Rex the Runt

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Rex the Runt
The main characters. (Left to right) Vince, Wendy, Bad Bob and Rex
Genre	Live action Stop motion animation Clay animation Pixilation Comedy Adult animation
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
Directed by	Richard Goleszowski Dan Capozzi Peter Peake Christopher Sadler Sam Fell
Creative director(s)	Peter Holmes Richard Goleszowski
Voices of	Andrew Franks Colin Rote Kevin Wrench Andy Jeffers Elisabeth Hadley Paul Merton Steve Box Arthur Smith
Theme music composer	Kevin Wrench Andrew Franks
Opening theme	"Rex the Runt" by Kevin Wrench Andrew Franks
Ending theme	"Rex the Runt" by Kevin Wrench Andrew Franks
Composer(s)	Stuart Gordon Ben Jones
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of series	2
No. of episodes	26 3 (pilots)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Executive Producers for Aardman: Michael Rose Peter Lord David Sproxton Executive Producer for BBC: Colin Rose Executive Producers for Egmont Imagination: Paul Kofod Tom Van Waveren Mikael Shields Steve Walsh Ulla Brockenhuus-Schack
Producer(s)	Michael Rose Jacqueline White
Production location(s)	England
Cinematography	Frank Passingham Fred Reed
Editor(s)	Ben Jones James Mather
Running time	10 minutes
Production company(s)	Aardman Animations BBC Bristol Egmont Imagination EVA Entertainment
Distributor	BBC Worldwide, Inc. Aardman Animations
Release
Original network	BBC Two (UK) TechTV (USA) Atom.com
Picture format	SDTV (480p) (Series 1) HDTV (1080p) (Series 2)
Original release	21 December 1998 – 16 December 2001
External links
Website

Rex the Runt is a British live action stop motion animated claymation pixilation comedy franchise, primarily consisting of a television show and two short films produced by Aardman Animations for BBC Bristol in association with EVA Entertainment and Egmont Imagination. Its main characters are four plasticine dogs: Rex, Wendy, Bad Bob and Vince.

Rex was first introduced as a minor character in Ident (1989), a short film directed by Richard Goleszowski for the Lip Synch series.^[1] During the seven years of development of the characters, Goleszowski produced three pilots, subtitled How Dinosaurs Became Extinct (1991), Dreams (1991) and North by North Pole (1996).^[1][2][3]

Thirteen ten-minute episodes of the series aired over two weeks on BBC2 from December 1998.^[4] 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.

Characters[edit]

Main characters[edit]

• Rex, the protagonist — a timid, irritable runt. He is quick-witted and usually comes up with plans to get out of the scrapes the gang finds themselves in. However, he can also annoy the others by being a smart aleck. His favourite superhero is Rocket Raymond.
• Bad Bob is a "big, fat slob", interested in food and TV. His friends, and occasionally even he himself, describe him as a "Big, fat, jelly-wobbly, fat bast-", usually getting cut off towards the end. He is distinguishable by his eye patch, which changes from eye to eye, and often carries around a revolver almost the size of himself. However grumpy he might be, he is intelligent and loyal.
• Wendy is the only female housemate, distinguishable by her eyelashes, pink colour, noticeably hemispheric breasts, and wears a pink bow on her head. She is cynical, sarcastic, and fiercely independent. Wendy provides solutions to problems albeit in a distant or non-caring way.
• Vince is the pet of the household, although all four are dogs. He is distinguished by his prominent buckteeth and mismatched eyes. He speaks in single words or short disjointed phrases, his favourites being "Spaghetti", "Tuesday", "Jam", and "Trousers". Vince suffers from "Random Pavarotti Disease", causing him to randomly blurt out snatches of opera. While he appears to be unintelligent, he occasionally shows great ingenuity, for example by building an elaborate Heath Robinson machine designed to kill a mouse. The other members of the gang often respond to Vince's random outbursts by irritably telling him to "shut it". Vince often has a habit of copying what others have said, sometimes even if they have just said it in their minds, which Bad Bob finds really annoying.

