For a limited time only, players can take control of their favourite characters and attempt daring infiltrations across 6 levels in this exclusive demo. Expect high-stakes stealth action, dodge security cameras, outwit guards, and don chicken disguises, in a mission that demands strategy, timing, and a touch of poultry-powered courage. Play solo or team up with a friend in two-player local co-op, using stealth and special skills to save the day!

Following on from Aardman’s hit 2023 film Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, Chicken Run: Eggstraction raises the stakes and sends feathers flying with voices from Bella Ramsey, Josie Sedgwick-Davies, Amelia Dimoldenberg, Romesh Ranganathan and more! The story, penned by celebrated writer Larry Rickard (Ghosts, Horrible Histories), continues as the brave band of chickens sets out to rescue their fellow fowl from the clutches of the sinister nugget industry.

We’re excited to finally reveal the October 24 release date for Chicken Run: Eggstraction with our fans around the world. This game has been a wonderful opportunity to expand the Chicken Run universe, and, together with Outright Games we’re releasing an experience that stays true to the heart and humour of the original Chicken Run film, whilst welcoming new fans to the flock.

-Sean Clarke (Managing Director, Aardman)

Chicken Run: Eggstraction is a true celebration of everything fans love about Aardman, humour, heart, and high-stakes hijinks. We’re thrilled to share this first look at the game on Steam and can’t wait for fans to experience an unforgettable heist that will truly ruffle some feathers!

-Stephanie Malham (Managing Director, Outright Games)

Experience the first 6 levels of Chicken Run: Eggstraction now until August 18, exclusively on Steam. Chicken Run: Eggstraction will launch on October 24 on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam and the Microsoft Store. For more information visit OutrightGames.com

The post Chicken Run: Eggstraction launches Steam-exclusive game demo & reveals October 24 release date appeared first on Skwigly Animation Magazine.

Aardman/NETFLIX © 2023

In the intervening 23 years between Chicken Run (Dir. Peter Lord/Nick Park, 2000) and Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (Dir. Sam Fell, 2023), Aardman has changed a lot. Their practices have evolved, with CGI playing a heavier role in their productions, franchises like Shaun the Sheep have sprung up and become core aspects of their identity, and their sets have expanded to include miniature (C scale) and expansive (A scale) locations. Through all that change, Suzy Fagan Parr is a member of a core crew of animators who were there for the studio’s very first feature.

Having worked on 2000’s Chicken Run as a key animator, Suzy returns to the flock as an additional sequence director. Skwigly caught up with Suzy at the Manchester Animation Festival to chat about the emotional experience of returning to these characters, the changing nature of Aardman and blending CG with stop motion.

How have you found the response to the film?

I did see it at the BFI last month and I was really excited by how everybody was laughing their socks off. There was an energy in the room that  was really positive and I think – because the crew was there as well, and they’re the toughest audience a lot of the time – that the audience really lifted the room and the whole crew. It was really good.

How did your role differ from working on the first Chicken Run to the sequel?

On the first Chicken Run, I was a key animator, which was part of the core team that brought the characters to the fore, but on this one I was also an additional sequence director. During my time on the film, I was, pardon the pun, under the wing of Sam [Fell] and so everything that I did would be run by him. But I was very much left to my own devices to set up shots and be part of the director team. I was animating as well but it was a bit more of, when I could animate, rather than being a pure animator.

How much of a burden is having those two roles?

It was actually surprisingly difficult, because when I was animating I kept being disturbed to go and look at the shot, then set up sets and things, so it was actually quite difficult if I was on a long shot, so I tended to be quite protected from that during the shoot itself. But towards the end, when things got a little bit more free for me, I got thrown in the deep end with the animation. It depended on what I had on my plate, how much I was animating.

Image courtesy of Suzy Fagan Parr

Having animated Ginger in the first movie, what were the emotions like knowing you were returning to this character?

One of the things I could not believe was how much I remembered from the first film. You think you come to the end of a project, and you move on to the next one and all the information goes, but actually 20 years later, touching the puppet I remember things like how her cheeks have to sort of go out at exactly the right angle, and like how her feet stand together when she’s posed. I could remember all these little nuances, but that was really useful for the team because there were a few of us that had been on the first one and it just meant that we could really get everyone up to speed much quicker.

