Nick Park, creator of "Wallace and Gromit," enjoys a good cheese. Wensleydale is his favorite, but he says he also likes cheddar and Lancashire. However, Park is quick to point out he's not quite as obsessed with cheese as his claymation character, Wallace.
"Curse of the Were-Rabbit" is the fourth clay adventure of Wallace and his dog, Gromit, but the first to be feature-length (80 minutes). Since "A Grand Day Out," the duo's first short, Park's animation crew has grown considerably.
"I did 'A Grand Day' as a college project," Park says with an English accent nearly identical to that of Wallace. Back then the crew was essentially just Park doing the models, animation and lighting. He had occasional help, sure, but nothing compared to the crew of 250 on "Curse of the Were-Rabbit," which included 30 animators and 60 model makers.
Park is one of the few animators left using claymation to tell his stories. Computer generated graphics have become more prevalent in recent times. Even famed animation studio Walt Disney no longer employs artists to draw by hand.
"I love working with the clay," he says. Park says computer animation is just the way things are going now, and he actually has admiration for a lot of it. In the past few years he said he has greatly enjoyed movies like "The Incredibles" and "Madagascar." Still, he says that for him, working with real models is much more flexible. "I can get some very human expressions."
And indeed he does, and not just on the humans. The extremely emotive dog Gromit never speaks up, not even to bark, throughout any of his adventures.
Park's films tend to center around animals, whether it was the hens and roosters in "Chicken Run" or the dogs and rabbits in his latest film.
"I find humorous the relationship between humans and animals," he says. "I think we as humans often liken ourselves to animals."
Back once more is actor Peter Sallis as the voice of Wallace. He has voiced the character since "A Grand Day Out."
"I couldn't imagine Wallace without Peter now," says Park. "Peter is Wallace and vice versa."
Park's films also tend to involve a lot of mechanical contraptions that do astounding things. "Chicken Run" had a deadly device that efficiently converted chickens into pot-pie in mere seconds. In "Curse of the Were-Rabbit," viewers are exposed to several of Wallace's quirky inventions.
Park says his favorite is Wallace's bed, which tips up every morning and drops the Englishman down a chute into first his clothes and then a chair at his breakfast table. He says that he'd love to have a real life equivalent.
"Curse of the Were-Rabbit" was in development for almost five years, and Park says that right now he wants to take some time off from animation. Still, a few new projects are in the early stages of development. Park says a CGI film about rats in London is in the works, as is a traditional clay movie that Monty Pythoner John Cleese is writing about cavemen.
Park says he also has a few ideas kicking around for new "Wallace and Gromit" exploits, but currently has no definite plans for a sequel.
