As Lord explains, the clay houses Aardman are in touch with are developing vats of clay by the 100 kilos, and while they do need some <\/i>clay, their heroes\u2019 pint-sized appearances mean it\u2019s much less than you\u2019d expect. \u201cI mean\u2026 how many chickens are there in Dawn of the Nugget<\/a>? I think it\u2019s around 300 or something. So it\u2019s not a very, very large number.\u201d<\/p>\n The animation studio was co-founded in 1972 by Peter Lord and David Sproxton, with little plasticine bundle of joy Morph bouncing into the world in 1977. When you watch the early one-minute Morph shorts, everything Aardman has come to be known for is right there \u2013 its universal, charming humour anchored by a character with such vivid humanity it truly feels alive.<\/span><\/p>\n In that same year, Aardman created Down and Out for the BBC \u2013 its first foray into adult animation, using vox pop recordings and animating them \u2013 the Animated Conversations and Conversation Pieces series would lay the groundwork for the iconic <\/span>Creature Comforts<\/span>, yet another idea with infinite steam to keep going, as Park agrees: \u201cThe joy of <\/span>Creature Comforts <\/span>is that it\u2019s the sort of thing that can run and run, as we will never run out of people to interview.\u201d All of this tinkering with adult animation led Aardman to a most unexpected place: 1980s Yugoslavia.<\/span><\/p> \u201cWe visited a festival in Zagreb, and everything [animated] there was designed for an adult audience,\u201d says Lord. \u201cThat was an absolute revelation for us. From then on, we knew about this world, and it became part of our worldview.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n This revelation, combined with Channel 4\u2019s brief for new programming for new audiences, allowed Aardman to flourish within what Lord describes as an \u201980s and \u201990s renaissance of British independent animation.<\/span><\/p>\n You might be surprised by the naughtier tone of Aardman\u2019s adult animations, especially the likes of Angry Kid and Rex the Runt \u2013 Lord certainly is self-aware of the company\u2019s perception: \u201cI am smart enough to know that most of our audience sees us within a very delightful, colourful fun box.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Watching both shows back now, they feel perfectly positioned to fit within 2023\u2019s adoration of adult animation \u2013 but back in the late \u201980s, examples of this genre were few and far between. When Lord speaks about this time, there\u2019s a clear fondness for it, so why haven\u2019t they done more of it?<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI am perfectly happy with us doing slightly weird, abrasive stuff \u2013 I just think, as a business reality, there\u2019s unfortunately not much demand for it,\u201d he says. \u201cThere\u2019s also not much funding for it now either \u2013 if we <\/span>were <\/span><\/i>to make something like Angry Kid again, we\u2019d have to make that very clear to our audiences. We don\u2019t want to traumatise families!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n If you\u2019ve ever tried stop motion, it takes a very long time, and an awful lot of patience. So why does Aardman do it? Because the team absolutely love it. \u201cI mean, we love<\/em> the collaborative hands-on physical nature of stop motion \u2013 why wouldn\u2019t we? For us as the makers, it\u2019s the greatest joy of it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Park has at times spoken about how \u2018giving a character a soul\u2019 is the true art of animation, and while he noted it\u2019s tricky to explain, he detailed that process. \u201cDirect contact with the figure allows you to put something of yourself and what you see in others into the puppet. Honest, true observations and flawed, well-observed human traits can be expressed through sculpting.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n Park\u2019s outlook on animation makes sense when you take a step back and look at his most famous creations, Wallace and Gromit. Much of the world the inventor and his canine apprentice operate in is lifted from Park\u2019s own childhood in Preston. Their house is the old mill house Park\u2019s grandmother lived in, with many of their household possessions modelled after items Park would find in both his mother and grandmother\u2019s houses throughout the \u201960s and \u201970s.<\/span><\/p>\n Many of Aardman\u2019s characters are remarkably expressive despite their muteness \u2013 Morph, Shaun the Sheep, and of course Gromit to name a few. While Morph and Shaun were envisioned from the beginning to be voiceless, Gromit\u2019s silence comes from a last-minute improvisation. Originally, Peter Hawkins, known for lending his voice to the Daleks in Doctor Who and Captain Pugwash, was signed up to imbue Gromit with his own bravado. However, when it came to filming A Grand Day Out, Park was unable to access Gromit\u2019s mouth \u2013 thus, Gromit became Wallace\u2019s silent companion instead.