What was the biggest difference between the two productions?

The biggest differences were the use of two scales and so having multiple passes for a single shot, and also how we used CG as supporting those bigger shots where the cast was greater. I mean, in terms of the difference in animation, stop motion is the same now as it’s always been. In that way, there was no difference, it was the situation that they were in that was different.

How different does Aardman as a whole feel?

It’s much bigger now, the crew is much bigger and we can tell much more sophisticated stories. That’s probably the biggest thing. I suppose what’s also different is that there’s a really nice age group now. When we first started, we were all young and in it together, and then gradually the more experienced of us, a lot of us are still there and so the younger ones have got that to draw on.

Aardman/NETFLIX © 2023

Do you feel like the identity of the company has shifted?

Aardman is very much still Aardman, but I think the experience that we’ve had doing eight feature films brings with it that ability to be more ambitious and have confidence that we might not have had earlier in early days, not that you can really tell from Chicken Run. But it was a learning experience for all of us. Now it’s like, oh yeah, we know that because we’ve done it in this film or that film. And so the whole crew is a bit more experienced.

Was the biggest lesson that you learned during those years in between that you’ve applied this time around?

It’s confidence, isn’t it? But sometimes experience can complicate your reaction to something as well, because you might overthink it. Whereas in early days, you might have just done it blindly without knowing what the consequences might be. But I think there’s a balance there. The other things we’ve learned, I think it’s knowing what is possible. So on Chicken Run, maybe we would be a little bit more guarded, for example, we were all unsure about how the plasticine would look, how clay would look projected on the screen. Whereas over the years, we realised that clay looks lovely when projected big because it gives that real human touch.

Was there a conversation about the balance between using CG versus stop motion?

It was a constant conversation. Originally, it would be that all the background; the extended cast would be CGI and then the foreground characters would be stop motion. But because we didn’t make physical, C scale puppets, there were times when we would normally have animated in C scale and we had to use CG. They were operating on a C scale set but they might have been a bit closer up. But actually, the digi doubles that we used were so close to the puppets, I mean, scary close.

Aardman/NETFLIX © 2023

How do you naturally transition between stop motion and CG?

It’s a suspension of disbelief. The lovely thing is your eye will get used to it. If we were animating on singles all the way through and we suddenly changed to doubles, you would suddenly notice, but because we start off in doubles, your eye actually gets used to it. Your persistence of vision makes up the gap, our brains adjust to what we’re seeing.

In your talk you mentioned that with stop motion, you can’t go back and change things. Is that mode of storytelling scary?

Oh, definitely. There’s almost a little bit of jitters in your stomach when you show up because you have no real idea how it’s gonna go. All you can do is prepare for it, look over your brief of what Sam [Fell] wanted,  get all the sticking points smoothed out when you’re doing your block through, which is like a dress rehearsal off the shot where you don’t animate every move. So you need to know what you’re doing. Some animators do minimal amounts of preparation, they just hope for the best and there’s a lovely magic to that style. Then other animators will be very technical and have it all marked down exactly where they want to be, how many frames it’s going to take them to get there. It depends on your attitude.

Aardman/NETFLIX © 2023

Is the pressure different when you’re a key animator versus when you’re a director looking at the movie from a bird’s eye view?

I think the jitters are just somewhere else. Also, the director has to really trust the animator. The director themselves has to go, ‘I hope for the best that the animator understands.’ But sometimes it happens that it doesn’t quite hit the spot or whatever, and then the director will have to decide if it misses the point of the shot enough to reshoot, but that wouldn’t happen very often. It’s about 97% we got the first take. We do have options to tweak it, if a shot needs a bit of a re-time, we can do that in the edit afterwards. Generally, we try to keep away from that. It’s not a popular thing with the animators, because you get very protective about your own animation.

That’s the Aardman way though right? You’d be teaching interns to expect moments like that.

You do get used to it because it is part of the process. I guess everybody’s at a certain experience level when they are entrusted with a shot. There’s going to be a point in every animator’s career where they step up but especially on features we’ve got to know that those animators are confident enough to achieve the effect we want. That’s why doing series work and commercials works really great to get everyone up to speed.

What’s the most ambitious sequence in the film?

