Man of clay

"Wallace and Gromit" creator Nick Park talks about his Oscar nomination, nutty inventions and jokes that Yanks don't get.

By Joe DiMento

Read more: Movies, Arts & Entertainment

©2005 Dreamworks Animation

Nick Park

March 1, 2006 | In a year full of big blockbusters and heavy message films, "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" offered audiences something altogether different: pure fun. The claymation confection starring a quirky cheese-loving inventor and his mute but remarkably expressive dog emerged not just as an Oscar contender, but also as the best-reviewed movie of 2005. The second feature-length film from writer/director Nick Park (the first was 2000's exuberant "Chicken Run"), "Were-Rabbit" scored a 95 percent positive rating with critics, according to an amalgamation of the film's reviews compiled by RottenTomatoes.com, which ranks films based on their critical reception. Its competitors for the Academy Award for best animated feature, Hayao Miyazaki's "Howl's Moving Castle" and "Tim Burton's Corpse Bride," earned 84 percent and 83 percent approval from critics, respectively. Salon's Stephanie Zacharek called "Were-Rabbit" "85 minutes of bliss."

Park, 47, who created Wallace and Gromit while studying at the British National Film and Television School and joined the Bristol, England, stop-motion animation company Aardman Animations in 1985, first introduced the lovable clay duo in the short film "A Grand Day Out." That film was nominated for a best animated short Oscar in 1991, but was beaten out by another Park creation, "Creature Comforts." Park has also collected Academy trophies for two other Wallace and Gromit shorts, "The Wrong Trousers" (1993) and "A Close Shave" (1995). (And he's the man behind Peter Gabriel's landmark "Sledgehammer" video.) This year's nomination for "Were-Rabbit" is Park's first for a feature-length film. (Click here to see Park's short "Shopper 13," which originally aired on the BBC.)

Park recently spoke with Salon over the phone from Aardman's headquarters in Bristol.

You've called shorts "frustrated feature films." How did it feel to move from the short format to a feature film with "The Curse of the Were-Rabbit"?

We were always very involved with the characters, and it was liberating to get to do so much with them. We started with an idea that demanded to be made. I think whenever you're doing a feature it has to be something that you really are passionate about. It's got to last a good five years in your head.

Do you find it difficult to work with the same characters for such a long time?

No, they're a pleasure to work with. The great thing about having characters that are established is that they sort of start to write themselves. And I think the dynamic -- the smart dog and the not-so-smart man -- brings its own kind of comedy all the time. With [co-director] Steve Box and myself, we sit down and think of an idea, and automatically a whole bunch of jokes become inevitable. Because once you know the characters, there's an exchange between them -- like working with Laurel and Hardy.

Do you think you'll make another Wallace and Gromit feature film?

I haven't ruled it out. I think, having spent such a long time with them, it's slightly difficult having to go straight into another one. But I always think of coming back to them at some point. It might be soon; it might be not so soon. I think of them all the time, though. I can't help but think of new things for them.

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