58-400: Humdrum is a 1998 British animated comedy short film directed by Peter Peake. It was released in 1998 and produced by Aardman Animations and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short Film and a BAFTA nomination in the same category. The film features two anonymous Scottish-accented Shadow Puppets (voiced by Jack Docherty and Moray Hunter ) who are sitting around
116-565: A flashmob of Morph characters was organised in London outside the Tate Modern art gallery. In 2009, the BBC drama Ashes to Ashes featured Morph in a guest appearance as a representation of a present-day medic. Morph was used to give a comic feeling despite a very serious situation in episode 3 of the second series . The character was pictured in an episode of Take Hart ; however, Morph appeared on
174-403: A Foyer Girl , entries in the BBC's Animated Conversations series using real-life conversations as soundtracks. Aardman also created the title sequence for The Great Egg Race and supplied animation for the multiple award-winning music video of Peter Gabriel 's song " Sledgehammer ". They produced the music video for the song " My Baby Just Cares For Me " by Nina Simone in 1987. Also in
232-552: 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 . In December 1997, Aardman, DreamWorks (later DreamWorks Animation ) and Pathé 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
290-564: A director since Chicken Run . Two additional films were announced in June 2007: The Cat Burglars , a stop-motion animated heist comedy film directed by Steve Box , about cat burglars that steal milk, and their plans to pull off 'the great milk float robbery'; and an untitled Nick Park project (which would later become Early Man ). The studio 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
348-640: A distinctive stop-motion cutout animation technique to animate the shadow puppets, making them move in ways that traditional shadow puppets cannot but retaining the impression of being projected onto everyday backgrounds. Aardman Animations Aardman Animations Limited , stylised as AARDMAN since 2022, is a British animation studio based in Bristol . It is known for films and television series made using stop motion and clay animation techniques, particularly those featuring its plasticine characters from Wallace & Gromit , Chicken Run , Shaun
406-583: A dog was clearly more suitable as a loyal pet/companion than a cat and also because a dog would be easier to make and animate in Plasticine. Embedded in the ABC News article is a video interview with Lord and Sproxton, which gives information not only on Wallace and Gromit, but also Shaun the Sheep and others. On 9 November 2018, Aardman Animations announced that Lord and Sproxton would be transferring majority ownership of
464-640: A half-hour special that premiered on Christmas Day 2001, was produced by Chris Moll, producer of the Wallace & 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
522-427: A new supplier. On 1 March 2024 Emma Hardie was announced to be the newly created role of Executive Commercial and Brand Director. She will be oversee financing, distribution, licensing, marketing, and planning of the studio's animated intellectual property. She takes up the role, which includes a seat on Aardman's executive board, on April 15. Peter Lord was also stepping down from Aardman’s executive board to focus on
580-425: A pesky dog (who is, in fact, a double-glazing salesman) before the other persuades him to enter into a game of shadow puppets. The first character is frustrated by his acquaintance's appalling representation of a cow and later his failure to recognize a rather fantastic rabbit (His misled guesses include a 'fireman chasing an igloo' and an 'Otter with two sausage strapped to his head'). After an amusing outburst from
638-481: A slate of individual projects as the Creative Director. He also intends to act as an ambassador for the company and British animation. Along the announcements Sarah Cox and Daniel Efergan have received promotions to Chief Creative Director and Executive Creative Director of Interactive & Innovation respectively. On 8 March 2024 Aardman and the BBC announced a new collaboration called Things We Love , based on
SECTION 10
#1733115526842696-404: A table with nothing to do. They explore and reject several options including watching television (the only thing on is 'some weird animation thing'), listening to the radio (but 'it's all the same rubbish these days' - in this case La Cucaracha ) and playing chess (the white pieces have been eaten due to a bet). This is briefly interrupted when the doorbell rings and one character answers it to find
754-496: A tabletop, with his bedroom being a small wooden box. Morph was initially seen interacting with Tony Hart , beginning in 1977, on several of his British television programmes, notably Take Hart , Hartbeat and SMart . Morph was produced for the BBC by Aardman Animations , later famous for the " Sledgehammer " music video, Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep . Morph appears mainly in one-minute "shorts" interspersed throughout
812-405: A tad miffed!" An awkward silence follows this, until the doorbell rings and the first character goes to answer it and finds the second character's 'cow' shadow puppet, which moos. Despite being disappointed with being wrong about a cow's appearance, he simply responds to this with a cheery "Not today, thank you." and closes the door in front of the camera, thus ending the animation. The film employs
870-601: A three-year deal with Sony Pictures 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 the computer-animated Arthur Christmas (2011), which is Aardman's first 3D feature film. 2012 saw the release of The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! (known internationally in America as The Pirates! Band of Misfits ), Aardman's first 3D stop-motion film and Lord's first film as