It’s got to be the money shot where we see the chicken island revealed for the first time. I think it’s a nearly 40 second shot and it’s all camera movement and characters coming in and out shot. Their actions have to come online just as camera reveals them and then the camera drifts off and it reveals the chicken island at large. We’ve got the CG chickens to populate it, hundreds of background chickens. That one took 18 weeks to shoot.

How do you communicate the sense of scale of the new chicken farm?

The story on the first film was obviously all on that chicken scale, they were in their chicken run with chicken huts built for chickens. Even though it might look human scale in some ways, that was because we were with the chickens. On this one, they are going into the human world. So that was why there was so much complication and working out and planning about what would have to be built in A scale and C scale. We’ve got these two fundamental scales and then it’s just a matter of laying up and comping and adding to it with virtual production and VFX imaging, just being able to recreate that world in CG to extend it, but without losing the essential stock frame-ness of the movie. We did that by the VFX department being so amazing and knowing how to keep the texture looking like stop motion, but with the flexibility of that scale.

How do you make these characters still feel like themselves after 23 years?

We had to keep them as we know them, but also move them in such a way so there’s quite a distinct difference between the way they are in the first film and the way they are in this film. What we’ve managed to create with them breaking in, that being the mood of the film, is that they’re not trying to escape, they’re not the victims anymore. I think it’s in the writing, obviously, and then it’s also in the new technology and the fact that we can put them into a different environment creates that contrast from how it was and how it is now.

Which Aardman property would you like to see a sequel to?

I loved The Pirates. I would love to see Pirates get a sequel. I just thought it was funny, it was charming, the animation was great, the sets are incredible and I think it really is worthy of a sequel.

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget is available on Netflix now

The post Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget | Interview with Suzy Fagan Parr appeared first on Skwigly Animation Magazine.

© Aardman & Netflix

It feels good to be back in the hands of Aardman. The visual and sensory identities of other popular animation studios in the west have shifted so much in the 23 years since the first Chicken Run was released. Aardman, perhaps by virtue of being one of the few British animation studios operating on a large scale, have always felt like Aardman, meaning for those of us who grew up with their films, a new release is a chance to return to a comforting, plasticine bubble. 

Simultaneously, resurrecting chicken-shaped stop-motion puppets from two decades ago comes with the pressure of living up to that initial iconic outing. It has to feel familiar, the characters have to feel like the characters, the world has to be consistent, but it also has to feel fresh and give itself a “reason to exist.” Though that phrase is quite detestable, it’s difficult to not give into the fear of a franchise reappearing, grabbing your attention with nostalgia and leaving you unfulfilled 10 minutes after the credits roll. Dawn of the Nugget, though not lacking in charm, does suffer from legacyquel-itis. 

Basking in the seemingly perpetual sunlight on their new island home, the once-cooped chickens, free from their fascist farm, can finally live their lives. In what director Sam Fell coined “Wakanda for chickens,” Ginger and Rocky return with a bun (chick) in the oven (egg). Their daughter Molly inherits her mother’s rebellious spirit and yearns to see what life is like beyond the borders of Chick-kanda (a term unfortunately not used in the movie). This lands her in a chicken nugget processing plant run by familiar foe Mrs. Tweedy. 

© Aardman & Netflix

The opening 15 minutes of Dawn of the Nugget will worry those looking for a true evolution of this franchise. In the process of refamiliarising us with the characters, the film retreads some comedic ground which was thoroughly harvested in the first Chicken Run. While it may land for those who literally haven’t thought about these characters for the last 23 years, those who may have rewatched the first film in preparation will see it more as an attempt at emulation. 

This attempt falls short because Dawn of the Nugget truly is interested in evolving the dynamics of the first film. The familial relationships between Ginger, Rocky and Molly feel fresh and charming, while the plot builds upon the connective tissue between the main and side characters. Breaking Molly out of the facility is tasked to a small portion of the flock, unlike the first film which was a larger group effort to escape. This more streamlined focus gives every character a defined space in the story, even if the script is less interested in giving them something interesting or funny to say.

When the film is in full heist mode, it is a glorious thing to watch. Characters either sleuth expertly or bumble clumsily around the facility, triggering or avoiding its ridiculous security measures. No chicken nuggets manufacturer needs laser-guided missiles but it definitely helps. The chickens (along with their rat accomplices Nick and Fetcher) bump into each other and are separated in a fluid, fun way which allows for various character combinations. The contraptions they’re tasked with avoiding become increasingly silly as the film goes on, in turn increasing the impact of the slapstick.

