The 60-year-old virgin?
Nick Park shares his thoughts about the plasticine puppets that star in Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Although there's one burning question that he doesn't know the answer to. Read on.
Why do you stay with clay animation in this age of computer animation?
I just love coming up with film ideas and slapstick jokes and characters, and I find that clay is just right for expressing those ideas. It's served me well as a medium. You know, I can control it. The beauty of it is the animator is working in a very direct way, working in front of a camera—you can improvise, you can just tweak. Gromit's eyebrows probably would never have come out of a computer-generated animation. He was born out of clay, really.
What's it like moving little puppets by hand to make a movie?
It takes a concentrated mind. You're thinking all the time about the character and how it moves. If someone comes in and distracts you, [you lose track]: Which character did I move last?
What happens if you can't remember?
We have a certain technology that helps you remember, like a video monitor [that stores] the last image. If a puppet falls over, you can put it back exactly where it was.
What kind of clay do you use?
We call it plasticine. It's oil-based so it doesn't go hard; it stays soft for a long time. It's just really good for doing small subtleties, like those human kinds of expressions that Gromit has. I'm sure you can do that with computer animation, or you can probably get it to do that if you're really good, but I've never made the choice myself. Clay was what I always used, from being a 12-year-old really doing animated movies as a hobby in my dad's shed.
How did you pick the name Gromit?
As a teenager, I heard my brother saying the word gromit because he was an electrician—it's a rubber bit of insulation. I just liked the word. I've also just been to Australia and heard that it's the name for a novice surfer.
So, I must ask: Is Wallace the original 40-year-old virgin?
Oh gosh, I don't know, I never asked him. I wouldn't like to know. He'll probably never say. It will have to remain a mystery until future films. Although actually I think he's in his 60s. A lot of people are surprised when I say that.
And what made you pick the name Wallace?
I just kind of liked the name really. I once heard some old lady get on a bus with a great fat dog saying, "Come on, Wallace. Sit down, Wallace." And that's what it came from.
Was the "were-rabbit" inspired by Bunnicula, the vampire bunny of children's literature?
No, I've never heard of that. I thought this was an original when I thought of it, using a rabbit in a horror movie genre.
Is your movie too scary for little kids?
I really wanted to scare kids a bit. I loved being scared by Snow White and the seven dwarfs. There's a kind of a good way to scare kids. And the were-rabbit isn't scary for very long. When you get to see him he's a big fluffy silly thing. —Marc Silver
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