Other characters[edit]

Many one-off and recurring characters in Rex The Runt are voiced by various well-known UK celebrities. These include:

• Doctor Dogg is a medical doctor. Moustachioed, complacent and greedy, he's an opportunistic money-grabber, whose habitual charge for any treatment is "ten quid" - regardless of whether the cure works or does more harm than good. He isn't above using the main characters in medical research. Voiced by Paul Merton.
• Arthur Dustcart, another semi-regular character, who first makes an appearance in the last episode of the first series, but appears quite frequently in the second. He is an ugly but experienced dustman, sporting sleepy mismatched eyes, a neckerchief, a pair of dirty underpants and a large nose with prominent nasal hair. Despite his grotesque appearance and smell, he and Wendy get on rather well, much to the annoyance of Rex. He becomes a friend of the household when he helps find Rex after he was turned into spaghetti.
• Mrs. Bloomers, head of Kumfy Kennels. Treats dogs with care, until she put Vince in the kennel and he ate a chihuahua.
• Judith Poodle, hostess of a holiday program. Usually ends her sentences with "Ruff!"
• Mr. Formal, the Runts' bank manager, until Bad Bob brought his gun and made him think they were bank robbers.
• Melting Blob Slime, a three-year-old, but very smart slime creature who warned the Runts about the black hole.
• Kylie Mandlebrotska, Rex's old math teacher, until she fell into the black hole.
• Easter Island Aliens, three space aliens from the planet Thribb, where the people look like the Moai statues from Easter Island.
• Mr Chittock, angry neighbour to Rex, after the gang went into his house and drank his beer. Voiced by veteran alternative comedian Stephen Frost.
• Johnny Saveloy, a teenage sausage who was really very old but was kept in a state of artificial youth due to the Church of Chemicology. Voiced by Bob Monkhouse.
• Stinky Basil, a smarmy French talent-spotter. Voiced by Antoine De Caunes, known best in the UK for presenting the Channel 4 late-night adult entertainment show Eurotrash.
• The Happy Rabbits, a band who may sing beautifully but are really cranky and will not let anybody stand in their way.

References to other Aardman productions[edit]

Several episodes of Rex the Runt contain inside references to other television programmes created by Aardman Animations:

• In the episode "Adventures on Telly Part I", Wallace (from the Wallace and Gromit series) is washing the windows on Rex's house, until Bad Bob pushes his ladder over (in the film A Close Shave, Wallace operates a window washing business).
• Pib and Pog, two of Aardman's lesser known creations, are present in the spectator gallery during the courtroom scene from "The Trials of Wendy" and are also present in the audience watching Rex's band in "Stinky's Search for a Star"
• In the episode "Johnny Saveloy's Undoing", two of the jars containing the chemical essences of various stars are labelled "Wallace" and "Gromit". Another jar on the top shelf reads "Nick Park".
• The exorcist called upon in "Patio" is actually Morph, a character from an Aardman children's show, wearing a trench coat, hat, and large moustache.
• There are two references in the episode "Wayne the Zebra": A Chicken Run-style chicken is rejected during the auditions (with Bad Bob making a comment regarding the recent popularity of chickens, referring to the film's success), and Bad Bob consults the Aardman book Cracking Animation (ISBN 0-500-28168-8, published in the US as Creating 3-D Animation).
• The episode entitled "A Crap Day Out" may be a pun on the Wallace and Gromit short film A Grand Day Out.
• Both Wallace from Wallace and Gromit and Rex live on streets that sound similar to their names: whereas Wallace and Gromit live on "West Wallaby Street", it can be seen from the various post that arrives for the household that Rex and company live at "7, Marsupial Way, Rexford"

Episode list[edit]

Series 1 (1998 – 1999)[edit]

Series 2 (2001)[edit]

Cast[edit]

Main cast[edit]

• Andrew Franks as Rex (series 1)
• Colin Rote as Rex (series 2)
• Kevin Wrench as Bad Bob (series 1)
• Andy Jeffers as Bad Bob (series 2)
• Elisabeth Hadley as Wendy
• Steve Box as Vince
• Paul Merton as Doctor Dogg
• Arthur Smith as Arthur Dustcart

Guest stars[edit]

These include:

• Morwenna Banks as Mrs Bloomers ("A Holiday in Vince")
• Judith Chalmers as Judith Poodle ("A Holiday in Vince", "The Trials of Wendy")
• Bob Holness as Mr Formal ("Adventures on Telly, Part I")
• Eddie Izzard as Melting Blob Man ("Adventures on Telly, Part III"), and Easter Island Head Aliens ("Easter Island")
• Kathy Burke as Kylie Mandelbrotska ("Adventures on Telly, Part III", "Rocket Raymond", "Wendy's New Hair Do")
• Antoine de Caunes as Stinky Basil ("Too Many Dogs", "Stinky's Search for a Star", "Bob's International Hiccup Centre"), and French Delegate ("Bob's International Hiccup Centre")
• June Whitfield as Judge Pikelet ("The Trials of Wendy")
• Simon Day as Constable Funnyname ("The Trials of Wendy", "Stinky's Search for a Star", "Bob Joins a Gang")
• Pam Ayres as Aunty Brenda ("Under the Duvet", "Slim Bob")
• Stanley Unwin as Mr Wangle, Accountant to the Stars ("Johnny Saveloy's Undoing")
• Bob Monkhouse as Johnny Saveloy ("Johnny Saveloy's Undoing", "The City Shrinkers")
• Tommy Cannon as Tiddles the Destroyer ("Mouse in Me Kitchen")
• Graham Norton as Osvaldo Halitosis ("Patio") and the Plants ("A Crap Day Out")
• Bobby Ball as Wayne ("Wayne the Zebra")
• Phill Jupitus as Morris the One-Gloved Mouse ("Mouse in Me Kitchen"), The Ants ("Patio") and Sergeant Major ("Private Wendy")
• Jonathan Ross as Handsome Rex ("Wendy's Hot Date") and Awards Announcer ("Wendy's New Hairdo")
• Loyd Grossman as himself ("The Art of Cooking")

Credits[edit]

Series 1[edit]

• Writers: Richard Goleszowski, David Max Freedman, Alan Gilbey, Kevin Wrench & Andrew Franks
• Music & Theme Tune: Stuart Gordon
• Songs Composed by: Kevin Wrench & Andrew Franks
• Executive Producers: Mikael Shields, Steve Walsh (EVA Entertainment), Ulla Brockenhuus-Schack, Poul Kofod (Egmont Imagination)
• Series Producer: Michael Rose
• Producer: Jacqueline White
• Devised & Directed by: Richard Goleszowski
• Executive Producers for Aardman: Peter Lord, David Sproxton
• Executive Producer for BBC Bristol: Colin Rose
• An Aardman Animations Production for BBC Bristol in association with EVA Entertainment & Egmont Imagination

Series 2[edit]

• Written by: Ben Caudell, Peter Holmes, Andrew Viner
• Original Music: Stuart Gordon, Ben Jones
• Executive Producer for BBC: Colin Rose
• Executive Producers for Egmont Imagination: Paul Kofod & Tom Van Waveren
• Executive Producers for Aardman: Peter Lord & David Sproxton, Michael Rose
• Producer: Jacqueline White
• Directed by: Richard Goleszowski, Dan Capozzi, Chris Sadler, Sam Fell, Peter Peake
• An Aardman Animations Production for BBC Bristol in association with Egmont Imagination

Merchandise[edit]

Series One has been released on VHS in the United Kingdom and on DVD in South Korea. A DVD of all 26 episodes has been released in the United States, which is region-free.

• Rex The Runt: The Complete First Season (VHS) (B00005NB24)
• Rex The Runt: The Complete Collection (DVD) (Region 0) (B000068QOF)
• Rex The Runt: Rainy Day Companion (Book written by Andrew Franks and Kevin Wrench, a.k.a. the voices of Rex and Bad Bob) (ISBN 0-340-74862-1)
• Aardman's Darkside (a compilation DVD featuring episodes of Rex The Runt, released on 18 October 2006) (DVD) (B000FS9SDM)
• Rex The Runt plush toys of the four main characters were available via Aardman at one point, as well as a handbag of Vince's head, though this is particularly rare.
• Sweets shaped like the main characters were available in the early 2000s

Underdog[edit]

Underdog is an advertising character, first appearing in 2010, animated by Aardman Animations, in the same style as the Rex the Runt figures, but wearing bandages, promoting the personal injury claims company National Accident Helpline.^[5][6]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Official website
• Rex the Runt at British Comedy Guide
• Rex the Runt on IMDb
• Rex the Runt at TV.com