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Deep
inside the laboratories at Vivi-Sec UK, scientist Mike Simmons
runs the top secret Project S - an experiment to create talking
animals. Duped into thinking they live in a cosy home, the
animals have human personalities and names, wear specially
designed clothes, hold pseudo-intellectual conversations,
drink fine wine, eat gourmet foods and dream of one day visiting
that 'special place' London. All is well until a bungling
group of animal rights activists raid the lab, and the animals
escape into the real world...
I
Am Not An Animal is a rather bizarre animated comedy which
follows the lives of a collection of animals (an ambitious
right-wing sparrow, a bulldog obsessed with settling down,
a horse with literary pretensions, a sex-crazed monkey, a
slutty rat, and a rabbit who survived earlier, less successful
experiments) that are super intelligent. These creatures are
the subject of a secret experiment at an animal testing laboratory.
They live a cosy life, being exposed to the finer things in
life (like vintage wines, the best foods, the latest technology
and keeping up to date with media events) and like nothing
better than an evening reading the latest Hollywood gossip
on Tim Robbins, debating films they've never seen and discussing
James Herbert's novel The Fog.
They
dream of one day going to London, shopping on Oxford Street
and hosting the finest dinner parties. However, when an animal
activist group breaks into the lab and sets all of the prisoners
free, the pampered animals have to adjust to living in the
real world.
The
first episode (London Calling) is a great introduction
to the main characters and their rather pampered lifestyle
- which is akin to rich North Londoners. They are rather naive
about the real world and how things actually work (again like
rich North Londoners).
My
favourite episode was A Star is Hatched. This sees
Mark Andrews (stage name Glenn Belt), the sparrow, launch
his music career after he plagiarises the chorus for his song
from a 14 year old Japanese girl he meets on the Internet.
Looks like Mark will finally be the superstar he's always
dreamed of... Now all he's got to do is work out how he can
change his appearance so that he doesn't look like a short,
fat sparrow.
Extras
on this collection include a 'Making of' documentary and audio
commentaries on three episodes.
The
audio commentaries revealed numerous insights into the making
of the show as well as providing some interesting bits of
trivia including: The fact that the title for the series comes
from a line in the movie Elephant Man; Peter
Baynham mentions his brother Charlie (who Fist of Fun
fans will remember he used to mention in his sketches) sleeping
on his floor; Steve Coogan explains where the Apple Computer
logo (the apple with the bite mark) comes from; and some characters
that appear briefly in A Star is Hatched were actually
metallic Coronation Street figures that they found in a charity
shop and painted.
It
really is a shame that the BBC didn't recommission this show.
This is a very intelligent and entertaining series and as
the BBC hasn't produced any animation for years you would
have thought they would have been eager to have backed another
series. However the last episode, Home, does sort of
wrap things up, so it's not as though there are unresolved
story lines.
Certainly
a DVD I'd recommend adding to your collection.
Nick
Smithson
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