s to the relaunch of the brand in 2003, Creating Creature Comforts provides a definitive look at another Aardman success story.

192 pages, Hardcover

First published October 3, 2003

About the author

See also works published as Andrew Lane

During 2009, Macmillan Books announced that Lane would be writing a series of books focusing on the early life of Sherlock Holmes. The series was developed in conjunction with the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Lane had already shown an extensive knowledge of the Holmes character and continuity in his Virgin Books novel All-Consuming Fire in which he created The Library of St. John the Beheaded as a meeting place for the worlds of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Who.

The first book in the 'Young Sherlock Holmes' series – Death Cloud – was published in the United Kingdom in June 2010 (February 2011 in the United States), with the second – Red Leech – published in the United Kingdom in November of that year (with a United States publication date under the title Rebel Fire of February 2012). The third book – Black Ice – was published in June 2011 in the UK while the fourth book – Fire Storm – was published originally in hardback in October 2011 with a paperback publication in March 2012. The fifth book, Snake Bite was published in hardback in October 2012 and the sixth book, Knife Edge was published in September 2013. Death Cloud was short-listed for both the 2010 North East Book Award. (coming second by three votes) and the 2011 Southampton's Favourite Book Award. Black Ice won the 2012 Centurion Book Award.

Early in 2012, Macmillan Children's Books announced that they would be publishing a new series by Lane, beginning in 2013. The Lost World books will follow disabled 15-year-old Calum Challenger, who is co-ordinating a search from his London bedroom to find creatures considered so rare that many do not believe they exist. Calum's intention is to use the creatures' DNA to help protect the species, but also to search for a cure for his own paralysis. His team comprises a computer hacker, a free runner, an ex-marine and a pathological liar.

Reviews

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book! It has a substansial amount of information on Aardman, accompanied with some lovely little snapshots from the animations. I found it very helpful for a Screen Animation module at university, but I can see it being a nice read, for those just interested in Aardman, generally.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great overview of the history of stop-motion animation, Aardman studios, the original Creature Comforts short, and then the making of the more recent series.