An illuminating show at the Young V&A in London showcases the work of the world’s leading stop-motion studio
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hat would Wallace – everyone’s favourite amateur Yorkshire inventor – look like with a moustache, straw boater and postal worker’s coat? Would a huge set of teeth suit his faithful beagle, Gromit? How about a nose shaped like a banana?
Such questions are answered by an illuminating and sometimes alarming exhibition at east London’s Young V&A that showcases the work of the world’s leading stop-motion outfit, the Bristol-based Aardman studios. Early sketches for Nick Park’s much-loved characters reveal that Wallace was once just a few bristles short of Hitler, while Gromit had fangs and the ability to speak.
Such designs were judiciously smoothed along the way: Gromit became toothless and mute, and Wallace’s long, thin face was massaged into something wider and friendlier after Park watched Peter Sallis, the original voice of Wallace, enunciating the word “cheese”.
