Hello there animation lovers now you americans might not know this but we in Britain have a famous animation studio and that studio is celebrating being in business for around 40 years you know there works thanks to the likes of Chicken Run , Wallace And Gromit and Creature Comforts but you might not know there name this is all about a little animation studio in Bristol called Aardman.
Aardman animations has been in business since the 70's and the studio has gone from producing 2D animation which was there very first creation as a studio to producing stop-motion which is what they are most famous for and there very first piece of stop motion wasn't for tv or film but for a music video.
In 1986 the studio was commissioned to produce a piece of animation for Peter Gabriel's song Sledgehammer i havn't seen the video for myself so i can't tell you how long there animation is on screen for but i can tell you that it led to more work in music videos which continues to this very day with there latest music video being the song Feels Like Summer by Tim Wheeler which was produced for the Shaun The Sheep Movie soundtrack but Aardman would also make a mark on the world of television thanks to a little brown piece of plastic.
Morph was created for the programme Take Heart and Heartbeat both of which starred artist Tony Heart and was created by Peter Lord who was commissioned to make the character by the BBC because apparently Tony Heart wasn't funny and the producers wanted someone who could make the kids laugh and it worked because Morph has become a british legend spawning several TV series and he is also a favorite of creator Peter Lord who has gone on record as calling Morph his baby.
In 1982 Nick Park started making the film which would become A Grand Day Out and would also introduce people to man and his dog also known as Wallace & Gromit the film took a total of eight years to make since at the start of production it was just Nick on his animating the film frame by frame. That changed when in 1985 Aardman took him on as an animator while at the same time the school that Nick was at would continue to film his passion project since the film was now being animated at Aardman studios this meant that more of the film could be made in a shorter time period.
A Grand Day Out was also one of the first Aardman works to have a voice and that voice came from famed british actor Peter Sallis who has voiced Wallace in all short films and the feature film Sallis was paid £50 for A Grand Day Out that might not be that much now but back in the 80's it was quite alot of money Wallace & Gromit have become an icon of British culture appearing in several short films , there own TV series , a feature film , games and many more but like Wallace & Gromit Nick Park would make another successful series for Aardman.
Creature Comforts originally started as a short film that was released in the late 80's early 90's and thanks to a certain Jaguar has become fairly iconic but what makes this standout from Wallace & Gromit is that the characters are voiced by ordinary British people without a script so the show was completely improvised and the animators would have to animate around would was already being said now unlike Wallace & Gromit which has had several over products Creature Comforts has gone mostly into obscurity only popping out every so often.
Aardman animations have not only made there mark on television but have also made several feature films which have a combined box office receipt of $972.1 million dollars there films include Chicken Run which was there first feature film , Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit ,The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! , Shaun The Sheep The Movie and many more now i know i've missed alot of there works but that's because i wanted to get the most well known works in here and it seems that with at least two more feature films in the works with Early man being directed by Nick Park and a sequel to Shaun The Sheep The Movie right now called Shaun The Sheep The Movie 2 it seems that this little studio will go on forever.