Line #14 Creator/AardmanAnimations


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7	->''"Without Aardman, the world would be slightly less silly and slightly less fun."''
8	-->-- '''Creator/MartinFreeman''', ''A Grand Night In: The Story of Aardman''
9
10	[[https://aardman.com Aardman Animations]] is a prolific UsefulNotes/AcademyAward winning British animation and multimedia studio founded by David Sproxton and Peter Lord in 1975, primarily known for their distinct brand of StopMotionAnimation and [[BritishHumour British sense of humour]].
11
12	It began, as most successes have, in a garage. The studio's name comes from the title of Sproxton and Lord's first [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness traditionally-animated]] short, "The Aardman", about a superhero who evoked stereotypical western English machoism, i.e. [[PunBasedTitle an "'ard man"]].[[note]]For Americans, a "hard man" is UsefulNotes/BritishEnglish for a macho bloke type.[[/note]] When it came time to deposit their cheque for the film, they realized they needed to create a new bank account for it, which became the Aardman Animation account. Several other films commissioned by Creator/TheBBC, as well as hugely popular TV ads, would follow throughout the decades.
13
14	In the '80s, they began by producing ''The Amazing Adventures of Morph'', a claymation series of children's shorts. Around this time, they hired a fresh-faced film school student named Creator/NickPark to work for them on Music/PeterGabriel's famed "Music/{{Sledgehammer\|1986}}" video while he finished his thesis film, ''WesternAnimation/AGrandDayOut''. Park not only earned the studio its first Academy Award with ''WesternAnimation/CreatureComforts'' (which was nominated against ''A Grand Day Out''), but the characters from his thesis would become the first of the studio's major franchise, ''WesternAnimation/WallaceAndGromit'', for which they would later produce three more shorts and [[WesternAnimation/TheCurseOfTheWereRabbit a feature film]], earning several more Oscars in the process.
15
16	Aardman would break into feature films at [[TurnOfTheMillennium the dawn of the 21st century]] and have worked with a rotating cast of distributors. Their first and most successful three were made in collaboration with Creator/DreamWorksAnimation, followed by two films with Creator/SonyPicturesAnimation, a split due to diminishing returns, then three with Creator/StudioCanal followed by ''another'' split due to diminishing returns. As of this writing, their latest partner is Creator/{{Netflix}}, with an exclusive new series of ''WesternAnimation/ShaunTheSheep'' specials, a sequel to ''WesternAnimation/ChickenRun'' and a new ''WesternAnimation/WallaceAndGromit'' film, amongst other projects, being produced as part of the deal.
17
18	They have also done the English dubs for the Belgian-produced ''WesternAnimation/ATownCalledPanic''.
19
20	----
21	!!Works include the following:
22
23	[[foldercontrol]]
24
25	[[index]]
26	[[folder:Features]]
27	* ''WesternAnimation/ChickenRun'' (2000): The studio's first full-length feature, and the first of three with Creator/DreamWorksAnimation. Distributed by French studio Pathé in Europe.
28	* ''WesternAnimation/TheCurseOfTheWereRabbit'' (2005): TheMovie of ''WesternAnimation/WallaceAndGromit'' and the second [=DreamWorks=] collab. See below for more details.
29	* ''WesternAnimation/FlushedAway'' (2006): Their first CGI feature, and the last in cooperation with [=DreamWorks=].
30	* ''WesternAnimation/ArthurChristmas'' (2011): Their second CGI feature and first collaboration with Creator/SonyPicturesAnimation, starring Creator/JamesMcAvoy, Creator/HughLaurie, Creator/BillNighy and Creator/ImeldaStaunton, [[EnsembleCast among others]].
31	* ''WesternAnimation/ThePiratesInAnAdventureWithScientists'' (2012): Their second and last with [[Creator/SonyPicturesAnimation SPA]], based on the first in a series of books by Gideon Defoe, starring Creator/HughGrant, Creator/MartinFreeman, Creator/SalmaHayek, '''Creator/BrianBlessed''', Jeremy Piven, and also Staunton. Released internationally as ''The Pirates! Band of Misfits''.
32	* ''[[WesternAnimation/ShaunTheSheep Shaun the Sheep: The Movie]]'' (2015): ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin and their first collaboration with European company Creator/StudioCanal.
33	* ''WesternAnimation/EarlyMan'' (2018): The studio's second attempt at the story that eventually became ''WesternAnimation/TheCroods'' had Aardman and DWA not broken off their contract early, and their second film with [=StudioCanal=].
34	* ''[[WesternAnimation/ShaunTheSheep Farmageddon: A Shaun the Sheep Movie]]'' (2019): Sequel to the first ''Shaun the Sheep'' film and their third collab with [=StudioCanal=] as well as their first to be released by Creator/{{Netflix}} in America, Canada and Latin areas.