Dawn of the Nugget is wildly ambitious in its animation for that reason, they put these characters through a lot. In addition to blasting them with beams and landmines, each frame is more densely populated than the majority of what was in the first film. While the previous efforts had locations that felt manufactured around the characters, Dawn of the Nugget sells you on the scope and tactility of both the nugget factory and the outside world.

© Aardman & Netflix

The expanded scope in visuals feels oddly matched with a script so narrow. Characters feel like screenshots of what they were in the first film, regurgitating gags with a few words changed. It squares poorly with a film with so many new dynamics with these characters embedded within a new society. These are the kinds of things that would evolve who a character is; instead, Dawn of the Nugget looks to cash in on our memories of who these characters were. Being parents provides Rocky and Ginger with a few new traits and challenges, but the chickens around them feel static, popping into frame to loose a catchphrase before returning to being idle. 

Aardman are still Aardman and a certain level of polish and warmth comes with that. Though their identity as a studio shines bright through the animation and the themes of the story, they were a little too faithful to the identity of Chicken Run as a franchise, resulting in a film that replicates more than it evolves.

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget hits Netflix on December 15.
Manchester Animation Festival-goers can catch a screening of the film tonight at 8:40pm. They can also earn more about how the film came together at The Making of Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget tomorrow at 2:15pm and see the ‘stars’ of the film in person at Meet the Puppets – Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget at 3:30pm.
Go back to where it all began in episode 11 of the Skwigly Film Club, in which the Skwigly team rewatch the original Chicken Run (stream below or direct download):

The post Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget | Review appeared first on Skwigly Animation Magazine.

It’s Go Time!

For Ginger and the flock, all is at stake when the dangers of the human world come home to roost; they’ll stop at nothing even if it means putting their own hard-won freedom at risk to save chicken-kind. This time, they’re breaking in!

CHICKEN RUN: DAWN OF THE NUGGET – (L to R): Fetcher (Daniel Mays), Nick (Romesh Ranganathan), Mac (Lynn Ferguson), Bunty (Imelda Staunton), Ginger (Thandiwe Newton), Babs (Jane Horrocks) and Fowler (David Bradley). The world’s greatest hens-emble are back and hatching a plan in Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget – the eagerly anticipated sequel to Aardman’s hit film Chicken Run. Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget will make its debut later this year, only on Netflix.
CHICKEN RUN: DAWN OF THE NUGGET will make its debut only on Netflix in 2023. Cr: Aardman/NETFLIX © 2023

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget is directed by Sam Fell, who previously co-directed Aardman’s 2006 CG feature Flushed Away as well as Universal’s The Tale of Despereux in 2008 and LAIKA’s ParaNorman in 2012. Written by Karey Kirkpatrick, John O’Farrell and Rachel Tunnard, the film is produced by Steve Pegram (Arthur Christmas, Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death) and exec produced by Carla Shelley, Karey Kirkpatrick and original Chicken Run co-director and Aardman co-founder Peter Lord, with Chicken Run co-director Nick Park (creator of Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep) on board as Creative Consultant.

CHICKEN RUN: DAWN OF THE NUGGET – “Chick off the old block.” (L-R) Bunty (Imelda Staunton), Mac (Lynn Ferguson), Rocky (Zachary Levi), Molly (Bella Ramsey), Ginger (Thandiwe Newton), Fowler (David Bradley), and Babs (Jane Horrocks) in Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2023

The original Chicken Run was a huge critical and commercial success that still boasts the title of the most successful stop-motion feature of all time, grossing $225 million worldwide. The film was also the focus of episode 11 of the Skwigly Film Club podcast, which you can listen to (or direct download) below:

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget hatches on Netflix December 15

The post Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget | Official teaser released appeared first on Skwigly Animation Magazine.

Scroll through the posters below.

This gives us our first look at the Aardman sequel to the 2000 film, which still holds the record as the highest grossing stop motion animated film of all time.

