The shape of animation changed in November 1989, when Nick Park premiered two films at the Bristol Animation Festival. The works were Creature Comforts and A Grand Day Out, both made with the stop-motion studio Aardman. Park's screenings went well, but there was no explosion of media coverage. One magazine described A Grand Day Out as a "marvelous Lancastrian model animation about a Cheese Monthly reader and his dog Gromit going to the moon by rocket."
Park had worked on the film for most of the 1980s. He was shocked when it was nominated for an Oscar, and he later recalled, "I didn't even realize you could be nominated … for short animated films." Creature Comforts won the Academy's award, but A Grand Day Out took the BAFTA and went on to have an enormous influence. During production, Park wanted to quit many times. The film was his ambitious graduation project, and he lacked a full team. As he explained, "I did probably 90% of it myself."
Before the Bristol festival, Park was unknown. Soon his work caught the attention of his idols, Terry Gilliam and Ray Harryhausen. Once the film aired on Channel 4 in 1990, audiences widely embraced it. The "Nick Park look" came to define Aardman, so much so that the studio's earlier films often go unmentioned today. Aardman co-founder Peter Lord said, "I take no credit for his talent. He came to us fully fledged."
Park later said Wallace and Gromit shaped his style, from the close-set eyes and wide mouth to Gromit's expressive frowns. The project began in 1982 while Park was a student at the National Film and Television School. Originally Gromit was a cat and Wallace had a mustache, and the film's basic idea was a trip to the moon by basement rocket.
Source: Hacker News · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing