Creature Comforts
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Canada
Movie Reviews of Creature Comforts
Movie Review: Not for kids
Summary: 4 Stars
It's not exactly for kids, but Creature Comforts and the accompanying skits are great. My favorite is Creature Comforts (and the lion), and Not Without My Handbag cracks me up every time I watch it.Movie Review: Cool, fun, quick DVD
Summary: 4 Stars
Four 6 - 11 minute animations. Very well done and quite amusing.Movie Review: Great potatoes, but very little meat...
Summary: 3 Stars
From Aardman Animation Studios, creators of Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run, come four wonderful animation shorts.The first, Creature Comforts, winner of the 1990 Oscar for Best Animated Short Film, is cute, as various zoo animals are interviewed on what it's like to live in a zoo. This one contained some of the funniest moments of the four shorts on this disc. This short runs about 6 minutes.
The second short, Wat's Pig, is a story of two brothers born into nobility and separated at a young age, one becoming the ruler of a kingdom, and the other a poor peasant, and what happens when a neighboring kingdom decides to declare war. This one runs about 11 minutes.
The third short, Not Without My Handbag, is a darkly humorous tale, which is, as other reviewers put it, in a rather different style of animation than the other three shorts. The style and story line reminded me a lot of Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas. Due to the darker humor of the subject matter here, it may not be appropriate for younger viewers. This one runs about 11 minutes.
The final short, Adam, is a funny look at the first being created, and the problems he must face in a rather limited environment. This one runs approximately 6 minutes.
In all, there is about 35 minutes of material here (no extras), and even at a seemingly lower price, one must consider if it's worth the money. I did enjoy all the shorts, but I do wish they could have included more, even if it meant a higher cost. I would have liked seen these included as extras on either a Wallace and Gromit or Chicken Run DVD, but to release so few on one DVD seems a little wasteful. I feel like I've just had the appetizer, and now I am waiting for the entree.
Movie Review: Low QUality degrades a Collectible
Summary: 3 Stars
I love Nick Park. I remember seeing the "Creature Comforts" short on cable television in the early nineties and just falling in love with it. It was because of Wallace and Grommit that I went to my first anmiation festival.The prospect of having "Creature Comforts" for my own was just irresistable. But I couldn't help but be disappointed with the disc.
It's just that the quality is terrible. The menu is extremely limited and includes no extra features whatsoever. What would have been better than an interview with each of the animators and writers? Or a "making of" short? Certainly, there wasn't a problem with having enough space on the disc.
The color filtering problems on the menu page and the monophonic sound terrified me. "Creature Comforts" is monophonic, and the rest are in simple stereo.
The picture quality in the shorts is better than on the menu, but not at all up to modern DVD standards. Neither is the sound--two channel stereo. I guess that's because the original material wasn't produced with much of a budge, and it was done a decade ago.
The undercard features were interesting, but didn't appeal to me like Creature Comforts does. I didn't find "Not Without My Handbag" as scary as some others did, but I think it's a mistake to buy this disc for children and expect them to get anything from it.
If you're a Nick Park fan and want "Creature Comforts" for your collection, this DVD is a must-have... even though ten bucks is a little steep for a single short feature. Otherwise, stick to the full-length features.
Movie Review: Mixed Bag
Summary: 3 Stars
This collection of pre-"Chicken Run" and "Wallace and Gromit" cartoons by Nick Park and Peter Lord (for Aardman Animation) is something of a mixed bag. There are two genuine masterpieces, a complete misfire, and a slightly mediocre one."Creature Comforts" is the best short here. It's a wonderful mockumentary where animals in the zoo are interviewed about how much they like their atmosphere. "Not Without My Handbag" is the second best, a brilliant weird short about a woman who's come back from hell to retrieve her handbag. "Adam" is the third best. It's a short about the first man on Earth (an anatomically correct Adam). While some of Adam's bits of business are amusing, it's not as interesting a piece as it should be. Last and least is "Wat's Pig", a very dull story about seperated twins (one of them has the title pig. That pig is the short's main asset.)
The DVD has plenty of wear and tear and the colours look a little muted. The picture is, however, pretty sharp. "Creature Comforts" is letterboxed (1.85:1). There are no extras, but that's not surprising.