Posted on 10/10/2005 4:54:19 AM PDT by Da_Shrimp
Props and sets from the Wallace and Gromit films are believed to have been destroyed in a warehouse blaze. Fire crews were called to Oscar-winning Aardman Animations' Bristol site, which contained the company's "entire history", a spokesman said.
Wallace and Gromit creator Nick Park said it was "dreadful" for the company but comparatively "not a big deal".
The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, the new Wallace and Gromit film, has just gone to the top of the US box office chart.
Company Spokesman Arthur Sheriff said: "It couldn't have come on a worse day - we were supposed to be celebrating, but instead our history has disappeared in a couple of hours.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
Toasted cheese, Gromit?
Did Wallace or Gromit say anything bad about Klinton lately?
I saw this delightful movie this weekend...very witty.
Havent seen it yet, THE WRONG TROUSERS was one of the funniest movies on the Planet!
LOL!
That's a sad stroy. Our family LOVES Wallace and Gromit. One of our dogs is named Gromit. ;-)
The Wrong Trousers contains one of the most exciting chase scenes in movie history...I'm not kidding.
My kids and I saw this Friday afternoon. They loved it.
Hmmm, good point, it might need investigating!
I haven't seen the new one yet, either, and you're right, The Wrong Tousers was hilarious.
or even, 'Trousers'
Nick Park understands the true nature of penguins...
What a shame. I love Nick Park's stuff, from the W&C shorts, to "Chicken Run", to the commercials he's done, and a short documentary he did for the BBC, animating zoo animals with children providing the voices. He is brilliant for capturing facial expression with clay - Gromit doesn't speak a word, but his expressions of long-suffering and quirky curiosity put living actors and actresses to shame - and Gromit's expressions are based almost entirely on his eyebrows! (Yes, dogs have eyebrows)
Claymation has to be THE most time-intensive animation going, when I watch his stuff, or films like "Nightmare Before Christmas", all I can think of is the loooong hours they needed to create it. I was involved in a failed claymation short in college, and it's very, very tedious. That Park gets the level of subtlety that he does is nothing short of genius.
(And the chase scene in The Wrong Trousers IS one of the greatest chase scenes EVER.)
Shame they lost stuff, but the great thing about claymation is, they just need more clay. :) I'd love to have seen the props and sets though, it would be like the show I saw years ago when Lucasfilm and other movie companies had props and models from the top sci-fi movies on display in LA - lots of Star Wars models, the mechanical Lifter from Alien 3 (With a monstrous replica of the queen alien), stuff like that. The detail of the ILM stuff for Star Wars was amazing!
But, just like the Star Wars stuff, it's cool they have it all, but if the movies survive, that's all that matters. W&C will go on, despite this sad fire.
Now, if only it did'nt take him years to make movies! :)
I'd bet it's royalty issues - the song "Happy Birthday" is copywritten, and you have to pay fees to use it. The RIAA probably caught up with them between the VHS and DVD release, or they decided the fees were too high to pay. It would also be too expensive to rerecord the commentary to take the song out, or they missed it, it would be interesting to see if it's on current release DVDs.
Ever see a movie on network tv , and the music is different? Same reasons.
Now that's a problem
that doesn't worry Pixar!
Offsite backups rule!
What's a Wallace & Gromit?
Kind of like Tom & Jerry? Maybe Beany & Cecil?
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