928-452: 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. In January 2014, Peter Lord and Aardman began production on 15 new episodes featuring Morph. The new series premiered on Morph's official YouTube channel with 15 episodes from 4 July 2014 to 30 January 2015. In 2015, a Morph experience opened at Land's End . The Land's End signpost
986-462: A wooden microscope box on an artist's desk. He and Chas both love to eat cake, as seen in many of the shorts. Most appearances of Morph revolve around his friendship and rivalry with Chas, with each often playing tricks on the other and laughing at each other's misfortune. While Morph's nature is that of an innocent, curious character, Chas is much more mischievous and prone to bad behaviour. After Hart's shows ended, Morph and Chas appeared in shorts on
1044-484: A year. On 27 October 1999, Aardman and DreamWorks signed a $ 250 million deal to make an additional four films that were estimated to be completed during the next 12 years. Along with the deal their first project was announced, titled The Tortoise and the Hare . Intended to be based on Aesop 's fable and directed by Richard Goleszowski , it was paused two years later because of script problems. On 23 June 2000, Chicken Run
1102-436: Is a motion picture subsidiary of Aardman Animations. It has produced nine films so far, three with DreamWorks Animation, two with Sony Pictures Animation, three with StudioCanal and one with Netflix. Nathan Love LLC (formerly Aardman Nathan Love LLC from 2006–2019) is an American subsidiary of Aardman Animations. Joe Burrascano founded the company in 2007. The works of Aardman have received numerous awards and nominations,
1160-498: Is a precious and nostalgic collection and valuable to the company, in light of other tragedies, today isn't a big deal." 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 had decided to end their contract. The deal was officially terminated on 30 January 2007. According to an Aardman spokesperson: "The business model of DreamWorks no longer suits Aardman and vice versa. But
1218-490: Is also a very small cameo from Gillespie, who is another character from The Morph Files and The Amazing Adventures of Morph that was revived for the series. The original 43 episodes of Morph were originally produced on the Aardman website back in 2006 and were re-used on Aardman's YouTube channel by around September 2008 until 2010, and Morph's YouTube channel from 4 November 2013 until 23 October 2015. The original episodes uses
SECTION 20
#17331155268421276-455: Is the first series being produced for Sky Kids, which streamed the first 2 series of Morph on Sky TV . The third series of Brand New Morph made its way to Sky in 2018 and to YouTube on 12 February 2021 until 31 December 2021, with the episodes taking place during some special events that occurred during the year. The Epic Adventures of Morph made its way to Sky in 2020, with the series re-released on YouTube between 1 April 2022 and 8 July 2022;
1334-521: The Take Hart show. These are connected to the main show by having Hart deliver a line or two to Morph, who replies in gibberish but with meaningful gestures. Later on, Morph is joined by the cream-coloured Chas, who is much more troublesome and mischievous. Morph can change shape. He becomes spheres in order to move around and extrudes into cylinders to pass to different levels of his environment. He can also mimic other objects or creatures. Morph lives in
1392-433: The BBC series for deaf children Vision On . The company name originates from the name of their nerdish Superman character in that sequence. The process of using clay animation to produce a segment called "Gleebees" (1975) became 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
1450-590: The Children's BBC 's successor programme SMart from 1994-2005. Some of the early plasticine models of Morph were destroyed in a fire at the warehouse where they were being stored on 10 October 2005. Morph's 30th birthday was celebrated in 2007 by creator Peter Lord and celebrity fan and comedian Phill Jupitus at events for the Encounters Film Festival in Bristol. In March 2009, shortly after Hart's death,
1508-578: The Spice Girls ' final single as a five-piece, " Viva Forever ". The video took over five months to produce, considerably longer than the group's box office hit movie, Spice World . He is also the co-creator of the Finnish-British animated series Moominvalley , based on the Moomins books. Barry Purves , director of the Aardman short Next , also directed Hamilton Mattress for Harvest Films. The film,
1566-527: The 1980s, they created the trombone-playing character "Douglas" in a television commercial for Lurpak butter. 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
1624-720: 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. From December 2008, Aardman also started posting various flash games on Newgrounds , the majority of which are based on Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep . In 2009, Nintendo announced that Aardman would make twelve short films using only Flipnote Studio . The films were posted on Flipnote's Hatena web service provider. The first film
1682-399: The BBC asked them to whom they should make their first cheque out. 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 a schoolboy. 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
1740-474: 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. Referring to the 2005 Kashmir earthquake , Park was quoted as saying, "Even though it
