Watch: First Trailer for Aardman's Shaun the Sheep Movie

The teaser trailer for Aardman's sixth feature film, Shaun the Sheep Movie, has made its way online. And, un-shockingly, it looks great! Check out the baa-rilliant trailer below.

Ranking the Best Animated Feature Winners - From Worst to Best

Another Oscar ceremony has passed and another animated film has been crowned as the best of the year. Frozen was awarded the Best Animated Feature prize, marking the first win for Walt Disney Animation Studios in that category. But, how does it compare to the previous winners? Let's take a look at the films that have won in this category since its inception in 2002.

Damien Presents: The Trouble With Stop Motion

By Damien.

Foreword

Before I write this post, I want to make it clear that I love stop motion, and the same goes for the films I'll talk about here. I wouldn't want those movies to be even slightly different, because I love them just the way they are, and they're all perfect in their own way; their imperfections make them even more perfect. I'm aware that last sentence made absolutely zero sense, but that doesn't mean it's any less true.

Aardman News 11 - 'Tis The Season for Get Togethers

It's been far too long since we've had an Aardman News post and what better time to do it than Christmastime? You love Wallace and Gromit right? How about Chicken Run? And Creature Comforts and Shaun the Sheep too? Shame we never get to see them all together and interacting. Oh well, we can't have it all... What? What's that you say Aardman? We can have it all? Hooray! Thanks Aardman!

Check out this cool little semi-promo for Google+, showing Aardman's stop-mo pantheon video calling each other this festive season. It seems The Pirate Captain hasn't quite got round to web-cam just yet. We can only hope he's working on some For Your Consideration ads instead.

Check out the charming and fun video above and, UK readers, get ready to check out any and all Wallace and Gromit shorts on the BBC in the next couple of weeks!

Aardman News 10 - News and Stories from Wallace and Gromit in the Radio Times

Last week the Radio Times featured British institution Wallace and Gromit on their front cover, to promote the plasticine-duo's appearance at the BBC Proms. A large classical music festival, the Proms was a big stage for the hapless inventor and his mute mutt to appear on, and RT spoke to the pair's creator, Aardman's Nick Park, about the appearance and other things Aardman.

As well as discussing the logistics of their appearance at the Proms, music used in the appearance and Gromit's favourite composers ("Poochini and Bark"), Nick Park also spoke about Wallace and Gromit's origins and more. Very interestingly, Park spoke about Gromit's beginnings, and how he was originally conceived as a cat! However, he adds:

"when I came to model the cat out of clay, I just found a dog easier to make... so Gromit became a dog"

He also spoke briefly about Gromit's early characteristics; the article quotes Park that:

"[Gromit] was going to be a bouncy, extrovert character but on the first day of shooting, he was too hard to move. I found it much easier just moving his brow." It was a Eureka moment. "It gave him a personality, an inner, discerning mind. Suddenly he became a contrast; a child more intelligent than his father."

As well as speaking about working with current Wallace and Gromit Creative Director, Merlin Crossingham, and their respective favourite (non-Aardman) animated films - "The first ten minutes of Up. The Incredibles. Toy Story 3." says Park, an evident Pixar fan, whilst Crossingham cites Disney's The Jungle Book, DreamWorks' Kung Fu Panda and, also, The Incredibles - we also get a little bit on Aardman aspirations.

Park tells Radio Times that he aspires to do something that Disney have done in the past, and Pixar have famously done repeatedly: produce a tear-inducing, emotional film, in the manner of Bambi or Toy Story 3. Park says that he wants to make a film much more serious and emotional than Aardman's usual light-hearted, quirky take, saying:

"We need to tell our own stories, rooted in our own culture, but do it with the equivalent emotion of Hollywood... Billy Elliot did it, and The Full Monty did it, but I don't think we have it yet in animation. Films that get you in the gut. It can be done, but we avoid it because we don't wear our emotion on our sleeves as a nation. We avoid it because we have seen it done badly with Hollywood schmaltziness and triteness."

Wow, that's certainly something I'd love to see Aardman tackle in the future! As much as I adore the studio's quirkiness and more light-hearted takes, originality is what they do best, and this sounds like a very original idea. And we may not have to wait that long to see how it turns out, because Park also - briefly - spoke about his next film, confirmed as not a Wallace and Gromit film; based on an idea he's had for over 10 years! An idea that may well be an emotional one.

