Line #26 Creator/NickPark


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/latest_88.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:Playing with dolls and winning Oscars since 1990.]]
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4	Nicolas Wulston Park [[UsefulNotes/KnightFever CBE]] (born 6 December 1958) is a British stop-motion animator and director, best known as the creator of WesternAnimation/WallaceAndGromit and his various other works through Creator/AardmanAnimations.
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6	Park was born and raised in Preston, Lancashire, and began making Super-8 films when he was six, making StopMotionAnimation with clay and paper cutouts when it was obvious that the necessary tools for cel animation were too expensive. He attended The National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield in the early '80s, but ran out of time and money to complete his thesis film. (He was however an animator on Alison Snowden's Oscar-nominated short ''WesternAnimation/SecondClassMail''.)
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8	Creator/AardmanAnimations hired him right out of school and helped Park finish his film while he worked on other projects, most notably the "Penny" cartoons for ''Series/PeeWeesPlayhouse'' and Music/PeterGabriel's music video for "Music/{{Sledgehammer\|1986}}", where he animated two dancing plucked chickens.
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10	Park's thesis film, ''WesternAnimation/AGrandDayOut'' was eventually completed in 1989 and aired as a special on BBC to excellent critical and audience reception. Ever ambitious, he had managed to create a second short film, ''WesternAnimation/CreatureComforts'', while completing his first. And if that weren't impressive enough, ''both'' were nominated for the 1990 UsefulNotes/AcademyAward for "Best Animated Shorts" (''Creature Comforts'' won). Park has since had a respectable career, including further installments of ''Wallace and Gromit'' and ''Creature Comforts''.
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12	In 2000, he had the honor of co-directing Aardman's feature debut, ''WesternAnimation/ChickenRun'', with the studio's co-founder Peter Lord.
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14	!! Films directed by Nick Park
15	* ''WesternAnimation/AGrandDayOut'' (1989; short)
16	* ''WesternAnimation/CreatureComforts'' (1989; short)
17	* ''WesternAnimation/TheWrongTrousers'' (1993; short)
18	* ''WesternAnimation/ACloseShave'' (1995; short)
19	* ''WesternAnimation/ChickenRun'' (2000; first feature film)
20	* ''WesternAnimation/TheCurseOfTheWereRabbit'' (2005; feature film)
21	* ''WesternAnimation/AMatterOfLoafAndDeath'' (2008; short film)
22	* ''WesternAnimation/EarlyMan'' (2018; feature film)
23	* Untitled ''Wallace & Gromit'' film (2024)
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25	!!Tropes applying to Nick Park and his work
26	* AffectionateParody: Most of his work. Most of the ''Wallace and Gromit'' films are genre spoofs, while ''Creature Comforts'' was a parody of "[[VoxPops man on the street-style interviews]]" (though considering all the interviews are real, it could be counted as both a parody ''and'' a straight example). Even ''WesternAnimation/AGrandDayOut'', while not a direct parody, is heavily inspired by the work of Creator/JulesVerne, Creator/{{Herge}}, and Creator/GeorgesMelies.
27	* ArtEvolution: ''WesternAnimation/AGrandDayOut'' was made almost single-handedly by him, as is rather crude-looking as a result. Once he had a whole staff to help him, the models became better-constructed and his characters developed broad, banana-shaped mouths to make animating vowels easier.
28	* AuthorAppeal: Creator/AlfredHitchcock, [[TechnologyPorn crazy-ass machines]] and... [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking knitting]].[[note]]The knitting is always real, by the way. It's done with toothpicks.[[/note]]
29	* BlackAndWhiteMorality: His protagonists are often very likable and easy to cheer for while the villains are very intimidating and quite threatening.
30	* BreakTheHaughty: Anguish is surprisingly common in his films, almost always in the form of the OnlySaneMan reaching the end of their rope and breaking down in tears.
31	* TheComicallySerious: He describes his comedic style as "comedies that don't tell you that they're comedies," as most of his films are based around incredibly silly concepts taken dead-seriously.
32	* HeAlsoDid: Directed the music video for "Plain Song" by Native and The Name. Park and frontman Joe Rose had long been family friends beforehand.
33	* NiceGuy: Wallace and Gromit are both good-natured and lovable characters. Nick Park himself is a gentle, shy, and nice guy.
34	* OnlySixFaces: While not too bad at this, his character designs have such distinctly common features (small eyes close together, wide, banana-shaped mouths, bald) that it's common for ignorant viewers to assume that every project he's created it a ''Wallace and Gromit'' installment. This is most apparent in ''A Close Shave,'' where Wendoline is literally just Wallace in a wig. Nick apparently made a conscious effort to avoid this in the more densely-populated ''The Curse of The Were Rabbit'', resulting in a CastOfSnowflakes. Supposedly, when Peter Lord first saw the hairy designs he gave the cavemen in ''WesternAnimation/EarlyMan'', his first reaction was "My god, he's finally given them hair!"
35	* SignatureStyle: His characters are instantly recognizable for their banana-shaped mouths and eyes a little too close together. Most of his films are ComicallySerious genre parodies loaded with [[FreezeFrameBonus background gags]].
36	* SelfDeprecation: The man loves his British stereotypes.
37	* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsCynicism: Heavily idealistic. While his films know when and how to play up drama, their main purpose is entertainment.
38	* TechnologyPorn: Cool-looking machines are a personal favorite of his. Most famously are Wallace's absurd inventions, which are often described as "trying to crack a walnut with a sledgehammer," and the pie machine from ''WesternAnimation/ChickenRun''.
39	* VisualPun: He appears to love to do background visual jokes. For example, in ''WesternAnimation/TheCurseOfTheWereRabbit'' Wallace is naked and picks up a box to cover himself that reads "may contain nuts"

Context Creator / NickPark