Creature Comforts

Creature Comforts was originally a 1989 animated short film made in Britain about how animals feel about living in a zoo, and later became a series of commercials for Heat Electric. In 2003, a television series in the same style was released.

The show is a series of short films, in the style of "Wallace and Gromit". The voices are interviewed members of the public, talking about whatever subject they have been given. Aardman then choose the creature best for them and create a scene for them. The purpose is to be witty and, in some cases, educational.

Pilot Episode

• Female Interviewer: Sound running, when you're ready.
• Andrew Polar Bear: Er, well the zoo is very important to animals, they're a bit like homes, like nursing camps, and for poor animals and, um...people like old people. And there's old animals which are dead, and people in the wild have... don't have much to eat, so they have to kill their own people, to have something to eat.
• Armadillo: Oh, it's very, very good. Very good. Very comfortable, you know, and we're well-looked after in a nice position.
• Brazilian Puma: They try to make you comfortable; they try to put you in that quite nice situation with the standard food that look more like a dog food that food proper for wild animals, all right?
• Baby Hippo: Well, um, most of the cages are a bit small, and either grotty and everything, but the truth is, uh, there are big pools to play around, and there's lots of them there. They looked really happy.
• Tortoise: Yeah, well it's reasonably comfortable, I suppose. There's space, but it's, um, erm... I mean, I've been in more comfortable rooms, yes.
• Brazilian Puma: If you try to compare the situations and the environment that we live in here with the environment that we live in Brazil, there is a big difference. Here, you live in a very small place with all the technological advances possible. You have, uh... everything sorted out, double glazing, you know, your heating and everything in Brazil, but you don't have the space! In Brazil you have the space, although you don't have all this technological, you know, double glazing and things like that, you know, but you have the space and uh... we need space to live, we need space to feel that we are part of the world and not a kind of a piece of object in a box.
• Mother Opossum: My room is... is a bit too small really, and I've got so much stuff in it that if I'd get anything new there's just nowhere to put it.
• Tracey the Gorilla: Well, sometimes, you can't-you can't get out and about just as much as you would like to. You're stuck in for some reason like I'm stuck in today. And, um, then yes, you get bored, and you get fed up with looking at the same four walls.
• Tortoise: I try to spend as little time in here as possible, but I can't actually get out and about. I use to escape into books and things.
• Tarsier: I feel very secure. I'm well looked after, very well looked after, and I... I'm not worried about anything. I know whatever happens, they'll look after me and put me where I hope to be.
• Mama Polar Bear: I think they... they'd like it in the wild if they were in the wild, but I think it's much better to be in... um... bars, because, like I said, they get fed, whereas some animals, they go for days without food!
• Alex the Chicken: Because animals that live in the circus have to, um, get on boxes and balls, but animals in the zoo, they don't have to do anything. They can do their own things like drinking and eating.
• Brazilian Puma: I miss somewhat of the food. I miss the fresh meat. You know, because in Brazil, we are predominately carnivores. We are not, you know, vegetarians, and um, we don’t like potatoes, we like meat, and we like fresh meat.
• Papa Polar Bear: My favourite food is, I'm afraid to say, steak. I, uh... I go a long way to go and get a nice steak.
• Andrew Polar Bear: Um, do you like - do you like lions - um, do you like lions as well, then? Do you like steaks and chips with lions on it?
• Papa Polar Bear: Not with lions, Andrew. No, I don't like the lion's steak. I... I prefer the ordinary steak.
• Tracey the Gorilla: I'd like to go somewhere a bit hotter. I don't like getting rained on, and I don't like getting cold, and I find that here I often get rained on and I'm often cold.
• Brazilian Puma: Where I would like to live and to spend most of my life? In a hot country. You know, in a hot country, that I have the good weather, and that I have space, that I have trees. You know? That I don’t have only grass with pollen that gives me hay fever every day. I need a space with blue skies without that I can see the sun every day, alright? That I have the nice weather, that I can just have nice water, you know, to dive, to swim in. It means a tropical country, not in an island, a cold one. It's easy. Any part of the world but hot - name it and I go.

