Aardman Animations

Aardman Animations, Ltd.

Type	Private company limited by shares
Industry	Animation
Founded	1972 (1972)
Founder	Peter Lord David Sproxton
Headquarters	Bristol, England, UK
Area served	5
Key people	Peter Lord Nick Park David Sproxton
Divisions	Aardman Features Aardman Digital Aardman Commercials Aardman Broadcast Aardman International Aardman Rights Aardman Effects Aardman Nathan Love
Website	www.aardman.com

Aardman Animations, Ltd., also known as Aardman Studios, or simply as Aardman, is a British animation studio based in Bristol. Aardman is known for films made using stop-motion clay animation techniques, particularly those featuring Plasticine characters Wallace and Gromit. After some experimental computer animated short films during the late 1990s, beginning with Owzat (1997), it entered the computer animation market with Flushed Away (2006). Aardman films have made $971.8 million worldwide and average $162 million per film.^[1] All of their stop motion films are among the highest-grossing stop-motion films, with their debut, Chicken Run, being their top-grossing film^[1] as well as the highest-grossing stop-motion film of all time.^[2]

History

1972–1996

Aardman Animations' headquarters in Bristol

Aardman was founded in 1972 as a low-budget project by Peter Lord and David Sproxton, who wanted to realise their dream of producing an animated motion picture. The partnership provided animated sequences for the BBC series for deaf children Vision On. After creating a segment called "Greeblies" (1975) using clay animation, became what was the inspiration for creating Morph, a simple clay character. Around the same time Lord and Sproxton made their first foray into adult animation with the shorts Down and Out and Confessions of a Foyer Girl, entries in the BBC's Animated Conversations series using real-life conversations as soundtracks. However, these two shorts were not actual Aardman productions. Aardman also created the title sequence for The Great Egg Race^[3] and supplied animation for the multiple award winning music video of Peter Gabriel's song "Sledgehammer".^[4] They produced the music video for the song "My Baby Just Cares For Me" by Nina Simone in 1987.

Later Aardman produced a number of shorts for Channel 4 including the Conversation Pieces series. These five shorts worked in the same area as the Animated Conversations pieces, but were more sophisticated. Lord and Sproxton began hiring more animators at this point; three of the newcomers made their directorial debut at Aardman with the Lip Synch series. Of the five Lip Synch shorts two were directed by Peter Lord, one by Barry Purves, one by Richard Goleszowski and one by Nick Park.

Park's short, Creature Comforts, was the first Aardman production to win an Oscar. Park also developed the clay modelled shorts featuring the adventures of Wallace and Gromit, a comical pair of friends: Wallace being a naive English inventor with a love of cheese, and Gromit his best friend, the intelligent but silent dog. These films include A Grand Day Out (1989), The Wrong Trousers (1993) and A Close Shave (1995), the latter two winning Academy Awards.

1997–2006

In December 1997, Aardman and DreamWorks (later DreamWorks Animation) announced that their companies were teaming up to co-finance and distribute Chicken Run, Aardman's first feature film, which had already been in pre-production for a year.^[5] On 27 October 1999, Aardman and DreamWorks signed a $250 million^[6] deal to make an additional four films that were estimated to be completed during the next 12 years.^[7] With the deal was also announced the first project, titled The Tortoise and the Hare. Intended to be based on Aesop's fable and directed by Richard Goleszowski,^[8] it was put on hold two years later because of script issues.^[9] On 23 June 2000, Chicken Run was released to a great critical and financial success. In 2005, after ten years of absence, Wallace and Gromit returned in Academy Award-winning Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Next year followed Flushed Away, Aardman's first computer-animated feature.

On 1 October 2006, right before the release of Flushed Away, The New York Times reported that due to creative differences DreamWorks Animation and Aardman would not be extending their contract.^[10] The deal was officially terminated on 30 January 2007.^[11] According to an Aardman spokesperson: "The business model of DreamWorks no longer suits Aardman and vice versa. But the split couldn't have been more amicable."^[11] Unofficial reasons for departure were weak performances of the last two movies, for which DreamWorks had to take writedowns,^[11] and citing the article, "Aardman executives chafed at the creative control DreamWorks tried to exert, particularly with Flushed Away..."^[10] The studio had another film in development, Crood Awakening (now The Croods), which had been announced in 2005, with John Cleese co-writing the screenplay.^[12] With the end of the partnership, the film's rights reverted to DreamWorks.^[11]

