Product Description

Movie DVD

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12833 in DVD
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 2007-10-09
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 169 minutes

Amazon.com
To create his Oscar-winning short "Creature Comforts" (1989), director Nick Park recorded ordinary people talking, rather than professional actors reading scripts. When he animated clay figures to match those voices, the animal characters seemed to be discussing life in a zoo: a bored gorilla, an awkward young polar bear, an impatient Brazilian jaguar. The premise of using amateur voices and animals to comment on everyday situations was adapted to a series on ITV in Britain in 2003, then in America four years later. Something got lost in the translation. Creature Comforts America opens with the statement, "Across the United States, hundreds of ordinary Americans were interviewed on a variety of subjects. This is what they had to say." But the performances often sound stagey, rather than spontaneous, and the producers rely heavily on Southern and Jewish accents for comedy. In each episode, various animals talk about specific topics: going to the doctor, working animals, celebrity look-likes, etc. A pug announces her father always said she looked like Jane Fonda; two parakeets kvetch about their ailments; a female panda browbeats a low-life male. Although the time and budget constraints of television production preclude the polished animation of the original short, the English series kept its cozily befuddled tone. The American filmmakers were less fettered by constraints of taste: a dialogue between wine buffs about the "nose" of a vintage is transposed to a pair of dogs sniffing the derriere of a third. Creature Comforts America may appeal to fans of Family Guy, but the British version is far more satisfying. (Unrated, suitable for ages 12 and older: gross, toilet and risqué humor) --Charles Solomon

Customer Reviews

A very clever idea that didn't catch on in the US
"Creature Comforts" comes from the same company that produces the wonderful claymation "Wallace & Gromit" shorts and movies like "Chicken Run." Episodes consisted of scenes of claymation animals speaking with the voices of regular people talking about their everyday lives.

A British version has become very popular in the UK but unfortunately the American version just didn't catch on. CBS pulled the series after only three weeks on the air due to low ratings.

Why? The show wasn't really intended for kids and I suspect many adults didn't watch it because they thought that it was for children. A producer on the series also shared with me that the length of the show (30 minutes) might have been a problem. The UK episodes are about 10 minutes long which may be the ideal length for something like this.

The project took months and months to complete so it's nice that the fans and general public will now have a chance to see all seven episodes.

NOT FOR THE KIDDIES
One evening while surfing the channels on my television, I stumbled on an episode of this show of "Creature Comforts America". Being an extreme fan of the British version of this program, I came to a stop ending my channel surfing for a time. As a previous reviewer on this board so succinctly wrote, these are NOT really cartoons for the kids; however, they are very funny Claymation cartoons really for GROWNUPS! In this American version, the creatures have wonderfully varying American accents that are hysterical plus they are being asked questions that could be considered more relevant to our country or more particularly "American" questions--some being taken from the news in the USA. I particularly love the Claymation character of the snake that has just swallowed the cat along with the horny panda bears--all are hysterical. I am just so very glad that they have released season one on DVD and I am also so very sad that there won't be anymore releases due to the show's cancellation because it is indeed so very funny.

Creature Comforts - pulled too soon
I came to this American version already a fan of the original Nick Park short and the BBC series, so I knew pretty much what to expect. What surprised me, though, was just how much funnier this American series seemed to me than the BBC version! I'm a long-time fan of British comedy (everything from Fawlty Towers to Monty Python to Spaced to Mr. Bean to The Office), but for some reason this American edition just kept me laughing the entire time, whereas the British version had more spaced out laughs.

Intact in this version are the hilarious sight-gags in the background, the delightful design of the animals, and the hilarious juxtaposition of human responses coupled with non-human settings.

I watched both of the episodes as they aired, and was so disappointed to hear that the series had been canceled immediately thereafter. I was very surprised, actually, because a lot of my friends had watched the show on their own and loved it just as much as I had. I don't know if they didn't advertise it enough or what, but everyone I showed it too later thought it was great, so I wish they'd given it more of a chance. Oh well.

I'm glad they at least put the whole season out on DVD. This will make a good present for many family members and friends this year for Christmas.