The evil penguin has his beady eyes on the much-loved duo's own statue nearby.
Nick Park was the guest of honour at the official opening of Preston's new Animate cinema and leisure complex.
Nick Park was the guest of honour at the official opening of Preston's new Animate cinema and leisure complex.
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00:00And we need to welcome a very special person. He is an honorary Freeman of our city, a proud
00:11Prestonian, a multi-Academy Award winner. And currently an Academy Award nominee for
00:24Wallace and Gromit, Vengeance Most Foul. So, animator of great distinction, Mr Nick Park,
00:41CBE. So, without further ado, can I invite Mr Nick Park, CBE, Freeman of the City of
00:51Preston, accompanied by our Mayor, Councillor Phil Crow, to unveil this new piece of public
00:57art which signifies the opening of Animate Preston. Thank you. Right, can we manage a
01:03countdown, do you think? Can we start from 10? 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
01:15As a proud Prestonian, it is my great honour to be here with the Mayor unveiling this iconic
01:34character in the centre of my home city of Preston. Panther and Roar, as you know, completes
01:44the set of Wallace and Gromit and the entire cast of The Wrong Trail. I'm sure Wallace
01:51and Gromit would be very pleased, if maybe a little bit too close for comfort. And it's
01:59perfect timing too, because Feathers of a Crawl only very recently became the most popular
02:08trending image that people were asking for, into two feathers. It was quite by accident,
02:16really. And it's perhaps a testament to how evil, cool and infamous he has become. In
02:24fact, you could say about all the characters that they do have a lot of metal. Sorry about
02:32that. That was terrible. Like has already been said, Christopher Banks, Chris Jones
02:42and the whole team at Castle Fine Arts Foundation have done an amazing job and Ian Banks has
02:51helped a lot to pull this off. And Merlin around here, of course, played a role in all
02:57of this. Thank you everybody. I'm very proud to be here today. Thank you.