The posters give us the first look at our old friends and some new ones including Molly (voiced by Bella Ramsey) the daughter of Ginger (Thandiwe Newton, replacing Julia Sawalha) and Rocky (Zachary Levi, replacing Mel Gibson) and we’re also introduced to Frizzle (Josie Sedhewick-Davies).

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (Netflix/Aardman)

Old faces include Babs (Jane Horrocks), Bunty (Imelda Staunton) and Mac (Lynn Ferguson) as well as newly voiced Fowler (David Bradley) and Nick and Fetcher (Daniel Mays and Romesh Ranganathan).

Chicken Run 2: Dawn of the Nugget arrives on Netflix this Autumn. Catch up with the original film on Netflix or look back on the film with the Skwigly film club podcast.

All images courtesy of Netflix

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Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (Image: Aardman/Netflix)

Alongside the announcement of a new outing for their classic characters Wallace & Gromit, Aardman and Netflix have unveiled the primary voice cast for their much-anticipated Chicken Run sequel Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget.

With a planned Netflix release in 2023, the new stop-motion feature will see the return of voice talents Jane Horrocks, Imelda Staunton and Lynn Ferguson reprising their roles as Babs, Bunty and Mac respectively, with Thandiwe Newton replacing Julia Sawalha as Ginger and Zachary Levi taking on the role of Rocky, previously voiced by Mel Gibson. New additions to the ensemble cast are Bella Ramsey as the couple’s daughter Molly alongside Josie Sedgwick-Davies (Frizzle), David Bradley (Fowler), Romesh Ranganathan (Nick), Daniel Mays (Fetcher) and Nick Mohammed (Dr Fry).

Having pulled off a death-defying escape from Tweedy’s farm, Ginger has finally found her dream – a peaceful island sanctuary for the whole flock, far from the dangers of the human world. When she and Rocky hatch a little girl called Molly, Ginger’s happy ending seems complete. But back on the mainland the whole of chicken-kind faces a new and terrible threat. For Ginger and her team, even if it means putting their own hard-won freedom at risk – this time, they’re breaking in!

Written by Karey Kirkpatrick, John O’Farrell and Rachel Tunnard, the film is being directed by Sam Fell (Flushed Away, The Tale of Despereaux, ParaNorman), produced by Steve Pegram (Arthur Christmas) and Leyla Hobart with Peter Lord, Carla Shelley, Karey Kirkpatrick and Nick Park returning as executive producers.

The original Chicken Run was a huge critical and commercial success that still boasts the title of the most successful stop-motion feature of all time, grossing $225 million worldwide. Hear more from Skwigly about the film in episode 11 of the Skwigly Film Club podcast, which you can listen to (or direct download) below:

The post Aardman reveals first look and voice cast for ‘Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget’ appeared first on Skwigly Animation Magazine.

Aardman have also revealed an outline of the story:

Having pulled off a death-defying escape from Tweedy’s farm, Ginger has finally found her dream – a peaceful island sanctuary for the whole flock, far from the dangers of the human world. When she and Rocky hatch a little girl called Molly, Ginger’s happy ending seems complete. But back on the mainland the whole of chicken-kind faces a new and terrible threat. For Ginger and her team, even if it means putting their own hard-won freedom at risk – this time, they’re breaking in!

Taking up the reins as Producer will be Steve Pegram, whose prior work with Aardman includes the CG feature Arthur Christmas (2011) and stop-motion Wallace and Gromit short film A Matter of Loaf and Death (2008). Carla Shelley, Karey Kirkpatrick and original Chicken Run co-director and Aardman co-founder Peter Lord will again take up their roles as Executive Producers, with Chicken Run co-director Nick Park (creator of Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep) on board as Creative Consultant.

Chicken Run directors Nick Park and Peter Lord with sequel director Sam Fell during their presentation at this year’s Annecy Animation Festival

With storyboarding presently underway, the film is planned to enter full production next year and will be released globally (excluding China) by Netflix.

Fans around the world have waited patiently for a sequel idea worthy of Chicken Run so we’re delighted to announce, on the 20th anniversary, that we’ve found the perfect story. Netflix feels like the ideal creative partner for this project too: they celebrate the film-maker, which means we can make the film we want to make – the one we really care about – and share it with a global audience.