We can't wait to hear more from Nick's next project, and will keep you informed as we learn more (on a somewhat related note, this is our tenth Aardman News feature *blows party whistle*)!

All quotes via 14-20 July edition of Radio Times.


In an Aardman mood now? Why not check out our interview with The Pirates! director Peter Lord last month!

Interview: Peter Lord, Co-founder of Aardman and Director of The Pirates!

Today I had the fantastic opportunity to speak to the very kind, very friendly and very, very talented Peter Lord on the phone, from Aardman's headquarters in Bristol. Peter, who is a co-founder of Aardman, co-directed their first feature film, Chicken Run, and directed their most recent film, The Pirates! in an Adventure with Scientists. Despite his very busy schedule as one of the famed studio's top-brass, Peter was kind enough to speak to me for just over half an hour about all things Aardman.

I'd also like to take this time to extend my sincerest thanks to Emily Metcalfe, Julie Lockhart and Amy Wood from the Aardman publicity and production team for helping to set this up. As a huge fan of Aardman, it was a great honour to interview Peter.

Topics covered in our conversation include the history of Aardman, critical reaction to the studio, why their films have never caught on in a big way in America, working with DreamWorks and Sony and The Pirates! and The Pirates! 2. Be wary though, there is some (very) mild language used. Check out the full interview after the jump break:

Aardman News 9 - Watch Wallace and Gromit's Latest Outing and Win an Aardman Tour!

In our last Aardman News, we showed you a brief clip from Wallace and Gromit's latest outing, the new, Jubilee themed, "mini-animation", A Jubilee Bunt-a-thon. Now that the Jubilee extended-weekend is over, the very short short-film is now online.

Embedded above, the just over one minute long outing is more of a mini-bit really. It's funny of course - it is Wallace and Gromit after all - but it's too short to really amount to much.

Nonetheless, this isn't the really exciting news. Wallace and Gromit creative director, Merlin Crossingham, shared a link to the National Trust's website, on Twitter, toting a competition! The competition is hardly challenging:

What does Wallace say to Gromit when he sees the size of the house that they've got to decorate?

a) Oh crikey

b) Oh crumbs

c) Woweee

And although it pains me to add more competition to this - it means I have less of a chance of winning after all - email your answer to competitions@nationaltrust.org.uk by midnight (UK time) on 30th June 2012.

I haven't even got to the amazing prize yet: In addition to spending a day at Tyntesfield - an old National Trust house - you also get:

"the chance to visit the Aardman studio [in Bristol] and meet some of the teams who bring the famous characters of Wallace & Gromit to life. You'll also get the chance to have your very own private screening of your favourite Wallace & Gromit film. And after that, there's a family trip to At-Bristol Science Centre to have a look at some real life Wallace & Gromit sets."

What an utterly fantastic competition and even better prize! Be sure to enter!

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Speaking of Aardman, be sure to cast your vote in our "What's your favourite Aardman film?" poll to the right - there's less than a day left!

Why Don't Aardman Films Do as Well in America?

Note the very British Blue Peter badge on the hat of the far-left pirate.

Aardman, for the few of you that don't know, is the studio that brought us Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Chicken Run, Flushed Away and Arthur Christmas, four brilliant films that all received critical praise, with the former two being lauded as fantastic. And now their latest film, The Pirates! In An Adventure with Scientists, is out; it's been out for about two months over here in the UK, and about one month in the US. However, whilst the critical praise is (as we have come to expect with Aardman) high, the box-office returns are not so.

So far, The Pirates!, branded in the US as The Pirates! Band of Misfits, the big screen adaptation of Gideon Defoe's popular children's books, has grossed about $100,000,000 worldwide. Only a quarter of that amount was collected in the US, with the majority coming from other regions (it had a particularly strong box-office run here in the UK). As we reported a few weeks ago, The Pirates! was received with, despite the positive word of mouth, Aardman's weakest opening ever stateside, and hasn't drastically improved on that since. Admittedly, $100 million isn't to be sniffed at, it's more than double the takings of the likes of, the equally great, live-action feature Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, but it's still disappointing for a film that has received such strong critical praise and a fairly good advertising campaign.

Unfortunately though, this is more the rule than the exception where Aardman films are concerned, despite an average Rotten Tomatoes score of 88% and a national following here in the UK, Aardman films average less than $170 million worldwide; largely due to none too strong performances in America. The question though is why, when they are such huge hits here in the UK?

