Wat's Pig

Not unlike THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER this is the story of a baby prince who is kidnapped by the thief in the night and ends up being adopted by a pig . If the plot sounds kind of silly don't worry because it's an animated claymation cartoon . If it was live action the whole thing would of course be ridiculous but you can get away with bizarre frivolity in cartoons

With all these type of animated short stories the plotting and the story takes second place to the animation and when I say Peter Lord is the director of CHICKEN RUN that's all you need to know about the affectionate , effective type of claymation animation seen here . The story is told with a slit scan technique which keeps everything tightly paced and there's little dialogue which will help it in finding an international market . It was also Oscar nominated . Deservedly so

This 11-minute film short is one of 4 different shorts on one VHS tape by Aardman Animations, the group that has given us the Wallace and Gromit animations. Of the four, this is the one I enjoyed the least.

At the beginning of the story we see a bandit in the night coming into the old castle and stealing the twin babies. The nanny comes in, the thief drops one of the twins, but goes off with the other on horseback. Guards are shooting at him with arrows, he is distracted, the other twin falls to the ground, and he leaves him there. The baby is cared for and raised by a pig.

That is all in the very beginning, the main of the story is the adult twins meeting again, one a soldier the other royalty, and the complications that ensue. While it is interesting to see the claymation, I wasn't particularly entertained by the story.

I remember that I first saw "Wat's Pig" several years ago at the animation festival held in an independent theater in Portland. What an impressive piece of work. Watching it, one can see - and I mean see, as there's very little dialog - how the kidnapped brother lives a laborious life, while the other remains a worthless rich person. And who would have guessed that a pig could play this kind of role? I don't know whether this cartoon is currently available anywhere. If it is, then you should definitely find time to see it. It goes to show what one can accomplish through images. Very good.

So, to rework what another pig famously said: B-dip, b-dip...th-th-th-that'll never be all, folks!

This is the classic story of two brothers, separated at birth, one becoming royalty and the other raised by a pig farmer. Of course, the royal kid becomes self centered and jaded, while the other becomes kind and grateful and strong. And then forces throw them together. It isn't any great shakes, but the animation is colorful and jolting and I liked that, even though the story has been told so many times.

From the studio that brought us Wallace and Grommit comes this wonderful prince and the Pauper type tale. Two twin princes, one kidnapped at birth and found and raised by a pig. Both are now grown, one lives in a small cottage with his pig, the other is a stinking rich jerk. This deals with the prince finding out that this is his brother and deciding during a war that has started to switch places with his brother. Very little talking is in this film, most of it is lines limited to small words ("Me?"). This is by far my favorite Aardman short and is brilliantly animated and scored. Find this and enjoy! 11 mins. Not rated, contains mild violence.