35	* ''WesternAnimation/ChickenRunDawnOfTheNugget'' (2023): Sequel to ''WesternAnimation/ChickenRun'' and their second film to be released exclusively by Creator/{{Netflix}}.
36	[[/folder]]
37
38	[[folder:Franchises]]
39	* ''WesternAnimation/WallaceAndGromit'':
40	** ''WesternAnimation/AGrandDayOut'' (1989): The first ''Wallace & Gromit'' short, it was nominated for the Academy Award for Animated Short Film, but lost to Aardman's other work, ''WesternAnimation/CreatureComforts''.
41	** ''WesternAnimation/TheWrongTrousers'' (1993): Won the Academy Award for Animated Short Film.
42	** ''WesternAnimation/ACloseShave'' (1995): Won the Academy Award for Animated Short Film.
43	** ''Cracking Contraptions'', a set of 10:30 shorts that were released online, then later as a limited edition Region 2 DVD, and again as bonus material on the ''Curse of the Were-Rabbit'' DVD.
44	** ''WesternAnimation/TheCurseOfTheWereRabbit'' (2005): A theatrically released full-length feature. The first ''Wallace & Gromit'' entry that isn't a short, and it won not only the Academy Award for "Best Animated Feature", but also the British Academy Film Awards' "Best British Film", the British Comedy Awards' "Best Comedy Film", and the Hugo for "Best Dramatic Presentation - Long Form", among many others.
45	** ''WesternAnimation/AMatterOfLoafAndDeath'' (2008), a short and Academy Award nominee for Animated Short Film the following year.
46	** ''Wallace and Gromit's World of Inventions'' (2010), an educational TV program. Wallace talks about famous or revolutionary inventions with Gromit's assistance.
47	** Untitled ''Wallace and Gromit'' film (2024)
48	* ''WesternAnimation/ShaunTheSheep'', a television series that began in 2007 with a 40 episode season. It's a {{Spinoff}} centered on the character of Shaun, the sheep from ''A Close Shave''. It does not feature Wallace or Gromit, though. It has currently finished its sixth season, and in 2008 won the Emmy for "Children's Production".
49	** ''WesternAnimation/TimmyTime'', a spin-off of ''Shaun the Sheep'' featuring Timmy the lamb and his friends at preschool; aimed at a younger audience than the previous examples.
50	** Two features (see above).
51	* ''WesternAnimation/CreatureComforts'' (1989), a Academy Award winner for Animated Short Film, later adapted into a 2003 television series, with an American adaptation in 2007.
52	[[/folder]]
53
54	[[folder:Shorts]]
55	* ''WesternAnimation/CreatureDiscomfortsLifeInLockdown'' (2020)
56	* ''WesternAnimation/NotWithoutMyHandbag'' (1993)
57	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Ident}}'' (1989)
58	* ''WesternAnimation/Adam1992''
59	* ''WesternAnimation/PibAndPog'' (1995)
60	* ''WesternAnimation/TheLonelyDodo'' (2013)
61	* ''WesternAnimation/WatsPig'' (1996)
62	* ''WesternAnimation/StageFright'' (1997): BAFTA winner.
63	* ''WesternAnimation/RobinRobin'' (2021)
64	[[/folder]]
65
66	[[folder:Series]]
67	* {{WesternAnimation/Morph}}, a plasticine man who [[TheUnintelligible spoke in gibberish]] and could change into shapes. He originally appeared in 1977 during one-minute shorts on ''Take Hart'' and later his own shows. Was revived as a Website/YouTube series in 2014.
68	* ''WesternAnimation/RexTheRunt:'' The studio's first primetime animated series, with two 13-episode seasons shown between 1998 and 2001 on BBC 2. Has become something of a CultClassic.
69	* ''WesternAnimation/ChopSockyChooks'', a short-lived TV series co-produced with Canada's [[Creator/WildBrain Decode Entertainment]] for Creator/CartoonNetwork and Creator/{{Teletoon}} featuring kung-fu chickens (yes, really).
70	* ''WesternAnimation/AngryKid'', a web series originally hosted on Atom Films about the daily misadventures of a bratty adolescent.
71	* ''WesternAnimation/ThePresentators'', a series of shorts commissioned by [[{{Creator/Nickelodeon}} Nickelodeon UK]] from 2002 to 2004, starring the same three characters from ''The Deadline'', a 2001 award-winning short about three animators of [[CartoonCreature indeterminate species]] apologizing for missing their deadline.
72	* ''WesternAnimation/ShaunTheSheep'': See above for more details.
73	* ''World's Funnest:'' A series of shorts starring childlike versions of Batman and Superman for Creator/CartoonNetwork's WesternAnimation/DCNation block.
