Nick Park on Wallace & Gromit, Aardman and new Netflix photo

Nick Parkthe guest in this episode of The Hollywood Reporter‘S Awards Chatter podcast, is a legendary animator and filmmaker who has been the star collaborator of Aardman animationsa company based in Bristol, England, that specializes in stop-motion and clay animation. Both Park and Aardman are best known for two plasticine characters that Park created even before he started working at Aardman, and which are the focus of four short films and two feature films: Wallace and Gromit.

Park has personally been nominated for six Oscars and won four: three for best animated short film and one for best animated film. He has also won a Peabody Award; six BAFTA awards; and three Annie Awards, plus the Winsor McCay Annie Award for Career Achievement. And he was appointed Commander of the British Empire in the Queen’s Honors in 1997. He is described by the New York Times as “brilliant”, by the Wall Street Journal as ‘a phenomenal filmmaker’, by the Washingtonpost as “the undisputed, undefeated king of animation” and by the Los Angeles Times as “one of the best clay animators of his generation” and “Britain’s foremost animator.”

As for Wallace, an absent-minded, cheese-loving bachelor in the north of England who likes to invent Rube Goldberg-esque contraptions, and Gromit, his faithful dog, who is actually a lot sharper than he is, and tends to get him out of the closet. the mess he causes? Great Britain Financial times has called them ‘national treasures’, while the Liverpool echo has described them as ‘beloved by the nation’ and ‘household names’.

In the course of a conversation at the Hollywood office of NetflixPark, who is 65, reflected on his path to animation in general, and to stop-motion and clay animation in particular; what inspired Wallace and Gromit’s names, appearance, and personality traits; and how he, and Wallace and Gromit, ended up at Aardman. He also discussed what made him revisit the characters in his new film, Wallace & Gromit: Revenge on the Most Birds – only Wallace and Gromit’s second feature film, and the first since 2005 – which he co-directed Merlin Crossinghamand which will be released on Netflix on January 3, 2025.