"Gromit" guru brings "Creature" to television
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - "Creature Comforts" is a low-key stop-motion animation series from the guru of the form, Nick Park and his U.K.-based Aardman Studios (which also gave the world Wallace & Gromit).
"Creature Comforts" began its life as a 1989 short that won Park his first Oscar (in 1990), featuring animals speaking documentary-style into a microphone from the confines of a zoo and reflecting on their lifestyle behind bars. It was turned into a hit 2005 series of nine 30-minute episodes that ran on BBC America and proved to be unfailingly adorable, sublimely clever stuff. And now, here it is as a summertime diversion on CBS, where the beastly characters have been Americanized but not stripped of a single ounce of their outrageous charm.
The premise is ingenious in its simplicity. Park and his team recorded actual conversations with ordinary Americans waxing on topics including their sex lives, medical issues, hopes, fears and dreams -- and then set about inserting those phrases into the mouths of a host of elaborately crafted stop-motion critters (pigs, alligators, dogs, rabbits, wart hogs, bumblebees and countless others).
The giddy effect is rather like watching an interview show while under the influence of some hallucinogenic gas. A kid talking about being afraid of needles at the doctor becomes hilarious when placed in the mouth of a porcupine. We're treated to the giddy spectacle of lady sharks discussing guys, a fly noting that women "can smell desperation," a dog making like a wine connoisseur in discussing the fragrance of another dog's butt and a guitar-serenading horse.
"Creature Comforts" is a wonderfully entertaining way to spend a half-hour, reminding us anew that the greatest ideas typically spring not from elaboration but imagination.
Johnny Depp wins at MTV Movie Awards
UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. - Captain Jack Sparrow was the big winner at the MTV Movie Awards Sunday as "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" was named best movie and its star, Johnny Depp, won for best performance.
Depp joined "Pirates" producer Jerry Bruckheimer to accept the Golden Popcorn trophy.
"This is the man who did it all right here, Johnny Depp," Bruckheimer said. "Without him, we wouldn't be here."
"I'd like to thank this man and Disney for not firing me first," Depp quipped.
Other big winners during the live broadcast from the Gibson Amphitheater included Mike Myers, who won the MTV Generation Award, and Sacha Baron Cohen, who collected two trophies.
Cohen earned the comedic performance prize for his starring turn in "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan."
"Unfortunately, Borat can't be here tonight," he joked. "He's been feeling the pressures of fame and had to check himself into rehab."
Cohen also claimed best-kiss honors for his smooch with Will Ferrell in "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby." The two comedians shared a long, passionate kiss — culminating in a roll-around-on-the-floor makeout session — as they accepted their awards.
The movie prizes were almost upstaged by a star who wasn't nominated for any: Paris Hilton.
The heiress, who must report to Los Angeles County Jail by midnight Tuesday, caused a commotion when she arrived on the ruby carpet outside the amphitheater. Wearing a ruffled black dress and dazzling jewels, she flashed her trademark coy smile as she posed for photos and talked with reporters.
"I'm really scared but I'm ready to face my sentence," she said. "Even though this is a really hard time, I have my family, my friends and my fans to support me, and that's really helpful."
Host Sarah Silverman cracked a crude joke at Hilton's expense to open the show. When the camera panned to Hilton, she was not smiling.
Then the focus turned to films. MTV's irreverent mix of honors includes prizes for best fight and best villain, plus awards for aspiring filmmakers.
Jack Nicholson was the winning villain, capturing the Golden Popcorn trophy for his mobster role in "The Departed." The fight prize went to Gerard Butler, who battled "The Uber Immortal" in the epic "300."
The breakthrough performance prize went to 9-year-old Jaden Smith, who starred opposite his father, Will Smith, in "The Pursuit of Happyness." He accepted his award by video from Toronto with his dad by his side and his mom behind the camera.
The two-hour program was punctuated by musical performances. Rihanna and Jay-Z paired up on her new song "Umbrella," and soul songstress Amy Winehouse sang her megahit, "Rehab."
The 16-year-old awards show unveiled two new categories Sunday: best movie spoof and best summer movie you haven't seen yet. Andy Signore, a filmmaker from Pennsylvania, won for "United 300," a hybrid spoof of "300" and "United 93."
"Transformers," due July 3, was named the best as-yet-unseen summer film.
MTV viewers voted by telephone, text message and Internet to choose the winners in all categories.