Heat Electric Commercials

• Frank the Tortoise: It's easily controllable and it needs easily controllable as well because I don't have much time and I'm a busy person. So I have to have everything just as I need it. Well, they should be fairly modern in design and it has to be easily turn off and on-able.

The Circus

• Fluffy the Hamster: I haven't got any circus skills at all. I can't juggle, I can't throw the knife at the lady, I can't tame the lion, and I can't crack the whip or... or jump into a small bucket. Can't do any of those things.
• Toto the Performing Monkey: I'm not sure whether it does excite me anymore, or if it's just the money.
• Muzulu the Performing Monkey: It does me, the thing that excites me about performing really is the fact that you're doing some good, you're making people laugh.
• Toto the Performing Monkey: Except the ones that walk off.
• Muzulu the Performing Monkey: Except the ones that walk off.
• Lou the Elephant: You've got to communicate with the audience, but not to look at them, because you are apart from them, and it would break the illusion.
• Joan the White Horse: I normally try and interact with an audience, but with 800, it becomes really difficult, but I actually think I managed, and that's an amazing feeling to just see that you're making an impact.
• Matilda the Cow: I had to stand on one leg and blow a raspberry. [blows a raspberry] Go arse over... whatsit in front of 250 people. And I bonked my head, I thought I was a goner, and I heard them as I hit the floor go, 'ohhh!' like that. And it was weird, 'cause I like took off. I just like flew! And I was just so embarrassed, I was like, 'no, I'm fine, I'm fine, just get back on, just get back on, just get back on, I'm fine, I'm fine'.
• Mr. Tickles the Seal: You need to warm all those areas up. Your body, and then moving on to your voice, and I start to hum. Then there's opening your voice and going 'aaa ooo aaa ooo aaa ooo'.
• Pickles the Dog: Erm, no, what I enjoy about the clowns I think they're very talented actually, because, erm, when clowns get together at the circus, they can do things that are very funny, like they can throw custard pies at each other and things, in a very funny way to make a lot of people laugh, and you have to be very talented to be able do that, you have to be an entertainer.
• Ronald the Black Horse: [discussing clowns and slapstick] If it's badly done, it can be very sad.
• Joan the White Horse: It's totally embarrassing, yeah, I don't like clowns.
• Ronald the Black Horse: If it doesn't work out, you feel pity for them, and that's, like, so awful.
• Mr. Tickles the Seal: Every time I went on, I could just feel the people laughing at me, it was fantastic! That gives me such a buzz. Such a hell of a buzz.
• Miss Dynamite the Pig: I am scared of heights a bit. I think I could get over it though.

Pets at the Vets

• Louise the Budgerigar: Doctors have always scared me because when I was born, I nearly died. I had a 50-50 per cent chance of living when I was born, and I was in a little incubator, and my eyes were all covered over, and I was yellow. Which was awful.
• Percy the Piranha: I rarely go to the doctor. Last time I went, he thought I'd died because I hadn't been for such a long time.
• Fluffy the Hamster: I once had my head slammed in a door, that was good. I was saying goodbye to my friend, and somebody slammed the door on my head, and it was my birthday, and I had to have five stitches in my head, so I've got them as well.
• Toby the Scottish Persian Cat: I remember having a severe cold which didn't shift, and I shared a flat with a couple of vet students who dosed me on Famel syrup, the main active ingredient of which I believe is creosote. So, I spent several days smelling like a fence post, but it did the job.
• Clement the Bloodhound: Now, you see, I've had a lot of things wrong with me. There was big problems with my eyes at one stage. I went in about my eyes a lot of times, and had to go and see specialists. But, you see, what they do is they clamp your head in a... big... clamp, and then, they want to bounce things on your eyeballs.
• Alvin the Dancing Bear: I've fallen for a nurse, yeah. I fell for a nurse once, blond, beautiful lady, quite nice she was, yes, used to travel to Birmingham to see her on the old motorbike.
• Percy the Piranha: That big black mask. You can see it coming towards your face, and the smell of the rubber... Having all my bottom teeth filled without anesthetic... Dentists. Just... brutal. Really brutal.
• Ivana the Lioness: On my face, my legs, my stomach, my arms, wrists, hands, everywhere. There is no one part on my body that does not have a scar.
• Martin the Pig: I was injured badly once, somebody kicked me in the forehead. Being very young, I got up and carried on, and didn't think it had done me much damage, for all I know some of that damage may still be there, may still affect some of the things I do, and some of the things I say.
• Percy the Piranha: I think it's great. I love smiling, I love being happy and jovial, telling jokes, being the butt end of jokes, but, hey, now, I can do it with a mouth full of teeth, and I'm really looking forward to it.

