Wallace and Gromit became Aardman’s most famous characters after animator Nick Park joined the studio in 1985.
But Gromit was not always a dog.
“I had this idea of an English guy who builds a rocket, in the basement of his house,” recalled Park.
“I was thinking he may have a pet, probably a cat.”
The switch was surprisingly simple.
“I started modelling the cat, and it was just very difficult, so I thought I’d do a dog instead!”
Park was developing A Grand Day Out at the National Film and Television School in London when Lord and Sproxton came to speak to students.
“We met him and thought, ‘Oh, he’s good’. In fact, he’s very good. Now I know him, he’s actually a genius,” said Lord.
The combination was electric. A Grand Day Out was nominated for an Oscar in 1990, losing only to another Aardman production, Creature Comforts, also directed by Park.
Pointing to a poster of Wallace and Gromit floating over Bristol in a hot-air balloon, Lord reflected on their appeal.
“When they appear on the screen, you laugh before they do anything.”
Park later won three more Oscars. Perhaps it was just as well he never mastered Gromit the Cat.