1798-742: The British stop-motion animated series Digby Dragon debuted on Nick Jr. UK in 2016. In advance of Aardman's fortieth anniversary, the BBC One aired the one-hour television documentary A Grand Night In: The Story of Aardman , first broadcast in December 2015. Narrated by Julie Walters , this career retrospective includes commentary by the company's founders and staff, as well as various friends, fans and colleagues including Terry Gilliam , John Lasseter , and Matt Groening . From 29 June 2017 to 29 October 2017, an exhibition entitled "Wallace and Gromit and Friends"
Humdrum - Misplaced Pages Continue
1856-453: The Garden Wall special alongside series creator Patrick McHale to celebrate the miniseries' 10th anniversary, set for release on 3 November 2024. On 21 October 2024, Aardman announced that they would team up with Mattel Television Studios to produce a new Pingu series. The company name is taken from one of its early characters, a superhero created for Vision On in 1972. Unlike
1914-516: The Morph YouTube channel. In August 2017, new Morph merchandise was shown at Wallace & Gromit's Charity Shop. Between 2 March and 14 September 2018, 15 more episodes of the new Morph series that were previously shown on Sky Kids were shown on YouTube. From 15 February to 17 May 2019, all 13 episodes of The Morph Files that were remastered into HD were released on YouTube. In May 2019, Morph and Chas appeared in an advert for Tesco as part of
1972-615: The Nugget . The film, starring Thandiwe Newton and Zachary Levi , premiered on the platform on 15 December 2023. A new Wallace and Gromit film was also confirmed to be 'in the works' for a 2024 release on the BBC in the UK and Netflix for the rest the world. Also in 2022–2023, the 52 episode children's series Lloyd of the Flies aired on CITV . Aardman is one of the nine studios involved with Lucasfilm 's Star Wars: Visions Volume 2 , contributing
2030-644: 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 . Aardman Animations has produced a number of animated features, shorts, videos and TV series, as well as adverts. Their major feature films are: Aardman Features Limited
2088-485: The Sheep , and Morph . After some experimental computer-animated short films during the late 1990s, beginning with Owzat (1997), Aardman entered the computer animation market with Flushed Away (2006). As of February 2020, it had earned $ 1.1 billion worldwide, with an average $ 135.6 million per film. Between 2000 and 2006, Aardman partnered with DreamWorks Animation . Aardman's films have been consistently very well received, and their stop-motion films are among
2146-627: The UK's Animex Festival in Teesside provides story consultation to a promising young animator for their next film. In 2008, Aardman joined with Channel 4 and Lupus Films to launch a user-generated content animation portal called 4mations . 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
2204-447: The claymation productions that the company are famous for, Aardman was cel-animated. Peter Lord has stated that the most interesting thing about the company name is that it "means nothing" and is only a joke that two teenagers found funny. He has stated that the name came from a combination of "Aardvark" and "Superman" for the reason that they found aardvark to be a particularly funny word. Aardman Animations became their company name when
2262-487: The company to its employees in order to keep the studio independent. In January 2019, Lord and Sproxton released a book detailing the history of the studio, called A Grand Success! The Aardman Journey, One Frame at a Time . In December 2020, Netflix announced an Aardman Christmas musical special entitled Robin Robin . The 30-minute short, starring Bronte Carmichael, Richard E. Grant , Gillian Anderson and Adeel Akhtar ,
2320-410: The company's centenary celebrations, which also featured celebrities Anneka Rice and Derrick Evans (the latter more commonly known as Mr. Motivator). On 9 November 2020, the new Morph series, The Epic Adventures of Morph , appeared and began to stream on Sky Kids. The series features Morph, Chas, and two old characters—Delilah and GrandMorph—who were brought back to add more life to the show. There
2378-494: The existing Watch identity by UKTV to make the inflatable eyeball (called "Blinky") in the idents blink. In October 2013, Lord (co-founder of Aardman Animations) created a fundraising project on the crowdfunding site Kickstarter . The campaign has a target of £75,000 which would be used to fund 12 new one-minute episodes of Morph. Lord was hoping to start production in January 2014 using the original stop-frame animation. Backers of
Humdrum - Misplaced Pages Continue
2436-474: The film "I Am Your Mother". The factory that made Lewis Newplast, the modelling clay used by Aardman, shut down in March 2023; Aardman purchased enough remaining clay to cover the upcoming 2024 Wallace and Gromit film. The Daily Telegraph initially reported that the studio may not be able to produce new films afterwards due to a lack of clay, but Aardman later released a statement clarifying that it would find
2494-452: The highest-grossing produced, with their 2000 debut, Chicken Run , being their top-grossing film, as well as the highest-grossing stop-motion film of all time . A sequel, Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget , was released in 2023. 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
2552-555: The major awards won include the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and BAFTA Award for Best British Film for Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit . Light Chaser Animation Studios Morph (character) Morph is a British series of clay stop-motion comedy animations, named after the main character, who is a small terracotta-skinned plasticine man, who speaks an unintelligible language and lives on
