I can’t even imagine what those people are feeling right now. Has there ever been such a clean sweep of so much that was so carefully crafted?
They didn’t mention Chicken Run, but I’m sure everything from that was in there too. I’ve got my Babs doll on my lap right now. I may never be able to watch that movie again without crying.
Should have included this paragraph:
Is “Victorian” a style of architecture? Or do they mean that the building was a century old? If so, perhaps that wasn’t the best choice for a warehouse.
Victorian is both a style and a indication of age. Lots and lots of buildings in the UK are from the Victorian era.
There has also been a fire on Southend Pier. “the world’s longest pleasure pier”, according to the BBC). Arson, probably; my money’s on an angler dropping a lit snout.
On the Aardman Animations fire, I’d say the description of the building as “Victorian” just means it was built some time between 1837 and 1901 rather than it being of a specific architectural style. Old buildings are subject to the same fire safety laws as brand new ones so I doubt whether its age was a significant contributing factor.
In itself, the building’s age is no indicator of its worthiness. My own home is Victorian, and considerably better constructed than 90% of the more modern houses around. Presumably, any commercial building would have had to be kept up to the standard of modern fire codes, etc.
Creator Nick Park seems to be cut up but is putting it into perspective
They did say the sets from Chicken Run were gone, but they still have the sets from the Curse of the Were Rabbit.
And Babs wasn’t in the fire, she was on holiday.
D:
Props to Park for having some calm perspective on this; sure, they were valuable items, both intrinsically and from a sentimental/historical/artistic point of view, but… their loss probably doesn’t seriously affect any future work, as a lot of it is built from scratch for each production anyway.
Such a shame, I bet they will get over this and have a lot of fun recreating whatever is needed.
Good attitude from Park.
As someone who has worked in and around archives with moving image related materials (props, costumes, models, mattes, 2-D art, etc.), I wonder what kind of fire retention system they had. There’s no mention of it in the article.
Terrible news.
im gutted!
As someone who lives in Yorkshire, (Wallace’s accent), im devastated
about this.
I point the finger at Feathers McGraw!
*FMcG removes rubber glove from head.
[ wallace] " its you!!!"
The MGM studios were the victim of a fire some decades ago. Actual films were destroyed, but not the props. I’m not sure of a fire that has destroyed so many props as this one.
I wonder what Wallace is thinking right now…has the cheese survived? I can just imagine the characters coming to life, the Chicken Run stars and Gromit taking the lead to save everyone from the fire…alas, it cannot be. My hearts are with all those who brought these crackin’ characters to life. Although their past creations may be gone, they still live on in the films they starred in…and hopefully there will be new creations to come.
That’s right! I forgot.
I originally thought that the characters themselves were victims of the fire as well, but I have read that Aardman does not keep their characters archived, as Plasticine tends to disintegrate over time. Still, the loss of a great many sets and props from some very fine stop-motion films is very sad.
You can tell the immediacy of the characters watching the productions. Often you can see the model makers fingerprints if you look closely.
The last time I was at the National Museum of Photography, Film & Television in Bradford, UK, they had one of the sets of The Wrong Trousers as an exhibit. Can any British Dopers confirm that perhaps that one small artifact survived?
There have been press reports that some material was on loan and so will have survived. No idea whether this includes those sets.
[My own memory - aside from the timeless films, of course - is of seeing the great selection of Nick Park artefacts in the exhibition of his stuff mounted by the Harris Museum in his home town of Preston sometime in the mid to late 90s. Now presumably all lost.]