Aardman News 8 - Wallace and Gromit in A Jubilee Bunt-a-thon

Before you get too excited, this isn't a new Wallace and Gromit feature film, nor is it even really a short film - what this is, is a "new mini animation" featuring the plasticine duo preparing for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. The 1 minute long short film, more like the previous Cracking Contraptions series than the half hour TV specials, is being released by the National Trust at a series of events this summer - for a list of locations, visit the National Trust's website. The short film, entitled A Jubilee Bunt-a-thon, sees barmy inventor, Wallace, and his loyal pooch, Gromit, putting up the bunting to celebrate the Queen's big day and you can see a 30 second clip from it above.

There's also a wonderful behind-the-scenes look at the production of Bunt-a-thon (below), showing the painstaking and wonderful process that stop-motion animation undergoes. The video features some words from the duo's creator, Nick Park, and from Creative Director, Merlin Crossingham (one of those fantastic names that makes you proud to be British) who said:

"To complete a minute of film, we have three animators, working flatout for 3 weeks."

It really puts into context the hard work that goes into, not just stop-motion, but animation in general! Look forward to this short film probably making its way online later this year.

The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists Review - Worth it's Weight in Doubloons

Although it's been out a few weeks now over here in the UK (but it's not released stateside until the 27th of this month), I only got the chance to see Aardman's latest feature film: The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists on Wednesday, and it was well worth the wait.

The Pirates! is Aardman's first stop-motion animated film since 2005's Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and is directed by Chicken Run helmer, Peter Lord. And whilst The Pirates! retains the trademark British wit and endearing characters that made their previous films such hits with audiences and critics, it also - following in the footsteps of 2007's Flushed Away and last year's Arthur Christmas - broadens its style somewhat, boasting a lot more action and spectacle than the more simplistic Wallace and Gromit or Chicken Run.

The Pirates! Sails Away to a Strong Start

British animation giants Aardman have just released their latest feature film, The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists (in the UK anyway, US theatre-goers will have to wait just under a month, until 27th April), to, as is the norm for Aardman, heavy critical praise.

The Pirates! is the studio's, most famous for Wallace and Gromit, fifth feature film, and their first stop-motion film since 2006's Wallace and Gromit outing, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Directed by Chicken Run helmer, Peter Lord, and co-produced with Sony Pictures Animation, The Pirates! seems to contain the usual Aardman combination of spectacle, great characters and British wit, as it currently has a score 96% on review aggregator site, Rotten Tomatoes, signifying critical acclaim.

New The Pirates Clip - We Laugh in the Face of Danger

Aardman have just released a new clip (above) from their next stop-motion animated film, The Pirates. Branded here in England as The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists (and The Pirates! Band of Misfits internationally), the film will be Aardman's first stop-motion film since 2005's Oscar winning The Curse of the Were Rabbit; it also mark's Chicken Run director Peter Lord's return to the director's chair.

The clip displays the trademark style and British wit of the animation giants that has made them a huge hit with critics and fans alike over the years, and also the luscious animation on display in the film.

The Pirates will be released in conjunction with Sony Pictures Animation on 28th March here in the UK, and 27th April in America.

Christmas Thoughts - 2011

I hope you've all had a wonderful Christmas and that you all had a wonderful day yesterday. I thought I'd, as I did last year, share my thoughts on some animation related gifts I received.

At the top you can see the vast majority of them, I was incredibly overjoyed to receive these presents, as you can see, and as you can probably tell from reading my blog, I quite like animation, so these presents were fantastic for me.

To go through the presents one by one, I got, which is probably my favourite present, 'The Art of Pixar: The Complete Color Scripts and Select Art From 25 Years of Animation'. The book which touts colour scripts from all of Pixar's 12 feature films, as well as from some of their shorts and includes several pieces of art made for each film, is fantastic. Authored by Cartoon Brew co-founder, Amid Amidi, the book is rather scarce on text, but what there is is rich in detail and history. However, as it should be, the main focus of the book is the fantastic, jaw-dropping, beautiful artwork from the artists of Pixar; and if they included the level of detail in the text we see in the individual 'Art of' books, this one would be substantially larger than the 300-odd pages it is at the moment. The book is a brilliant read and I would definitely recommend it. I will likely publish a full review of the book in the coming week.

