‘Wallace & Gromit’ Creator Nick Park Credits Disney for Sparking Interest in Animation, Teases ‘Vengeance Most Fowl’ and Feathers’ Long-Awaited Return

variety.com:

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic When stop-motion legend Nick Park enrolled at the National Film and Television School in the early ’80s, very few were animating with clay.

It was a slow and incredibly labor-intensive format, with relatively crude results. (Gumby, anybody?) Four decades later, thanks in large part to Park’s Academy Award-winning success at Aardman Animation — and a beloved duo named Wallace and Gromit — stop-motion is a format thriving on multiple continents, with enough specialists to support several productions at a time.

The recipient of Variety’s Creative Impact in Animation Award, Park not only put Aardman on the map, but made the cumbersome medium one where filmmakers such as Tim Burton, Guillermo del Toro and Wes Anderson were inspired to explore. “My ambition was to be a cartoonist and to create my own characters,” Park remembers over tea at the 2024 Annecy Animation Festival, where he unveiled footage from his forthcoming stop-motion feature, “Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl.” As Park recalls, around the age of 13, “I saw a documentary about Disney, and I remember seeing how it all started with this mouse.” Inspired by Walt Disney’s path, he started drawing characters, including Walter the Rat, whom Park taught himself to animate using the Bell & Howell Super 8 camera his dad had given his mom as a present.

Nick was one of five kids, all of whom were creative, but the only one to take an interest in filmmaking. His father, a professional photographer, taught him the basics and encouraged him to experiment with the camera, which featured a stop-frame button ideal for animation. “I think I was more wanting to do puppets than clay to begin with,” says Park, whose mom was a tailor.