Rex the Runt

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
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 directors	Peter Holmes Richard Goleszowski
Voices of	Andrew Franks Elisabeth Hadley Paul Merton Steve Box Arthur Smith Sean Connolly Beverley Cressman
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
Composers	Stuart Gordon Ben Jones
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	2
No. of episodes	26 3 (pilots)
Production
Executive producers	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
Producers	Michael Rose Jacqueline White
Production location	England
Cinematography	Frank Passingham Fred Reed
Editors	Ben Jones James Mather
Running time	10 minutes
Production companies	Aardman Animations BBC Bristol Egmont Imagination EVA Entertainment
Distributor	Aardman Animations
Release
Original network	BBC Two
Picture format	Season 1: 4:3 Season 2: 16:9
Audio format	Dolby Surround
Original release	21 December 1998 (1998-12-21) – 16 December 2001 (2001-12-16)
External links
Website

Rex the Runt is a British live-action stop-motion animated claymation pixilation comedy series, primarily consisting of a television show and two short films produced by Aardman Animations for BBC Bristol in association with 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 (1992), Dreams (1992) and North by North Pole (1997).^[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[]

Main[]

• 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 red (or starting with series 2, 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. She speaks in a Mancunian accent.
• 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.

Others[]

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. Voiced by Arthur Smith.
• Mrs. Bloomers, head of Kumfy Kennels. Treats dogs with care, until she put Vince in the kennel and he ate a chihuahua. Voiced by Morwenna Banks.
• Judith Poodle, hostess of a holiday program. Usually ends her sentences with "Ruff!". Voiced by Judith Chalmers.
• Mr. Formal, the Runts' bank manager, until Bad Bob brought his gun and made him think they were bank robbers. Voiced by Bob Holness.
• Melting Blob Slime, a three-year-old, but very smart slime creature who warned the Runts about the black hole.
• Constable Funyname, a police dog who arrests Wendy in "The Trials of Wendy". Voiced by Simon Day.
• Judge Pikelet, elderly judge in "The Trials of Wendy". Voiced by June Whitfield
• Kylie Mandlebrotska, Rex's old math teacher, until she fell into the black hole. Voiced by Kathy Burke.
• Easter Island Aliens, three space aliens from the planet Thribb, where the people look like the Moai statues from Easter Island. Voiced by Eddie Izzard.
• Morris the One-Gloved Mouse, invaded Rex's kitchen in "Mouse In Me Kitchen". Voiced by Phil Jupitus.
• Osvalde Halitosis, carnivorous plant in "A Crap Day Out", voiced by Graham Norton.
• 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.
• Wayne The Zebra. Voiced by Bobby Ball.
• Tiddles The Destroyer. A mean fighting cat, long known to the gang, who detests Bob. Voiced by Tommy Cannon.
• The Happy Rabbits, a band who may sing beautifully but are really cranky and will not let anybody stand in their way.
• Awards announcer in "Wendy's Hot Date" and Handsome Rex in "Wendy's New Hair Do", voiced by Jonathan Ross.

References to other Aardman productions[]

Several episodes of Rex the Runt contain inside references to other projects 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"
• In the 2006 film Flushed Away: young rat named Maximillian "Shocky" Malone wears a green T-shirt with Rex on it.
• in the 2015 film Shaun the Sheep Movie: Vince is one of the photographed animals marked as 'contained' by Trumper.

Episode list[]

Series 1 (1998 – 1999)[]

Series 2 (2001)[]

Series 2 was aired between 23 September 2001 to 16 December 2001 (Excluding 2 December) on late nights, afterwords, each episode that air on the next Sunday, after CBBC on BBC 2, episode 11 however it was aired on BBC 2,

Cast[]

Main cast[]

• Andrew Franks as Rex (series 1)
• as Rex (series 2)
• as Bad Bob (series 1)
• 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[]

These include:

• Morwenna Banks as Mrs. Bloomers & Voice ("A Holiday in Vince") ("Adventures on Telly Part 1")
• 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")

Underdog[]

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[]

External links[]

• Official website
• Rex the Runt at British Comedy Guide
• Rex the Runt at IMDb