Gromit, Rex the Runt and Bitzer Deal the Cards in an Aardman Academy Stop-Motion Crossover

Can you name the Aardman dogs? There’s Gromit, of course. Then perhaps Rex the Runt. Finally, you might suggest Bitzer, the long-suffering sheepdog from Shaun the Sheep. If you can name all three, that probably qualifies you as something of an Aardman Animation fan. Now imagine an animation that opens with Gromit, Rex and Bitzer sitting down to a game of poker. If that sounds too good to be true, you’d be right - at least when it comes to them starring together in a full Aardman production.

However, this short is the work of Ben Nightingale, a professional cartoonist who created it as part of the Aardman Academy: Stop Motion 1 course, which I’m guessing he completed last year. (The Aardman Academy emerged from within Aardman Studios in response to the sheer ambition and scale of Chicken Run, and has since grown into a core part of the organisation, embodying the studio’s commitment to inclusivity, skill-sharing, and creative ambition.) It’s fantastic work.

The comments section is absolutely buzzing - especially about the return of Rex the Runt. There appears to be a kind of secret RtR society that emerges whenever anything involving their hero surfaces online. And why not?

Impossible Maladies

At the somwhat pale dawn of the Enlightenment, when reason was meant to banish superstition but seldom succeeded, Doctor Rabarbaro and his long-suffering assistant Tosse wander from doorstep to doorstep, offering cures for ailments that may - or may not - exist. Their remedies are elaborate, earnest, and faintly ridiculous, delivered with the grave authority of men who believe utterly in their own methods, even as the world around them quietly suggests otherwise.

Loosely inspired by 18th-century satirical engravings that revelled in the public’s mistrust of medicine, the film delights in the body’s unknowability, treating illness as both mystery and farce. It is exquisitely animated, darkly playful, and infused with a nonsense logic that feels period-authentic and eerily modern. Beneath the humour lingers an unsettling question, as old as medicine itself: when those who claim to heal others are themselves afflicted, who, if anyone, holds the cure?

The film is written and directed by Stefano Tambellini and Alice Tambellini, who also share animation duties, crafting a meticulous visual world that feels at once archival and alive - beautifully done, and quietly unsettling.

Goodbye 2025 – The Ultimate Multifandom Edit of the Year

How many of the characters from TV shows and movies do you recognise from the picture above?  Well, they represent just ten of the multitude included in this fabulous video, edited to perfection by whoislena, who has been creating multifandom mashups for a number of years (at least since 2015).  A decade of editing will probably teach you a lot and this latest edit, I think, is as close to perfect as one can get.  It is bewilderingly fast-moving at times and you will probably struggle (as I did) to pinpoint each character within their own universe. I think one of the commenters on YouTube (@chasingstars-py2zt) sums it up beautifully – “This is the most insane editing I have seen in my life oh my god. idk what else to say”.

Here’s a list of all the films and TV shows that were included in this edit.  Do we still say mashup? I don’t know.  Regardless, here they are! I must say, it majorly increased my interest in watching some of the ones I missed last year.  Surely, 2025 must be one of the best years for visual entertainment in history. Watch the Ultimate 2025 Multifandom Edit below.

Here is a list of all the films and TV shows included in the edit.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Stranger Things, Andor, Warfare, The Running Man, The Legend of Ochi, Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning, Jurassic World: Rebirth, Alien: Earth, Mickey 17, Peacemaker, Avatar: Fire and Ash, Superman (2025), Wicked: For Good, How to Train Your Dragon (Live Action), Predator: Killer of Killers, Squid Game, Expedition 33, Daredevil: Born Again, The Minecraft Movie, Chainsaw Man: Reze Arc, Your Friends & Neighbors, One Battle After Another, The Thursday Murder Club, The Studio, The Residence, KPop Demon Hunters, Only Murders in the Building, War of the Worlds (2025), Heated Rivalry, Gen V, Severance, The Pitt, Win or Lose, Rental Family, Naked Gun, The Phoenician Scheme, Pluribus, The Thunderbolts, Wednesday, The Life of Chuck, Wake Up Dead Man, Welcome to Derry, Sinners, Wayward, Weapons, Frankenstein (2025), Bring Her Back, Bugonia, 28 Years Later, Eddington, Together, Solo Leveling, The Summer Hikaru Died, Paradise, The Conjuring: Last Rites, The Bear, The Long Walk, The Summer I Turned Pretty, The Last of Us, When Life Gives You Tangerines, Takopi’s Original Sin, We Were Liars, The White Lotus.