Nov 04 2009
Retro Television: Nick Park interview marks Wallace and Gromit 20th birthday
This week marks the twentieth anniversary of plasticine stop motion stars Wallace and Gromit, an event brought to my attention by today’s Google doodle (pictured above).
In celebration, Aardman have posted a twenty-minute feature with animator Nick Park at the W&G Official site. In it, the Academy Award-winning creator is asked twenty specially selected questions posed to him by members of the fan club. Or at least, the website.
In fact, I think I’ll be so generous as to just leave it here for you so you don’t have to go to all that hassle of clicking around. How rather thoughtful of us, eh? Video is on the other side of the break, though thankfully not a commercial one.
Going back to that Google doodle for a minute, it takes a bit of effort to actually decipher the word ‘Google’ in all the chaos, and if it weren’t on the Google website you wouldn’t actually know unless you were some sort of master cryptographer. No surprise, then, that the major new websites are concentrating on the actual doodle rather than the anniversary itself, such is the power of the California-based company.
The characters themselves, though, have their roots firmly planted in Lancashire, residing as they do in Wigan. Funny that, never seen them walking around town, buying cheese and such from Tesco. Rumour has it that they have plasticine bodyguards that splatter everywhere if you punch them in the gut, and it takes a team of twelve people thirty minutes to reconstruct them in a special studio. So, if you live in Wigan, try it yourself!
Crackin’ post, Gromit.
