Gromit was nearly a cat, says animator

London - Gromit, the much-loved canine companion of an absent-minded inventor Wallace, was originally supposed to be a cat, creator Nick Park has revealed.

He is an anthropomorphic intelligent dog that remains silent, communicating only through facial expressions and body language.

“I had this idea about a guy who builds a rocket in the basement of his house. I thought he had to have an assistant,” the BBC quoted him as saying on the Radio Times interview.

“So I drew a cat called Gromit. But when I came to model the cat out of clay, I found a dog easier to make.

“Plus I had a packet of dog’s noses from a craft shop on me. So Gromit became a dog,” he said.

The Oscar winning animator also revealed that Gromit was supposed to be a “bouncy, extrovert character but on the first day of shooting, he was too hard to move.

“I found it much easier just moving his brow. It gave him a personality, an inner, discerning mind. Suddenly he became a contrast; a child more intelligent than his father,” he revealed.

The duo are the main characters in a British series consisting of four animated short films and the characters are made from moulded plasticine modelling clay on metal armatures, and filmed with stop motion clay animation.