Working Animals

• Elizabeth the Battery Hen: Come on, I'm watching you. Half an hour's gone, and you 'aven't done nothing.
• Stella the Battery Hen: Teamwork. That's one thing about it I like. I wouldn't like to work on my own. There used to be more...
• Elizabeth the Battery Hen: There used to be 200 of us.
• Stella the Battery Hen: We've lost quite a few.
• Elizabeth the Battery Hen: We're all getting older now, look.
• Pheasant: Early on, when you're young, you kind of get too excited, and you use up so much energy getting nervous, as you get older, now that I'm older, you just try and stay calm. [a gunshot is heard; the pheasant hides behind a bush] Ohhh, go away!
• Trixie: They use mice, don't they, for things?
• Captain Cuddlepuss: What? Eyeliner?
• Trixie: It's not nice, really is it?
• Captain Cuddlepuss: What? Lipstick on a Yorkshire terrier?
• Trixie: No.
• Sadie the Black Bird: [in a John Cleese like voice] So sorry! [in her real voice] You know, my job is, you know, I'm in the entertainment business, so you know I'm a singer, actress, whatever, that means I do a lot of travelling, you know, I have to fly to different countries sometimes.
• Earl the Greyhound: It can be stressful, yes, as a runner, because you strive t-- [race starts]
• Elizabeth the Battery Hen: It is very repetitive
• Stella the Battery Hen: Oh yeah, it is very repetitive. The foreman's always watching you.
• Sonia the Battery Hen: But we couldn't, we couldn't wander about, we can't wander about, but if we make a mistake, but then, we would be severely reprimanded.
• Wally the Cockroach: You know, you hear about chefs being crazy, he was crazy, he would throw knives around, you know, thankfully I didn't have a lot of dealings with him, 'cause I was, you know, dealing with other, sort of, areas in the hotel, but I just kept out of his way. My friend got it in the neck.
• Pickles the Dog: If you work every day, and you're doing something you don't enjoy, then life must be so miserable, you know, and if you're doing something you don't enjoy, I don't know why you don't just give it up, and do something you do enjoy because, you know, you may as well enjoy life, because you don't live for very long, so you may as well enjoy what you're doing when you are working, and I really enjoy what I do and if I ever did something that I didn't enjoy, then I'd give it up immediately and do something that I really did enjoy, because... because I like to enjoy life, you know.
• Earl the Greyhound: Tactics are very important in a race.
• Norman the Maggot: You can't be morbid, or else you wouldn't be able to do the work, you've got to have laugh or a joke, you have a joke, you know. It's just you or them, isn't it. Just animal instinct.
• Rosie the Battery Hen: I think Feng Shui should be introduced to all office environments.

The Sea

• Fergal the Shark: The sound of the sea. Definitely, the sound of the sea. I find it really, really peaceful.
• Brian the Amoeba: How is water water? It's an eternal mystery. Every time I look at it, it just completely amazes me. It behaves unlike any other material that we've got on the planet. It has a property that nothing else has which is a form of quantum coherence. But water seems to have... the quantum coherence field moves outside the molecule and the water can be seen to be acting as a whole. And this is extraordinarily unusual.
• Gladys the Seagull: Bobbing around in the sea?
• Megan the Seagull: I don't like bobbing around in the sea.
• Gladys the Seagull: I used to like bobbing around in the sea, put it that way, when we were younger, but I don't go now.
• Sue the Walrus: If you get the bends, it can be quite narcotic, you can get a kind of narcotic effect. You don't know which direction you're going in, you don't know which is up or down, you don't know how long you've been in the water, you can't regulate yourself anymore. I think it's really, really dangerous.
• Lorraine the Walrus: I've had altitude sickness which is like the opposite, isn't it?
• Fergal the Shark: There's only a certain depth you can go to, isn't there? Without, erm... your head exploding!
• Ben the Prawn: I don't like jellyfish at all, they frighten me, don't like being stung by anything, bees, wasps, jellyfish, any of that stuff, don't like it.
• Sam the Prawn: No, there's nothing that scares me in the sea, only the obvious floaty things, which shouldn't really be there, to be honest.

