Review of Aardman Classics

Introduction

Everyone remembers the classic Creature Comforts animation and the `Heat Electric` advertisements it spawned.

Erm, before I get told off, I must point out that by everyone I mean everyone who remembers watching the various animations referred to in the above sentence and not everyone in general :)

They were created by Aardman Animation Studios, who went on to win Oscars with the Wallace and Gromit short films, made in the same style.

They also made Morph, quite possibly the best use of plasticine in the world ever.

Video

Everything is in standard 1:1.33, which isn`t a problem as that is the way they were filmed and intended to be viewed.
Video quality varies from animation to animation as some of these are very old - at no time does it detract from the experience though, and sometimes adds to it!

Audio

Nothing fancy, but the voices are easy to understand although some of the `Heat Electric` ads come across slightly muddy in places.

Features

In addition to a slightly confusing, but entertaining, feature selection system (there isn`t a standard scene selection idea as these animations tend to be fairly short) labelled as a scrapbook, we get a biography or two and a fairly interesting behind the scenes commentary.

On picking up the dvd box, you will be surprised at the weight.... no, there`s no second disc, what you do get is a thick, heavy book all about Aardman. There`s a lot here and it`s definitely easier to read as a book that it would have been on screen.

Conclusion

Great fun if you are a fan of Aardman animation, or if you are interested in animation as an art form as this disc contains everything from early work through to some of their more recent stuff.

If you have warm, fuzzy memories of talking animals cooking with electric ovens, keep-fit tortoises and annoying baby penguins, even better.

You also get some award winning animation (Wat`s pig) and a book!

This is a wonderful dvd to keep the kids quiet too as they have put over 2 hours on here.

Thoroughly recommended if you are a fan.