Researching Aardman

Aardman was founded in 1972 by Peter Loyd and David Sproxton, they started Aardman because they wanted to create animated films. There first major thing they did was a little 2D animation in 1966 called Aard Man, it was a 2D animation of a idiotic super hero like man falling down a hole, they did this while working with Vision On and the producer loved it and featured it in the Vision On programme. Peter and David made £25 from this but they need a shared bank accountant to put it in and decided to call it Aardman Animations as  a laugh. Around 1975-1976 While still working with Vision On Peter and David started experimenting with 3D clay animation and did a little animation called the Gleebees. It was a little animation about little creators messing peoples desks up, they where relatively the ancestor's to Morph and the little animation was broadcasted on Vision On.

Gleebees

Aardmans first major success was Morph, Morph first appeared in 1977 on Take Hart. The producers of Take Hart wanted something to mess up Tony Harts desk and to act as a foil against him, so they created Morpth they didn't want him to have a armature they wanted him to be simple and easy to move and manipulate so they made him entirely out of clay, they then later on created Morphs relatively twin brother Chaz who was slightly paler. From the sucess of Morph they then went on to make The Amazing Adventures of Morph in 1980 which consisted of 26 episodes going for around 5 minutes each. Around the start of the 80's Peter and David meet a student that would later go on to be a big turning point for Aardman and I would say that he made Aardman for what there know for today and still relatively the backbone of Aardman, this was of-course Nick Park. David and Peter got a phone call from a national film school saying that they've got a young student that's a fan of your work and can you come up and talk to him about animation. The film student was Nick Park who was at the time working on his first Wallace and Gromit adventure A Grand Day Out, when Nick contacted Peter and David  he had only done a bit of A Grand Day Out and the school was helping out a little but it was taking him a long time to do it. Peter and David liked Nicks Work how he was animating the puppets and Nicks style, they asked Nick to help them with some work on morph during the summer which they paid him for to help him with the rest of A Grand Day Out and they helped him with the storyboard.


Creature Comforts - 1989

A Grand Day Out - 1989

The Wrong Trousers - 1993

Around 1985 they helped to make a film called Babylon for Channel 4 it was about a nuclear holacast and had over 50 puppets but they wanted Nick to help, Nick had spent around 5 years at the film school and still had not finished A Grand Day Out so Peter and David did a deal with the film school saying that they would help Nick finish it if they would bring his sets down to Bristol and if Nick helped them to do Babylon. Peter and David had a series of films to do for Channel 4 so they asked Nick if he would help them with the films. Nick was very into animals at this point and Nick came up with the idea of a film called Creature Comforts which was about animals and there opinions but with audio over the top from real peoples opinions. Nick had finished his work on A Grand Day Out and Creature Comforts and they where both nominated for an Oscar in Best Animated Short Film which Creature Comforts Won. Around the 80's Aardman did a lot of advertising work for television they did a few big adverts like Domestos, Lurpax, Chewits and many more. Nick had a sketch book full of ideas for feature films and adventures for Wallace and Gromit, most of the ideas where before Nick had started making A Grand Day Out, Peter and David teamed Nick up with Bob Baker who had written episodes of Dr Who he looked at Nicks Sketch book and he helped Nick establish ideas and the spine for The Wrong Trousers. The Wrong Trousers was Wallace Gromits second adventure about a criminal master mind Penguin renting out a room in Wallace and Gromits house the Penguin plans to steal a diamond from a museum with the help of Wallace and his robotic trousers that where intentionally designed to do things Wallace didn't want him to do and help him around the house, like taking Gromit for walks and painting the celling. The Wrong Trousers came out in 1993 and won a Oscar for Best Animated Short Film. The 3rd Wallace and Gromit adventure was A Close Shave, it was about a killer robot dog that went around stealing sheep taking there wool and turning them into dog food. Wallace and Gromit meet a wool shop owner called Wendolene, there is a bit of romance between Wallace and Wendolene. Wendolene has a bad dog called Preston who is actually a robot dog who's the sheep killer and he frames Gromit as the killer dog and goes to jail. Wallace and a group of sheep break Gromit out of jail and they go and take down preston.

In December 1997 Aardman announced that Dreamworks would be helping them make there first feature length film called Chicken Run. In 1999 Aardman and Dreamworks made a deal to make an additional 4 films being made in the next 12 years, the deal however was canceled on the 30th January 2007. Dreamworks and Aardman only made 3 films together Chicken Run, Flushed Away and Wallace and Gromit The Curse of The Were Rabbit. Chicken Run was Aardmans first feature film and it was quite a big steep up from the 30 minute shorts that they've done before so they had a lot more people working on it compared to Wallace and Gromit, they had over 180 people working on it and finished a minute of film each week. They started production in 1995 and it was released on 23rd of June 2000. It wasn't successful awards wise as Aardmans previous works but it gave them a big advantage and experience for feature films. Dreamworks and Aardmans second feature film brought Wallace and Gromit to the big screen in Wallace and Gromit The Curse of The Were Rabbit. Aardman had to step up quite a bit from previous Wallace and Gromit adventures considering they only consisted of 1 or 2 speaking roles there had to be a lot more speaking roles and characters to fit the length of a feature film. Wallace and Gromit The Curse of The Were Rabbit was released 14th October 2005 it won Aardman another Oscar and Bafta. Dreamworks and Aardmans last film together was Flushed Away and was Aardmans first computer animated film but still had Aardmans Plasticine style that they were so well known for and it was released on the 1st of December 2006. On 10th October 2005 a fire hit a storage facility where Aardman stored props, models and scenery from past films the fire destroyed all of it going back over 30 years of work and awards. In 2007 Aardman signed a 3 year deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment to create and distribute films , they renewed the deal in 2010. In 2008 Aardman released a new Wallace and Gromit short film called A Matter of Loaf and Deaf, it is relatively a murder mystery mock about bakers getting killed. Aardmans first film with Sony was a modern


day Christmas film called Arthur Christmas, it was a 3-D Computer Animated by looking at the style of it doesnt look like an Aardman film, when I went to see it I didn't realize it was Aardman until there name popped up, but it defiantly fits Aardmans comedy style of light jokes and jokes that adults will get in all its a great family and Aardman movie. The next film Aardman and Sony did went back to Aardmans routes of stop motion animation, the film was called The Pirates!In an Adventure with Scientists! the film was based on the book of the same title by Gideon Defoe. It came out on 28th March 2012 and was Aardmans first Clay Animation film since 2005 and was Aardmans first film to be shown in 3-D. It wasn't as successful as previous Aardman films but it did manage to double its budget in the box office it was also nominated for many awards but didnt win any. Aardman have been going for over 40 years and have experience in computer and stop motion films and have dappled in music videos and have done a lot of adverts and I hope they carry on making films for years to come.