The Garden

• Stan the Baby Bird: Digging dirt up and putting it on the compost. That's our favourite thing in the garden.
• Edward the Woodpecker: Well, a garden is a place for contemplation, isn't it? For reflection.
• Manuel the Mole: Oh yeah, gardenin', you know, it's not an easy job, erm, you know, when you're diggin' all day, you know the ol' back tends to suffer at the end of the day, you make it as easy as you can, really.
• Edward the Woodpecker: I get a bird's eye view of some of the most extraordinary gardens. Sometimes you can be up one tree which has eight gardens underneath it. All the neighbouring gardens are gnashing their teeth about this big tree, and the person who owns the tree has a very defensive attitude towards it.
• Stuart the Caterpillar: What's your favourite plant?
• Marcy the Butterfly: I don't have any favourite plants, I like all the plants, except vegetables. I hate vegetables.
• Stuart the Caterpillar: I don't like any plants, except vegetables.
• Marcy the Butterfly: You're only saying that.
• Stuart the Caterpillar: No, it's true, I can't...
• Marcy the Butterfly: You like olive trees.
• Stuart the Caterpillar: I can't see the point of flowers, really.
• Stan the Baby Bird: And Cat Papoo and Dog Papoo!
• Ted the Baby Bird: And Bird Papoo.
• Manuel the Mole: I suppose the next one along is a caterpillar, which seems a shame when you think a caterpillar turns into such a beautiful thing but a caterpillar can make such a mess of, you know, a lot of plants, you know, with leaves munched away again.
• Stuart the Caterpillar: Yeah, I like the idea of, like, a good crop of potatoes or a good crop of beans or peas, whereas flowers...
• Marcy the Butterfly: Aren't useful?
• Stuart the Caterpillar: I mean, they are, they're useful in the sense that you can sit and enjoy them, but it's an awful lot of effort, isn't it?
• Marcy the Butterfly: ... No, it's not!
• Gary the Slug: There is a shrub that I do like actually, and it's the Burning Bush, have you ever seen one?
• Nigel the Slug: The burning bush?
• Gary the Slug: It's called a burning bush.
• Nigel the Slug: A burning bush?
• Gary the Slug: A burning bush, it's called, and basically, it goes green, and when it dies, it goes to die off, it goes completely brilliant red. That's why they call it a burning bush, 'cause actually, it goes from a nice dark green to a real burning red. And that's called the burning bush. It just goes to, like, branches, in little branches and then it goes green and then goes all over it again but the tree never goes away, it stays there all the time, so it's a bush that's there, well I should say a shrub... as well as a bush, what is there all year round?

Feeding Time

• Megan the Seagull: English food is very bland, isn't it?
• Gladys the Seagull: Yeah, but I'm not I'm not terribly spicy, I'm not, well, i like spices, but the spices don't like me, know what I mean?
• Megan the Seagull: I like spices, and I like all kinds, and there's nothing 'round here anyway, is there?
• Frank the Tortoise: Ooh. Eggs and chips. Egg, chips, gammon, erm... [pauses] Chip Butties!
• Pickles the Dog: You know, if I have too much chocolate, I get a bit fat [giggles] and I put on a little weight.
• Earl the Greyhound: The staple diet for runners is, uh... [race starts]
• Constantine the Stallion: We had, er, in fact, we have wild strawberries, we have wild strawberries, er, and, of course, if it was acorn, acorn time, you could always eat an acorn, and even a thistle, you could always peel the top off a thistle.
• Dennis the Dung Beetle: So long as it's filling, and barely edible, I'll pretty much eat it, I'm always too hungry to be picky.
• Grace the Spider: I don't catch flies, because they eat poo. And I don't like poo.
• Pickles the Dog: Actually, beans make me wind, and lemonade makes me burp! [laughs hysterically]
• Silent Mouse: What are you looking at?

External links

• Watch the original Oscar winning Creature Comforts online at AtomFilms