NORWAY/UK: The blaze that destroyed an Aardman Animations warehouse did not kill off the Wallace and Gromit characters

Record ID: 530291

  • Title: NORWAY/UK: The blaze that destroyed an Aardman Animations warehouse did not kill off the Wallace and Gromit characters
  • Date: 15th October 2005
  • Summary: PEOPLE STANDING OUTSIDE AIRPORT/ KLM PLANE ON RUNWAY
  • Embargoed: 30th October 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes
  • Reuters ID: LVA1402EI3CMWKYH4Y46DM55617H
  • Story Text: A fire that destroyed hundreds of Wallace and Gromit models will not stop new films being made of the plasticine pals, creator Nick Park told Reuters on Tuesday (October 11).
    The fire ripped through a warehouse and destroyed items from Park's Oscar-winning short film series on Monday (October 10), the day after the first feature length film on intrepid inventor Wallace and his faithful dog Gromit shot to number one at the North American box office,
    "We need to keep on looking forward and keep building new stuff for new films and not dwell in the past," Park said during a visit to the Norwegian capital to promote the new film 'Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit'.
    "I always get new ideas for Wallace and Gromit so I will always want to keep doing them," he said. The sets from the new film were not damaged as they had been in an exhibition and not in the warehouse, Park said. Park learned of the fire when he rang the production house Aardman Animations to find out how the film had coped it its first week in North America.
    "I called in to the office to see how the film had done in America and it was really good news, it had become number one in the box office and everything and at the same time I got the awful news that all the history all the archive of the sets had been burned in a fire and from all the history of Aardman not only from Wallace and Gromit but all short films had been lost so kind of really sad and tragic. At the same time that it is really sad that so many people's skills, hard work and craftsmanship had been lost its of great nostalgic and sentimental value but up against the news of the earthquake in Pakistan and Asia it is a fairly small problem really. I think we will cope with it all right compared to how people are suffering there, but off course it is kind of sad in its own way," Park said. 'Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit' sees the companions use a complex vacuum system to protect vegetables from a rabbit problem in their village. Creator Nick Park also made the 2000 animation film 'Chicken Run'. He has won three Oscars for best animated short film, 'Creature Comforts' in 1990 and the Wallace and Gromit short films 'The Wrong Trousers' in 1993 and 'A Close Shave' in 1995.
    Fire fighters battled flames 100 feet high (30.5 metres) on Monday morning at the warehouse storing memorabilia from all three films in Bristol, southwest England, but could not stop the roof collapsing.
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