In terms of DVDs, I got a decent amount of animated films this year, including Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (a fun and quirky animated film that was one of my favourites from 2009), Rio (which isn't pictured, as the box is somewhat trashed, as the security stopper wasn't removed for some reason, so we had to pry the box open) and Kung Fu Panda 2 (which seems even more awesome than it did when I first saw it). While I loved these films and would have been more than content with these, two of the best presents I got were in the form of the Disney classics, Peter Pan and 101 Dalmatians, two of the films that helped form my childhood; utter classics in every form, it meant even more as a present, given that they had to be, not cheaply, purchased second hand as they're in the Disney Vault at the moment.

In terms of other knick-knacks and whatnots, I also received official Wallace and Gromit slippers and an alarm clock, and Muppets socks and a T-shirt (not pictured), all of which were just brilliantly fun and quirky presents to receive.

As I'm sure you can tell, I loved these presents and this is just the animated portion of them, it was a great horde of gifts to receive this Christmas and one that I fully appreciated.

Feel free to share your own lists of presents and what you're thankful for this Christmas, I hope the season treated you all well.

Arthur Christmas Review - A Festive Gift of a Film

Although it may still be over a month until the most festive day of the year, it is very much Christmas time, at least commercially, and Aardman set the mood this year, rolling out the year's first Christmas film, Arthur Christmas. The British animation giants behind Wallace and Gromit, famous for their use of stop-motion, release Arthur Christmas as their fourth feature film, (and their second CGI animated film) and their first under the Sony Pictures banner, after their deal with DreamWorks ended a few years back, and, as we have all come to expect from Aardman, the film was funny, charming, thoughtful, warm and quintessentially British, yet being a broad, entertaining and generally great family to the extent that it will appeal to people all over the world this holiday season.

A Trip to the Wallace and Gromit Exhibit at the LIFE Science Centre - A Grand Day Out!

The replica of Wallace and Gromit's home which houses the exhibit.

On Sunday, I had the opportunity to visit the Wallace and Gromit: A World of Cracking Ideas exhibit at the LIFE Science Centre in Newcastle. The exhibit has been open for the past five months or so and is open until the 31st October and it was fantastic.

Me standing in the doorway of 62 West Wallaby Street.

The exhibit, running to promote the Intellectual Property Office and to encourage young inventors to create some "Cracking Ideas" features everything from a full sized replica of the famous duos house at 62 West Wallaby Street, to working inventions like the Hat Barometer to actual props from the Wallace and Gromit films!

Left - Everyone's favourite sheep, Shaun the Sheep. Right - Me with Shaun

Left - Wallace andc Gromit's famed garden. Right - Me crouching by the duo's garage.

Left - Wallace's broom prop from A Matter of Loaf and Death. Right - Record props from A Matter of Load and Death.

Left - The actual Gromit's Greenhouse set from the 2005 Best Animated Film Academy Award winning, Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Right - Wallace and Gromit's Living Room from A Matter of Loaf and Death.

Without a doubt, one of the highlights of the exhibit (and indeed of the past few months for me) was seeing actual sets used in the Wallace and Gromit films, including ones from 2005's Curse of the Were-Rabbit; it was unbelievable.

Left - The set of Wallace and Gromit's Dining Room from A Matter of Loaf and Death. Right - The set of the Italian Restaurant from A Matter of Loaf and Death.

Left - A set of Wallace and Gromit's Kitchen. Right - A birdseye view of the famed pair's Living Room.

Left - A painting of a young Wallace and Gromit adorning one of the walls in the exhibit. Right - a replica of the stairs down to the house's basement.

Left - A collection of Wallace and Gromit memorabilia I picked up at the exhibit. Right - Me posing in my Mickey Mouse T-Shirt and Google hoodie with Aardman's iconic pair.

Overall, this exhibit was brilliant, a collection of the kind of stuff Aardman and Wallace and Gromit fans dream of, and I would encourage anyone and everyone who can to head to LIFE in Newcastle to visit before the exhibit ends in October. The exhibit would be a fantastic visit for young children, although it is perhaps those of us who have dedicated so much to the brilliant films that will enjoy it more.

To see times and more details visit this website, I would definitely recommend the exhibit as I had A Grand Day Out!

