Rex the Runt

Rex the Runt
Main characters from left to right:
Vince, Wendy, Bad Bob, Rex
GenreLive action
Stop motion animation
Clay animation
Pixilation
Comedy
Created byRichard Goleszowski
Developed byAardman Animations
Written byRichard Goleszowski
Alan Gilbey
Kevin Wrench
Andrew Franks
David Max Freedman
Andrew Viner
Peter Holmes
Ben Caudell
Ben Seymour
Directed byRichard Goleszowski
Dan Capozzi
Peter Peake
Christopher Sadler
Sam Fell
Creative directorsPeter Holmes
Richard Goleszowski
Voices ofElisabeth Hadley
Paul Merton
Steve Box
Arthur Smith
Andrew Franks (series 1)
Kevin Wrench (series 1)
Colin Rote (series 2)
Andy Jeffers (series 2)
Theme music composerStuart Gordon
Opening theme"Rex the Runt"
by Kevin Wrench
Andrew Franks
Ending theme"Rex the Runt"
by Kevin Wrench
Andrew Franks
ComposersStuart Gordon
Ben Jones
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Denmark
France (series 1)
Original languageEnglish
No. of series2
No. of episodes26
3 (pilots)
Production
Executive producersMichael Rose
Peter Lord
David Sproxton
Colin Rose
Paul Kofod
Ulla Brockenhuus-Schack (series 1)
Mikael Shields (series 1)
Steve Walsh (series 1)
Tom Van Waveren (series 2)
ProducersMichael Rose (series)
Jacqueline White
Production locationBristol
CinematographyFrank Passingham
Fred Reed
Andy MacCormack
Chris Maris
EditorsBen Jones (dubbing)
James Mather (dubbing)
Jane Hicks
Andrew Ward (series 1)
Sheri Galloway (series 2)
Tim Bolt (online)
Nick Brooks (online, series 1)
Running time10 minutes
Production companiesAardman Animations
Egmont Imagination
BBC Bristol
EVA Entertainment (series 1)
Original release
NetworkBBC Two (1998–2001) BBC Four (2005)
Release21 December 1998 (1998-12-21) –
16 December 2001 (2001-12-16)
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview)

Rex the Runt is a stop-motion adult animated claymation pixilation comedy series, primarily consisting of a television show and two short films produced by Aardman Animations and Egmont Imagination for BBC Bristol, with EVA Entertainment co-producing the first series. Its main characters are four plasticine dogs: Rex, Wendy, Bad Bob and Vince.[1]

Rex was first introduced as a minor character in Ident (1989), a short film directed by Richard Starzak for the Lip Synch series.[2] During the seven years of development of the characters, Starzak produced three pilots, subtitled How Dinosaurs Became Extinct (1991), Dreams (1991) and North by North Pole (1996).[2][3][4] The 1991 pilots were unknown to the Aardman crew at the time, as Starzak created them during his free time. Because of this, the series wasn't pitched until the discovery of these shorts a year later, as the team found potential to turn these shorts into a full-fledged series.[5]

Thirteen ten-minute episodes of the series aired over two weeks on BBC Two from December 1998.[6] A second, thirteen-episode series aired from September 2001 on the same channel. As well as the core cast, guest voices included Paul Merton, Morwenna Banks, Judith Chalmers, Antoine de Caunes, Bob Holness, Simon Day, Bob Monkhouse, Jonathan Ross, Graham Norton, Arthur Smith, June Whitfield, Kathy Burke, Pam Ayres and Eddie Izzard.

The animation is unusual in that the models are almost two-dimensional and are animated to exaggerate this - they are flattened in appearance and animated on a sheet of glass with the backgrounds behind the sheet. This would be altered in the second series, as the models would become more three-dimensional.

  1. ^ "Toonhound - Rex the Runt (1998-2001)". www.toonhound.com. Retrieved 20 November 2022.
  2. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference TelepathyRex was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference BFIAardman was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference AnnecyDinosaursDreams was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Binding, Lee. "REX THE RUNT - THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE". TV Zone. No. Special Edition 35 Century Book. pp. 72–77.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference BBCArchiveUpInSmoke was invoked but never defined (see the help page).