Rants and Ramblings: random commentary about culture, media, politics, technology and whatnot.

creature feature

It brought me great joy on Monday when I came across a certain television preview in the day’s paper. The big news: Aardman Animations, which apparently has bounced back from its tragic warehouse fire of 2005, has a new 7-episode television series on CBS — an American version of Creature Comforts, no less.

I’m a huge fan of Aardman’s work (including Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run), which tends to have a perfect balance between sly humor and genuine sweetness. (Not to mention adorable characters with overbites and buggy, expressive eyes. Gromit doesn’t talk, but his eyes speak volumes.)

Anyway, being at work I raced to the TiVo Web site and, thanks to the magic of online scheduling, set up a season pass for the show so that when I got home, it would already be taping.

And I did love the show, which features snippets of real interviews with Americans re-enacted by plasticine pairs of animals. It’s not necessarily laugh-out-loud funny, but it’s sweet and genuinely charming.

If you missed Monday’s episode, it’s available online on CBS’s Web site. (Sadly, though, it requires Real Player, which I’ve thus far managed to avoid installing on my laptop. Good thing I still have it on the TiVo.)

Updated: 6/7, 9:49 a.m. - The folks behind the show have a blog, which includes clips from the show and accounts of how some of the real-life people behind the voices felt about the first episode. This clip has some cute moments: