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The greatest movie ever made..!

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

This is one early effort by famous claymation legend Nick Park. It's the one that came out at the very same time as his first Wallace and Gromit film and also gave him his first Oscar.I think it's a really good film to show your children, for example right after you took them to the zoo. It's about a bunch of zoo animals whose exposure to humans talking every single day has finally taught them a way to speak as well. And not only can they express their words via language, they also know how to gesture the appropriate way during a conversation in order to emphasize their opinion. So they're weighing in on the pros and cons of living on limited space behind bars (or glass walls). What I like the most is that it doesn't try to alter the viewer's opinion exclusively to one side, but approach the issue from both sides that there's good things as well as bad things to it. It's a nicely animated and educating little short film and I'd recommend it.If you like it as well, make sure to check out the TV show with the same names based on this one and made almost 15 years later.

This short was made by the same team that made Wallace and Gromit shorts. In fact, in 1991, both this film and the first Wallace and Gromit film (A GRAND DAY OUT) were nominated for the Oscar's Best Animated Short Film category--so both films were competing against each other. Because of this, technically speaking, both films were very similar--using stop motion claymation with gorgeous scenery.However, when it came to the stories themselves, there was a major difference. While A GRAND DAY OUT had a fully developed story (with a defined plot and characters), CREATURE COMFORTS was a one concept film--showing zoo animals in cages talking about their lives as if they were real people. Frankly, I hated CREATURE COMFORTS and thought the novelty of seeing these animals talk about the most mundane things was interesting only for the first few seconds--whereas the Wallace and Gromit film was brilliant. So, of course, the Academy chose CREATURE COMFORTS for the award! I've seen CREATURE COMFORTS twice--because I thought maybe I was too critical. But, the second time I noticed the exact same thing--great animations and a story that was about as compelling as watching grass grow!! Take my advice, watch the Wallace and Gromit film and you'll see what I'm talking about--after several more followup episodes of Wallace and Gromit AND a feature length film, it's pretty obvious I might just be right about this one--the Academy gave it to the wrong Nick Park film.I give this one a 6--the animation quality was lovely.

If there's any single short out there that marked a real defining point for those claymation whiz kids down at Aardman, I'd say 'Creature Comforts' is the one. The debut piece of the now legendary Nick Park (who'd go on to create a series of captivating short films featuring a certain cheese-loving inventor and his well-read canine cohort, whose names I'm sure you don't need me to spell out for you here), it's now a widely-regarded classic in stop motion animation history, and there are some pretty good reasons for that. No other Aardman project, great as they frequently are, has managed to combine such high levels of whimsy, charm and poignancy quite as deftly as this one. The bright idea of taking real-life recordings with members of the public and aligning them with talking plasticine animals in the style of vox pop interviews (in this case, zoo animals commenting on their general living conditions, as extracted from discussions with residents of retirement homes, council housing and student halls) was so fresh, so ingenious and so delightful that the five minute running time designated here simply wasn't enough. It was a concept which begged to be extended, and it spawned a much-deserved franchise in the early 90s with TV ads for the UK's Heat Electric and, more recently, a long-awaited TV series in 2003. A franchise which in turn helped to establish Aardman's now-firm reputation for colourful, offbeat cosiness, as opposed to some of the more downbeat and sombre shorts they'd been working on for much of the 80s (many of which were good enough in their own right - Peter Lord's 'Going Equipped', which debuted alongside 'Creature Comforts' in the Channel 4 series 'Lip Synch, in particular is more than worth a look).Compared to a lot of the output that followed it, the animation here may look a little primitive by today's standards (the depressed gorilla, for example, is quite clearly riddled with the animator's finger prints), but it's an easily forgivable fault, and doesn't detract from the visual joy that this short is swimming in from start to finish. Get a load of all those wonderful sight gags - the elderly bush-baby's gigantic magnified pupils, the unidentified birds with beaks held on by elastic bands (the antics of the non-speaking characters hovering about in the background have always been something to keep an eye out for in the 'Creature Comforts' realm), the treadmill-running terrapins, the dozens of shrieking, flailing baby rodents…all of it gold. Earning Nick Park an Oscar in 1990 for his efforts, it's endearing and comical to the bone - and yet there's also a mild tinge of sadness to it that I doubt 'Creature Comforts' would have been nearly as memorable without. For all the quirky cuteness that those clay-built critters possess, the anguish of a few of the original speakers remains persistent in their voices, and shines through in their pertaining characters quite dynamically. Most of the animals, it would seem, are perfectly contented with their lives in captivity, but there are a few who feel the sting of alienation, the homesick wild cat from Brazil being the standout personality on this one - the high range of exaggerated mannerisms that Park uses to bring him to life are unforgettable.A lovely film and a wonderful concept, what makes 'Creature Comforts' such a striking experience is, in part, how it touches upon some of the helplessness and frustrations of having to live in a world you feel out of place in. It's also a whole lot of fun too.Grade: A

An interviewer goes to a zoo in order to interview the animals there. Her subjects include polar bears, big cats, an ape, a turtle and others. The subjects of conversation include the weather, their living conditions and what they like to eat.One of the very first projects from Nick Park and it is still very funny now. The animation looks a little dated but the idea is the same so it's not too bad. My understanding is that real people were interviewed for the voices and the animals were matched up to them – i.e. these aren't scripts.The end result is hilarious – the animals are matched to their accents and their subject matter really well. By themselves the words would be dull for the majority, while the animation would be merely cute. Together the film is very funny. Some of it is wise and slightly touching but really it's just funny to hear animals talk about their conditions as if they were humans!This was used for adverts in the UK to great effect and it is responsible for starting Nick park's path to Wallace and Gromit and Oscar fame. Overall a simple idea is turned into a wonderfully bright little short that is worth seeing for anyone who has seen Wallace & Gromit.