The Pirates Voice Cast Revealed

Just as I'm beginning to get restless with the lack of updates on Aardman's second feature film with Sony Pictures Animation, due out next year, The Pirates: In An Adventure With Scientists, we get a huge block of news concerning the film.

Aardman and Sony's first feature film, due out on 11th November over here in the UK, Arthur Christmas, has an all star cast of such talented actors as Hugh Laurie, James McAvoy and Jim Broadbent, however The Pirates, if anything outshines that. The Pirates is due to star a veritable smorgasbord of British talent, led by Hugh Grant.

Hugh Grant takes the lead in his first ever animated role, the star of Love Actually, Notting Hill and Did You Hear About the Morgans? will bring a great British feel to the already quintessentially British Aardman. Grant is flanked by some equally fantastic talent, in the form of Martin Freeman (The Office, The Hobbit), David Tennant (Doctor Who) and Ashley Jensen (Extras, Ugly Betty), amongst others.

It truly is an all star cast that will only serve to boost an already fantastic sounding film, below is the announcement (courtesy of Aardman's website) in which you will find the entire all star cast:

Hugh Grant, starring in his first animated role, is the luxuriantly bearded Pirate Captain – a boundlessly enthusiastic, if somewhat less-than-successful, terror of the High Seas.  With a rag-tag crew at his side (Martin Freeman, Brendan Gleeson, Russell Tovey, and Ashley Jensen), and seemingly blind to the impossible odds stacked against him, the Captain has one dream: to beat his bitter rivals Black Bellamy (Jeremy Piven) and Cutlass Liz (Salma Hayek) to the much coveted Pirate Of The Year Award.  It’s a quest that takes our heroes from the shores of exotic Blood Island to the foggy streets of Victorian London.  Along the way they do battle with the pirate-hating Queen Victoria (Imelda Staunton) and team up with a young Charles Darwin (David Tennant), but never lose sight of what a pirate loves best: adventure!



The film sounds fantastic (you can see an image from it at the top) and I cannot wait to see the next stop-motion film (with Arthur Christmas being computer animated) from the geniuses behind Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run.

The Simpsons Parodies Animation

In the latest episode of The Simpsons, Angry Dad: The Movie, in which Bart endeavours to turn his little animations about Homer from series 13 into an animated film. From there the episode turns into a veritable plethora of animated parodies.

The episode parodies Pixar (or as it is called here, Mixar, above) showing John Lasseter and co. turning up to the Golden Globes on the famous Pixar scooters, also parodying Randy Newman (below), who sings "You've got an enemy" to Bart. It also then parodies Luxo, Mr. Potato Head and WALL E (above). We also get a parody of a Pixar film, condiments, a film about what happens when food comes to life when people aren't around, I can't imagine where they got that idea from!

They also parody Aardman and Wallace and Gromit, with Willice and Crumble, there's even a special guest appearance by W&G creator Nick Park (above).

You can also see snippets of parodies of DreamWorks' Kung Fu Panda and Disney's The Lion King (top). As well as a parody of Sylvain Chomet and The Triplets of Belleville.

The episode is hilarious and is definitely one of the best episodes of The Simpsons in recent memory. The episode also contains little digs at celebrities i.e. Ricky Gervais' somewhat questionable hosting of The Golden Globes this year.

DreamWorks Films

DreamWorks Animation have just uploaded a vast amount of videos to their YouTube page, showcasing their previous hits like Shrek, Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda. Whilst it is good to see the films getting some coverage, I was annoyed that DreamWorks are passing off Aardman films, like Chicken Run, Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were Rabbit (below)and Flushed Away as their own, without sufficient credit (if any) to Aardman.

Wallace and Gromit News

I've just recieved this month's Wallace and Gromit e-Newsletter from Aardman, I thought I'd detail the interesting points from it:
The new Wallace and Gromit TV series, Wallace and Gromit's World of Inventions (airing every Wednesday on BBC One in the U.K.) is now halfway through, the series is a mix of Aardman's great claymation characters, Wallace and Gromit and interesting notes from the world of inventions. They're also now on the U.K. iTunes Store.
Aardman are also advertising christmas gifts for sale on their shop website, they are also offering prints from the movies at 20% off until December 1st.
Finally, the ultra awesome looking, Wallace and Gromit Christmas Stamps (pictured below) are now, officially, on sale from Royal Mail.

More Aardman news coming soon.