-Peter Lord, Aardman Co-Founder and Creative Director

Speaking as part of the Annecy panel, director Sam Fell elaborated on story and character elements for the upcoming film:

Of all the characters that really grabbed me in the first film, Ginger I just rooted for the most; from the first frame of the first film you’re just longing for her to fly over that fence. That’s where we started with this script, just thinking about what’s the next chapter of her story.
It will be fun and games, seeing these chickens back in action – all the gadgets, the kit; we’re kind of moving towards a tribute to a Mission Impossible thing, with elements of heist – “how are they going to pull this amazing break-in off?”

Other upcoming projects from the Aardman camp include Dan Ojari and Mikey Please’s 30-minute musical Robin Robin, also with Netflix and set for a late 2021 release, as well as a new Wallace and Gromit story The Big Fix Up that will incorporate immersive technologies and augmented reality made in collaboration with Fictioneers. The studio also recently won the Jury Award at Annecy for their Greenpeace collaboration Turtle Journey, directed by Gavin Strange.

The original Chicken Run was a huge critical and commercial success that still boasts the title of the most successful stop-motion feature of all time, grossing $225 million worldwide. For more on the original film, Annecy Online festivalgoers can see Peter Lord and Nick Park’s special presentation on the film from today until June 30th. The film was also the focus of our latest episode of the Skwigly Film Club podcast, which you can listen to (or direct download) below:

The post Aardman reveals details on ‘Chicken Run’ sequel appeared first on Skwigly Animation Magazine.

Rocky & Ginger are coming home to roost! We’re delighted to announce we’re working with @StudiocanalUK & @PatheUK on early development of a Chicken Run sequel! #ChickenRun2 will be our next movie release following Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon in Autumn 2019 with STUDIOCANAL pic.twitter.com/Cdof0e7qbl

— Aardman Animations (@aardman) April 26, 2018

Also attached are financiers Pathé, director Sam Fell (Flushed Away/ParaNorman) and producer Paul Kewley (Shaun the Sheep Movie) with the original film’s writing team Karey Kirkpatrick and John o’Farrell set to return and Aardman co-founders Peter Lord and David Sproxton executive producing.

Directed by Nick Park and Peter Lord, the original Chicken Run was released nearly 18 years ago and, as Aardman’s first feature film endeavour, was a huge critical and commercial success that still boasts the title of the most successful stop-motion feature of all time, grossing $225 million worldwide.

Keep up-to-speed with the work of Aardman Animations at aardman.com

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In 1993, Touchstone released The Nightmare Before Christmas, raising the standard of the medium and proving that it could perform well commercially. The same year, The Wrong Trousers debuted to roaring success. At the time, A Close Shave was in development, and being considered as a feature-length production, but they weren’t ready- The crew was only around 30 people. 200 were required when they eventually did embark on a feature.

Pathé began financing Chicken Run’s development in 1996, with unofficial mentorship from the newly-formed DreamWorks. The film’s preproduction would not fully gestate for another two years, but in 1997, a deal to co-finance and distribute Chicken Run with DreamWorks and Pathé was solidified, with DreamWorks on board for a further 4 films.

An inconspicuous warehouse near Bristol filled with gallons of rubber, plasticine, and paint. Mixed with the blood, sweat and tears of the crew, these materials formed the most successful stop-motion animated film to date, at under half the budget of it’s mainstream contemporaries (The Emperor’s New Groove, Titan AE, The Road to El Dorado).

They were set up and ready to go on the next film- Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Nick Park continued to co-direct his iconic characters alongside Steve Box, who had animated them previously, as well as directing the incredible 1997 short film Stage Fright.

This film saw the expansion of Wallace and Gromit’s cosy world, and set the cheeky, uncynical humor of the shorts in some of the most beautiful miniature environments you’ll ever see.

Despite winning 2005’s ‘Best animated feature’ Oscar, the film did not perform as well as expected by DreamWorks. Still, I consider 2005 the beginning of the current, incredible era of stop-motion animation- Corpse Bride was also released that year, also animated in the UK, and in the USA Laika was established.

Aardman branched out into CG animation for 2006’s Flushed Away

With the stop-motion production system in full swing making The Were-Rabbit, Aardman began expanding in another direction. They created their first CG-animated feature, after gaining confidence with the technique on various commercials and short films. The New York Times described Aardman’s relationship with DreamWorks during the making of Flushed Away as a “creative tussle” and claimed that DreamWorks were imposing too much creative control upon Aardman. A few days before Flushed Away released in November 2006, it was announced that the studios’ collaboration would not continue for the full 5 films as previously expected.