Meanwhile, on 10 October 2005, a serious fire at a storage facility used by Aardman and other Bristol-based companies destroyed over 30 years of awards collected by the company as well as props, models, and scenery often built by the Bristol-based Cod Steaks. This warehouse was used for storage of past projects and so did not prevent the production of their current projects at the time. In addition, the company's library of finished films was stored elsewhere and was undamaged. An electrical fault was determined to be the cause of the blaze.^[13] Referring to the 2004 South Asia earthquake and tsunami, Park was quoted as saying, "Even though it is a precious and nostalgic collection and valuable to the company, in light of other tragedies, today isn't a big deal."^[14]

From 2006–2007, the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, Tokyo, Japan, had an exhibit featuring the works of Aardman Studios. Sproxton and Lord visited the exhibit in May 2006 and met with animator Hayao Miyazaki during the visit.^[15] Miyazaki has long been a fan of the Aardman Animation works.^[16]

2007–present

In April 2007, Aardman signed^[17] and in 2010 renewed^[18] a three-year deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment to finance, co-produce and distribute feature films. The next year, Aardman released a new Wallace and Gromit short film, called A Matter of Loaf and Death. The first film made in partnership with Sony was computer-animated Arthur Christmas (2011), which is Aardman's first 3-D feature film. 2012 was the release of The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists (known internationally as The Pirates! Band of Misfits), Aardman's first 3-D stop-motion film and Peter Lord's first film as a director since Chicken Run. Additional two films were announced in June 2007: The Cat Burglars, a stop-motion directed by Steve Box, about cats that steal milk, and their plans to pull off 'the great milk float robbery'; and an untitled Nick Park project.^[19]

Aardman is also known to provide generous resources and training to young animators by providing awards at various animation festivals. For example, The Aardman Award at the UK's Animex Festival in Teesside provides world class story consultation to a promising young animator, for their next film.^[20]

In 2008, Aardman joined with Channel 4 and Lupus Films to launch a user-generated content animation portal called 4mations.^[21]

They also designed the BBC One Christmas Idents for that year, which featured Wallace and Gromit to tie in with the showing of the new Wallace and Gromit film called A Matter of Loaf and Death on Christmas Day at 8:30pm.

In April 2008, Aardman launched the Aardman YouTube channel, which is a YouTube Partner channel featuring the entire Creature Comforts TV series, the Morph series, Cracking Contraptions and clips from the Wallace and Gromit films.^[22]

From December 2008, Aardman also started posting various flash games on Newgrounds, the majority of which are based on Wallace & Gromit and Shaun the Sheep.^[23]

In 2009, Nintendo announced that Aardman would make twelve short films using only Flipnote Studio from Nintendo DSi. The films were posted on Flipnote's Hatena web service provider. The first film was called The Sandwich Twins and was released on 16 September 2009. The remaining eleven films were released on a weekly basis until Christmas, and can also be downloaded using Hatena.^[24]

In October 2013, Peter Lord (co-founder of Aardman Animations) created a fund raising project on the crowdfunding site Kickstarter. The campaign has a target of £75,000 which will be used to fund 12 new one-minute episodes of Morph. Lord is hoping to start production in January 2014 using the original stop-frame animation. Backers of the project will receive a variety of rewards, including early access to the new animations and a small box of clay used in the production, depending on the individual's level of funding.^[25][26]

In 2015, the company bought a majority share in New York-based animation studio Nathan Love,^[27] announcing the merger with a short film called Introducing: Aardman Nathan Love in September 25 of the same year .^[28]

Company name

The company name is taken from one of its early characters, a superhero created for Vision On in 1972.^[29] Unlike the claymation productions that the company are famous for, Aardman was cel-animated.^[30] The name derives from the Dutch phrase "aard man" meaning Nature Man, when joined together, "aardman" becomes "Earthman" more commonly translated to: "goblin".^[31] However, co-founder David Sproxton has claimed that the name was a result of being unable to "find another word with more A's in it than 'aardvark'" as schoolboys.^[32]

Non-Aardman productions by Aardman directors

A number of Aardman directors have worked at other studios, taking the distinctive Aardman style with them.

Aardman's Steve Box directed the animated music video for the Spice Girls' final single as a five-piece, "Viva Forever". Widely regarded as the Spice Girls' most critically acclaimed song, the video took over 5 months to produce, considerably longer than the group's box office hit movie, Spice World. Barry Purves, director of the Aardman short Next, also directed Hamilton Mattress for Harvest Films. The film, a half-hour special that premiered on Christmas Day 2001, was produced by Chris Moll, producer of the Wallace and Gromit short film The Wrong Trousers. The models were provided by Mackinnon & Saunders, a firm that did the same for Bob the Builder and Corpse Bride.