2610-473: The newcomers made their directorial debut at Aardman with the Lip Synch series. Of the five Lip Synch shorts, two were directed by Lord, one by Barry Purves , one by Richard Goleszowski and one by Nick Park . In 1990, Park's short, Creature Comforts , was the first Aardman production to win an Academy Award . Park also developed the clay modelled shorts featuring the adventures of Wallace & Gromit ,
2668-410: The poor fellow, his annoying partner accuses him of being 'shirty'. This leads him to explode, furiously crying "I'm stuck indoors playing 'Guess the misshapen beast' with someone who clearly wouldn't recognise a rabbit if it came to his house for tea, said ' What's up Doc? ' and started burrowing into his head! There are blind people with no fingers who are better at shadow puppets than you! No wonder I'm
2726-477: The project would 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. In 2015, the studio bought a majority share in New York-based animation studio Nathan Love, announcing the merger with a short film called Introducing: Aardman Nathan Love on 25 September of the same year of that being that
2784-449: The same clips originally used from Take Hart, Hartbeat, SMart and The Morph Files. The first series of the then-named Brand New Morph was released on YouTube from 4 July 2014 to 30 January 2015 with a Red Nose Day special being released on 6 March. The series also aired on CBBC throughout the summer of 2015. The second series of Brand New Morph was released to Sky Kids in 2016 and then YouTube from 2 March 2018 until 14 September 2018, it
2842-585: The screenplay. With the end of the partnership, the film's rights reverted to DreamWorks. From 2006 to 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. Miyazaki has long been a fan of Aardman Animations' works. In April 2007, Aardman signed and in 2010 renewed
2900-466: The split couldn't have been more amicable." Unofficial reasons for departure were weak performances of the last two movies, for which DreamWorks had to take writedowns, and citing the article, "Aardman executives chafed at the creative control DreamWorks tried to exert, particularly with Flushed Away ..." The studio had another film in development, Crood Awakening (eventually The Croods ), which had been announced in 2005, with John Cleese co-writing
2958-465: The studio's Creature Comforts films, set to air throughout 2024. Like Creature Comforts , the six, 30-second-long shorts feature animated animals matched to the audio of real, unscripted interviews. On 6 June 2024, Aardman announced the title of the new Wallace and Gromit feature film as Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl . On 22 September 2024, Cartoon Network announced on Twitter that they had recruited Aardman to work on an Over
SECTION 50
#17331155268423016-453: The summer of 2015, Morph returned to TV on CBBC with the 15 new episodes. From 6 November 2015 to 7 January 2016, The Lost Tapes from 2001 were revealed having been redubbed and remastered on YouTube . In March 2016, it was announced that Sky had made a deal with Aardman Animations to produce new Morph material to be directed at its child audience. From 6 May 2016 to 15 September 2017, all clips captured from Take Hart were revealed on
3074-503: The television after it was turned off, separating it from the context of the Take Hart episode. On 29 October 2013, Peter Lord (co-founder of Aardman Animations ), created a fundraising project on the crowdfunding site Kickstarter . The campaign set a target of £75,000 to be used to fund 12 new one-minute episodes. The target was reached on 6 November 2013 after only nine days, attracting contributions from over 1,700 backers, who received
3132-582: 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. In the same year, the headquarters of the studio moved into a new building, designed by Alec French architects, in Gas Ferry Road, Bristol, although work needing large-scale sets is still carried out in sheds in Aztec West and Bedminster . In April 2009, Aardman Animations edited
3190-444: Was rebranded "Lamb's End" with original sets, models, and characters from a range of Aardman productions. Visitors were also able to star in a real Shaun the Sheep scene, using green-screen technology, and meet other characters from the Aardman family, including Shaun the Sheep and Wallace & Gromit. Released between 20 March and 2 October 2015, HD-restored versions of The Amazing Adventures of Morph appeared on YouTube ; and in
3248-488: Was released on the platform on 24 November 2021. On 9 August 2021, it was announced that Gurinder Chadha was directing a musical claymation feature set in India, telling the story of an elephant dreaming about becoming a dancer. On 30 November 2021, Aardman began producing The Very Small Creatures for Sky Kids and Apple TV . On 20 January 2022, Netflix announced a sequel to Chicken Run entitled Chicken Run: Dawn of
3306-455: Was released to a great critical and financial success. In 2005, after ten years of absence, Wallace and Gromit returned in Academy Award -winning The Curse of the Were-Rabbit . The following year Flushed Away , Aardman's first computer-animated feature, was released. On 10 October 2005, a serious fire at a storage facility used by Aardman and other Bristol-based companies destroyed over 30 years of props , models, and scenery often built by
3364-623: Was shown at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) in Melbourne . A report on this exhibition was shown on Australian ABC News Breakfast on Wednesday, 28 June, featuring an eight-minute interview with producers Lord and Sproxton. The exhibition revealed that in Park's very early sketches, Gromit was originally a cat, but Park soon changed him into a dog, since it was generally agreed that
#841158