Wallace and Gromit creator says fire won't halt work

OSLO - A fire that destroyed hundreds of Wallace and Gromit models will not stop new films being made of the plasticine pals, creator Nick Park told Reuters.

The fire ripped through a warehouse and destroyed items from Park's Oscar-winning short film series on Monday, the day after the first feature length film on intrepid inventor Wallace and his faithful dog Gromit shot to number one at the North American box office,

"We have to look forward and keep filming new films and not get stuck in the past," Park said during a visit to the Norwegian capital to promote the new film 'Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit'.

"I am always thinking up new Wallace and Gromit ideas and I always want to keep doing them," he said.

The sets from the new film were not damaged as they had been in an exhibition and not in the warehouse, he said.

Park learned of the fire when he rang the production house Aardman Animations to find out how the film had coped it its first week in North America.

The film sees Wallace and Gromit use a complex vacuum system to protect vegetables from a rabbit problem in their village. He also created the 2000 animation film 'Chicken Run'.

"There was great news that it had risen to number one but at the same time the awful news that all the history, all the archives, sets and models had been lost in the fire," Park said.

He has won three Oscars for best animated short film, 'Creature Comforts' in 1990 and the Wallace and Gromit short films 'The Wrong Trousers' in 1993 and 'A Close Shave' in 1995.

Fire fighters battled flames 100 feet high on Monday morning at the warehouse storing memorabilia from all three films in Bristol, southwest England, but could not stop the roof collapsing.

- REUTERS