Similarly, Robbie the Reindeer in Hooves of Fire, a BBC Bristol/Comic Relief production, was directed by Richard Goleszowski, creator of Rex the Runt. Its sequel, Robbie the Reindeer in Legend of the Lost Tribe, was directed by Peter Peake, whose directorial credits for Aardman include Pib and Pog and Humdrum.

Aardman alumni also produced many of the claymation shorts used in the 1986–1990 American television series Pee-wee's Playhouse.^[33][34]

Filmography

Feature films

Television series/series of shorts

Short films

Music videos

Commercials

This is a selected list of commercials produced by Aaardman. By 2000, the studio had produced over 100 commercials, at a rate of 15-20 spots per year.^[54] In the year 2009 alone, the studio produced 106 commercials.^[55]

Apps

• Wizards vs Aliens: The Eye of Bashtarr (2013)^[82]
• Escargot Escape Artistes (2015)^[83]

Books

• Tristan Davies, Nick Park, Nick Newman (1997); Wallace & Gromit and the Lost Slipper. Adler's Foreign Books. ISBN 978-0-8417-2026-8
• Peter Lord; Brian Sibley (1998). Cracking Animation: The Aardman Book of 3-D Animation. Thames & Hudson Ltd. ISBN 978-0-500-28168-0
• Tristan Davies; Nick Newman (1998). Wallace & Gromit in Anoraknophobia. Adler's Foreign Books. ISBN 978-0-8417-2031-2
• Tristan Davies; Nick Newman (1999). Wallace & Gromit: Crackers in Space. Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 978-0-340-71289-4
• Andy Lane (2003). Creating Creature Comforts. Boxtree Ltd. ISBN 978-0-7522-1564-8
• Andy Lane (2004). The World of Wallace & Gromit. Boxtree Ltd. ISBN 978-0-7522-1558-7
• Andy Lane; Paul Simpson (2005). The Art of Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Titan Books Ltd. ISBN 978-1-84576-136-3

See also

• List of animated feature films
• List of stop-motion films
• DreamWorks Animation
• Sony
• Gromit Unleashed

References

External links

• Official website
• Aardman Animations at the Internet Movie Database
• Aardman Animations at Newgrounds

Cinema of the United Kingdom Culture of the United Kingdom World cinema Films by year (Films A–Z) Pre 1920 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 Production companies and studios Active Aardman Animations BBC Films Big Talk Productions British Lion Films DNA Films Double Negative (VFX) Ealing Studios Elstree Studios Eon Productions Film4 Productions Framestore Goldcrest Films Hammer Film Productions HandMade Films Heyday Films The Imaginarium Studios London Films Palace Pictures Passion Pictures The Pinewood Studios Group (Pinewood Studios Shepperton Studios) Recorded Picture Company Scott Free Productions Syncopy Inc. S4C Films Thin Man Films Vertigo Films Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden Warp Films Wimbledon Studios Working Title Films Former Amicus Productions Associated British Picture Corporation Astra Films British Instructional Films British National Films Company Butcher's Film Service Clarendon Film Company Bryanston Films The Danzigers Denham Film Studios Eagle-Lion Films Eros Films G.B. Samuelson Productions Gainsborough Pictures General Film Distributors Halas and Batchelor Hemdale Film Corporation Ideal Film Company Mancunian Films MGM-British Studios Merton Park Studios Rank Organisation Southall Studios Stoll Pictures Tempean Films Tigon British Film Productions Warwick Films Woolf & Freedman Film Service Organisations BAFTA British Board of Film Classification British Film Institute BFI National Archive BFI Southbank British Society of Cinematographers Children's Film Foundation Cinema Exhibitors' Association National Film and Television School National Media Museum Northern Ireland Screen Scottish Screen UK Film Council People Actors and actresses Cinematographers Directors Editors Producers Production designers Score composers Screenwriters Other British Academy Film Awards British Independent Film Awards British New Wave Carry On Cinematograph Films Act 1927 Documentary Film Movement Eady Levy Ealing Comedies Edgar Wallace Mysteries Free Cinema Gainsborough melodramas Harry Potter History of British film certificates Home Video Charts James Bond London Film Festival Look at Life London in film National Theatre Live Telecinema Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy Category Commons

Animation industry in the United Kingdom Active Animation Studios/Companies Aardman Animations Art You Grew Up With Astley Baker Davies Bird Studios Blue-Zoo Productions Bolexbrothers BreakThru Films Cake Entertainment Cartoon Network Development Studio Europe Collingwood & Co. Cosgrove Hall Fitzpatrick Entertainment DHX Media UK Fine Arts Films Fred & Eric Defunct Animation Studios/Companies Bumper Films Cosgrove Hall Films Entertainment Rights Related topics Arthur Melbourne-Cooper Jerry the Troublesome Tyke