| Rex the Runt | |
|---|---|
 Main characters from left to right: Vince, Wendy, Bad Bob, Rex | |
| Genre | Live action Stop motion animation Clay animation Pixilation Comedy |
| Created by | Richard Goleszowski |
| Developed by | Aardman Animations |
| Written by | Richard Goleszowski Alan Gilbey Kevin Wrench Andrew Franks David Max Freedman Andrew Viner Peter Holmes Ben Caudell Ben Seymour |
| Directed by | Richard Goleszowski Dan Capozzi Peter Peake Christopher Sadler Sam Fell |
| Creative directors | Peter Holmes Richard Goleszowski |
| Voices of | Elisabeth 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 composer | Stuart Gordon |
| Opening theme | "Rex the Runt" by Kevin Wrench Andrew Franks |
| Ending theme | "Rex the Runt" by Kevin Wrench Andrew Franks |
| Composers | Stuart Gordon Ben Jones |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom Denmark France (series 1) |
| Original language | English |
| No. of series | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 26 3 (pilots) |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | Michael 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) |
| Producers | Michael Rose (series) Jacqueline White |
| Production location | Bristol |
| Cinematography | Frank Passingham Fred Reed Andy MacCormack Chris Maris |
| Editors | Ben Jones (dubbing) James Mather (dubbing) Jane Hicks Andrew Ward (series 1) Sheri Galloway (series 2) Tim Bolt (online) Nick Brooks (online, series 1) |
| Running time | 10 minutes |
| Production companies | Aardman Animations Egmont Imagination BBC Bristol EVA Entertainment (series 1) |
| Original release | |
| Network | BBC Two (1998–2001) BBC Four (2005) |
| Release | 21 December 1998 – 16 December 2001 |
| 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.
- ^ "Toonhound - Rex the Runt (1998-2001)". www.toonhound.com. Retrieved 20 November 2022.
- ^ a b Cite error: The named reference
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