The Friday Fillip

Nick Park, the master of claymation and creator of the Wallace and Gromit films, did a couple of series of shorts earlier in his career called Creature Comforts, which featured, as the credits put it, “voices of the great British public” as soundtracks to various delightful pseudo-documentaries.

In one Oscar winner winner animals discuss life at the zoo. “Accustomed to open spaces and sunnier climes, they comment on the accomodation, diet and the English weather.” You can see this 5-minute short on Atom Films, a site where Park’s film is shown with his permission. (Ignore the brief annoying ad that precedes it.) The lion is just brilliant.

I can’t find even an illicit copy of The Garden, the film I consider the best of the Creature Comforts series, but on YouTube I did find The Circus (9 minutes), which is almost as charming. Here it’s the seal that I find amazing.

Give yourself what is surely a well-deserved break from the serious and treat yourself to the real world re-imagined. You won’t regret it.