At the time, a film was in development with John Cleese co-writing, called Crood Awakening. When the companies parted ways, the project belonged to DreamWorks, and it eventually became the 2013 film The Croods. The 5th film was being developed by Richard Starzak, but never made it beyond its early phase. There were also rumours of another Nick Park/Steve Box collaboration in the shape of The Cat Burglars – a heist caper where cats plan to steal milk from milkmen.

Production was split between Aardman and Sony Pictures Animation to make Arthur Christmas (2011)

Aardman were soon signed up to a 3-year deal with Sony, and while the stop motion department were busy with A Matter of Loaf and Death, they continued to work on another CG film, Arthur Christmas working more closely with Sony than they had with DreamWorks. Aardman handled the development and pre-production locally, and later Sony Pictures Animation took on the bulk of production work. The film has done fairly well over the years since it’s 2011 release, but it’s notable that the CG films were significantly more expensive to make than the stop-motion films.

The 3-year deal with Sony was repeated in 2010. During this time Aardman co-founder Peter Lord was back in the Director’s chair for the first time since Chicken Run. The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! Was a comedic adventure on a larger scale than their previous films, with more environments, more background characters, and more visual effects than they had attempted before. By this time they were shooting with digital cameras, and had a more developed CG department. This allowed for CG set extensions, digital matte paintings, green screen compositing, CG background characters and even the sea they sail on was completely CG. At the beginning, the entire film was planned to be CG, as producer Julie Lockhart said- “With all the water and all the huge locations- in order to do it, you’d be best to do it in CGI, it just felt like that was the way to go. Then Pete wanted to look at what a set would look like, so that could be a guide to the CG world.” The physical set was so charming that they decided to move the production over to a mostly stop-motion process.

Pirates! Was a critical success and a decent financial success. However, it did not do as well as expected in the USA, and as a result marked the end of Aardman’s partnership with Sony Pictures Animation. 2012 was a big year for stop-motion feature animation. Of the 5 films nominated for the ‘Best animated feature’ Oscar, 3 were stop-motion animated- Pirates!, Frankenweenie, and ParaNorman (co-directed by Flushed Away’s Sam Fell).

Aardman partnered with StudioCanal to create their next feature, Shaun the Sheep, which was a considerably lesser risk than Pirates! or Arthur Christmas– it was a branded film based on their popular TV series, it was much cheaper to make than any of their previous films at only $25m, it was aimed at Shaun’s established family audience, and there was no dialogue, meaning they could easily distribute it internationally.

When it released in 2015, it paid off- the film did very well proportionally to it’s budget, was very highly regarded among fans and critics, and now a sequel is on the way.

Personally I’m a huge fan of the polished, high-budget stop films like Pirates!, but Shaun the Sheep was completely appropriate for it’s lower-key production. The limitations brought out the aspects that Aardman are famous for. Having the animation largely on “twos”, with very little CG effects immediately gave it the charming vibe of the studio’s 1990s work. The sheep’s wool bustled and boiled a bit due to the animators’ touch, and you could see brushstrokes and fingerprints in the models, not so much to be distracting, but enough to reinforce the lovely hand-made feel of The Wrong Trousers. The lack of dialogue also pushed for more visual humor, and put extra emphasis on the characters’ expressions, reminiscent of Gromit.

After a decade away from features, Nick Park is back to direct Early Man (due 2018)

In 2007, it was announced that Nick Park was developing a non-Wallace and Gromit feature. It only just went into production this year. Early Man is due for release in January 2018, continuing the studio’s relationship with StudioCanal. 

Aardman were the reason I took interest in animation in the first place, and I know they had the same effect on many others my age. I remember doing extra chores as a kid to save up for the “Cracking Animation” book, hassling my Mum to get me the “Aardman Classics” shorts DVD, writing to Merlin Crossingham as a student(not that long ago), and finally meeting David Sproxton and Pete Lord at Encounters and CTN last year.

I can’t think of a more unanimously liked studio, and I’m tremendously grateful for their many great contributions to the medium. Bravo, and Happy 40th anniversary, Aardman!

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