74	* ''WesternAnimation/PlanetSketch'': An all-CGI variety show made for Creator/{{Teletoon}}; like ''Chop Socky Chooks'', it was a co-production with Decode Entertainment.
75	* ''WesternAnimation/CounterfeitCat'': A co-production with Canada's Creator/AtomicCartoons for Creator/DisneyXD and Creator/{{Teletoon}} about a little blue alien disguised as a cat and his yellow feline friend.
76	* ''Lloyd of the Flies'': A series starring a fly named Lloyd going on misadventures with his best friend Abacus Woodlouse, Lloyd's little sister PB and his eccentric tagalong Cornea Butterfly.
77	[[/folder]]
78
79	[[folder:Commissioned Works]]
80	* ''Ride/{{Efteling}}'': Did the CGI animation of Pardoes for the parks' indoor ride ''Symbolica''.
81	* ''Series/SpittingImage'': Some stop-motion sequences for a few episodes and the 1987 Christmas special.
82	* The ''Penny'' cartoons seen on ''Series/PeeWeesPlayhouse.''
83	* ''Anime/StarWarsVisions: Volume 2'' (''I Am Your Mother'' short)
84	* [[/index]]{{Animated music video}}s, including:
85	** [[index]]"Music/{{Sledgehammer\|1986}}" by Music/PeterGabriel
86	** [[/index]]"[[Music/{{So}} Big Time]]" by Peter Gabriel
87	** "Love Can Heal" by Peter Gabriel
88	** "Viva Forever" by Music/SpiceGirls
89	** "[[Music/EverydayLife Daddy]]" by Music/{{Coldplay}}
90	* ...and hundreds of television commercials.
91	[[/folder]]
92	----
93	!! Tropes associated with Aardman:
94	* AffectionateParody: Their films lovingly reference and even satirize movies and other works of pop culture.
95	* ArtEvolution: Lord and Sproxton openly admitted that they learned their craft as they went along. The earliest films to bear the studio's name usually had, at most, one person handling each step of production (set design, puppet building, animation, etc.), if they weren't created entirely by one person and a couple of assistant, and used puppets made of pure clay, resulting in the animation looking rather crude. Once they hit the mainstream in the mid-90s, they had to streamline their process to meet the tighter deadline, which meant hiring more animators, using computer-assisted on-set playback and changing the puppets from pure clay to clay-covered armatures, resulting in their animation becoming much smoother and [[AnimationBump more fluid]].
96	* ArtShift: Beginning around the TurnOfTheMillennium, they'd move away from working exclusively with stop-motion and experiment more with CGI, mixed-media and even traditional puppetry.
97	* BritishTeeth: Part of the studio's artstyle and one of the rare British examples.
98	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness:
99	** Sproxton and Lord's first collaboration, ''The Aardman'', was traditionally animated rather than claymation.
100	** Even after they moved to claymation, the majority of their eighties work tended to have a much more realistic and gritty approach aesthetically, nothing like the cartoony SignatureStyle Nick Park established with his works.
101	* SignatureStyle: Most of their films are made with stop motion claymation. The characters usually have banana shaped mouths and eyes a little too close together. Their films are colorful, imaginative, and family-friendly. Characters are quirky as well as charming and the humour is goofy but inventive and clever at the same time.
102	** A lot of their humour relies on parodying pop culture, [[ComicallySerious taking funny ideas seriously]], and [[FreezeFrameBonus clever]] [[FunnyBackgroundEvent visual gags]].
103	* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsCynicism: Closer to idealism and light entertainment, but not without the occasional introspection. For example, the 1986 short, ''Sweet Disaster: Babylon'' is an unambiguous anti-war and anti-arms trade film, but ultimately points to a solution for the problems it brings attention. ''WesternAnimation/{{Ident}}'', meanwhile is a claustrophobic, existential nightmare of a short with a DownerEnding, but has an otherwise straightforward BeYourself message.
104	* StopMotion: Their bread and butter. In the English-speaking world, theirs are perhaps the second most famous works of clay puppet stop-frame animation behind ''WesternAnimation/{{Gumby}}''. Their first two features are the highest-grossing stop motion films ''of all time''.
105	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
106	** In 1999, they began development of a film titled ''The Tortoise and the Hare'', based around Aesop fables, but it was put off for two years before cancellation due to scripting issues.
107	** An adaptation of ''Creator/RoaldDahl'' book ''Literature/TheTwits'' titled ''Crood Awakening'' was planned, but the idea was scrapped when they ended their partnership with ''Creator/DreamWorksAnimation''. Some ideas were used in other projects such as ''WesternAnimation/TheCroods'' and ''WesternAnimation/EarlyMan''.
108	** A film titled ''The Cat Burglars'' about cat burglars that steal milk, and their plans to pull off 'the great milk float robbery' was planned, but it was scrapped for undisclosed reasons.

Context Creator / AardmanAnimations