WALLACE AND GROMIT Category I. English with Chinese subtitles: UA Queensway, Silvercord. Cantonese only: UA Sha Tin, Windsor, Broadway (Tsuen Wan, Kornhill, Tuen Mun, Kowloon Bay, Yuen Long). Released July 4.
Now here's a good idea, courtesy of Edko Films' Audrey Lee. Package together five films from top animators Aardman Animations, including three Oscar winners, and put the whole shebang on one bill. The result? A splendid time for all.
Aardman are most famous for their five-minute short Creature Comforts, which features talking animals discussing their lives in the zoo. The film, and all subsequent offerings, made use of the Claymation process, which involves remodelling plasticine models for each frame to give the impression of movement.
The Hong Kong presentation comprises two 30-minute features starring fatherly inventor Wallace and his bright pet dog Gromit, a 23-minute feature about their adventures on the moon, the original Creature Comforts, and a six-minute short called Adam.
Aardman bring a self-deprecating British humour to their work, and some clever slapstick sequences. But the appeal lies mainly in Aardman's skill at investing animals with human characteristics, much in the same way as did cartoonist Gary Larson.
Characters such as Gromit do not talk, but express themselves with a range of human expressions. The animals of Creature Comforts, on the other hand, are subject to TV-style interviews, and reply with all the nervous energy of their human counterparts.
