Saturday, May 26, 2007

Our Ears Are Burning

In the best possible way:

"SOME of the best comic acting you'll see all summer will come from the animated clay animals starring in "Creature Comforts." An American version of a British series based in turn on a short film by Nick Park (the creator of Wallace & Gromit), it puts the unrehearsed words of ordinary people into the mouths of Plasticine dogs, cats, horses, pigs, porcupines, monkeys, pandas, crabs, sharks, roaches and whatever other animals seem appropriate or appropriately ironic to the subject or voice.

Topics are as varied as health, lying and sex, and the result is something both witty and complex — a kind of heightened reality television that, beyond letting you laugh at the funny juxtapositions and marvel at the animation, focuses your attention on the voices themselves, and what people have to say, and how they say it. A reminder that we're all at once individuals and types, and animals under our clothes."

-LA Times


"Who doesn't love a talking animal? The twist in CBS' animated Creature Comforts (Mondays, 8 pm/ET), based on the Oscar-winning short and subsequent British series, is that the loquacious critters, from cuddly pets to exotic wildlife, are voiced not by actors but by average Americans being interviewed on commonplace subjects. The juxtapositions are hilarious: a hippo whining about being weighed by skinny girls, a monkey reciting “He loves me, he loves me not” as she picks nits off her mate. I hung on and laughed at nearly every word."

- Matt Roush, TV Guide

"The upcoming CBS animated series Creature Comforts is one of the most engaging and charming things I've seen in a long time."

- TV Squad

"Sometimes an idea comes along that's so brilliant, I can't even believe it exists. That's how I feel about 'Creature Comforts'."

- BuzzSugar

"Creature Comforts is good fun. Park’s animators have a gift for matching the right kind of animal to certain voices — I have no idea why a caged bird is the perfect embodiment of a complaining hypochondriac, but it just is."

- Chicago Tribune

With conventional sitcoms fumbling and floundering, it's refreshing - and too rare - for network TV to try a different kind of funny.

"Creature Comforts," where have you been?

...Even watching "Creature Comforts" with your eyes closed can be fun. It's nice to hear an authentic Deep South drawl when the subject isn't hurricane damage, or a chowdah-thick New England accent any time. And when they're talking about the most ordinary subjects - marriage, say, or colds - people do say the darnedest things.

- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

"Seinfeld set the standard for shows about nothing, and CBS' animated Creature Comforts extends the trend with glorious goofiness.

Creature Comforts, debuting at 8 p.m. Monday, is like no other comedy on television. And that probably could help it survive.

...This adaptation of a British hit has no plot. Rather, the program takes interviews with everyday people and lets those words come out of the mouths of animated animals. The show unfolds like a series of fast-paced sketches.

...The show's zany look heightens the comedy. This stop-motion animated series comes from the team behind Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. The animated characters started in commercials, then graduated to their British series.

Their jump to the United States means that CBS is scheduling something genuinely different. The added bonus: Creature Comforts is genuinely good.

- Orlando Sentinel

7 comments:

EditorPenguin said...

From the Mississippi Clarion Ledger:

PEARL MOM, DAUGHTER LEND VOICES IN NEW SERIES

The voices of Pearl mother and daughter Nell Pace and Celia Tisdale are quite animated in the new CBS series Creature Comforts, premiering at 7 tonight. The characters co-opting conversations from Pace and Tisdale are pigs.

"We're hams. No pun intended," Tisdale said. "I'm just so glad I wasn't a cockroach," Pace added.


EditorPenguin notes: Nell's even hilarious in print!78

Th. said...

.

Just so you know, I'm crazy excited for tonight. Expect me to love you.

And good luck with the rest of the country, by the way.

Anonymous said...

LOVE this show. I loved the original short and am thrilled it's now on television. I am wondering if episodes will be available on iTunes anytime soon. (I'm hoping!)

Some Other Guy said...

I saw it last night and within the first 30 seconds I knew I had to record it. It was brilliant and I definitely needed a good larf. I hope it stays on forever

Anonymous said...

I watched it laugh night and couldn't stop laughing. Pure genius.

Anonymous said...

I really like your show.Can you add maybe Cicadas from Las Vegas?
During the summer time those little suckers are very loud, every year that is.
thanks
Rita

Anonymous said...

The show was great. I turned to CBS tonight to watch it and it was no more :( . It figures that a great show would get pulled by a network that airs so much crap reality TV.