Americans like the British kind of quirkiness and the strange accent. They find it kind of cute or something, with a certain charm.

I have to admit to not being the greatest technician, but stop motion animation gives me licence to create machines that wouldn't otherwise be possible - inventions that seem real and actually work.

Gromit was the name of a cat. When I started modeling the cat I just didn't feel it was quite right, so I made it into a dog because he could have a bigger nose and bigger, longer legs.

There is something about the Australian psyche that seems to like films that are slightly offbeat.

When I was a teenager, my dad watched my films and told me I could go to art college and study animation. He made me see that I could do this for a living.

My father, an architectural photographer, was an incurable tinkerer, maker and mender.

We can do things that we never could before. Stop-motion lets you build tiny little worlds, and computers make that world even more believable.