<\/span><\/p>\n There\u2019s also the endeavour of taking a myriad of influences and distilling them into something uniquely Aardman that the company embarks on every time they approach a new project. For <\/span>The Wrong Trousers<\/span>, which celebrates its 30-year anniversary this year, Park and co were inspired by the works of William Heath Robinson, Jes\u00fas Blasco\u2019s The Wombles and Frank Bellamy\u2019s Thunderbirds, alongside the surprisingly adult tales of The Lodger and The Ladykillers for the villainous Feathers McGraw. However, almost all of them have one thing in common \u2013 they all seem to be creations inhabited with a certain kind of soul, just as Park animates his own characters.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s creative challenges like these that drive the company\u2019s love of stop motion animation \u2013 Aardman has staked claim to having created both the smallest stop motion ever, a commercial for Nokia called Dot, and the biggest stop motion ever, Gulp also for Nokia: \u201c<\/span>The camera was on a cliff looking down at the beach, but then that wasn\u2019t big enough so we put the camera on top of a cherry picker crane on top of the cliff.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n However, that\u2019s not to say they\u2019re CG-averse \u2013 there are the likes of <\/span>Flushed Away <\/span>and <\/span>Arthur Christmas<\/span> of course, experiments in full CG. Lord noted that the studio\u2019s workflow shifted quite a bit due to the more hands-off nature of CG: \u201cIt gets to a similar place, but it doesn\u2019t have the warmth, you know? The warmth of human company, of interaction, working and collaborating.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n You may be surprised to know that even in Aardman\u2019s fully stop motion endeavours, there\u2019s some sneaky CG you\u2019d probably never spot. \u201cIn Dawn of the Nugget, there\u2019s a lot of CG, it\u2019s almost entirely in the background. There\u2019s a lot of it, but it disguises itself.\u201d What\u2019s clear is that no one at Aardman sees CG as a threat, but instead as a collaborative tool to help accentuate their stop motion efforts further. It has allowed them, if anything, to expand their fingerprint-indented clay worlds even further.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s nothing that we hate more in stop motion than extras,\u201d Lord says. \u201cIf we have 50 chickens walking around casually, that\u2019s like a month\u2019s work! So we\u2019re disinclined to do that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The company has worked with the likes of Dreamworks, StudioCanal and Sony in the past to release its films, but this marks the first time it\u2019s ever partnered with a streamer \u2013 how\u2019s it going? \u201cMaybe of all the people we\u2019ve worked with, they\u2019ve embraced most simply and clearly the fact that we\u2019re a British company making British animated films,\u201d Lord mentions.<\/span><\/p>\n When you look at the last few years of animation, <\/span>Pinocchio, The Mitchells vs. the Machines, Wolfwalker, The Sea Beast <\/span>\u2013 many of the notable ones come from streamers, while theatrical animation appears to be wobbling a little, even at a juggernaut like Disney.<\/span><\/p>\n Although Aardman is grateful for <\/span>Dawn of the Nugget\u2019<\/span>s theatrical release, they seem to echo this idea of streamers as a safe haven for animation, as Lord explains: \u201cThat\u2019s the terrifying thing about the theatrical model, you get this little window and if it doesn\u2019t take off instantly in the first weekend, in a weird way it almost disappears immediately, which is heartbreaking. But with the streamers, you know it\u2019s there, and it doesn\u2019t need to find its audience in the first week.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s clear the partnership affords Aardman not just security, but also a chance to widen their ambition \u2013 their partnership together to support and train up to 1,000 emerging animators and UK-wide talent is something woefully missed given the lack of funding not just for developing creatives, but especially developing animators today.<\/span><\/p>\n We\u2019ve barely scratched the surface of Aardman \u2013 to truly chronicle all of its magnificent efforts would likely take as long as it does to make five minutes of Chicken Run 2. But what does Aardman\u2019s legacy mean to Peter Lord and Nick Park? For Lord, he reflects on the very first days of Aardman. \u201cI can remember being 23 when we started out, and you stand there with a vision, I wouldn\u2019t even say a dream\u2026 to be able to keep going, to have a bit of money at the end of the week, that was the ambition.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n For Park, whose own life, memories and childhood are so wrapped up in all of his work, Wallace and Gromit especially, it\u2019s a very close-to-home memory that he cherishes most. \u201cThe statue of Wallace and Gromit in my hometown, Preston. That is such a treat.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The pair of them are resolute on one simple truth \u2013 they\u2019re absolutely bowled over to this day by the fact that not only do people around the world know Aardman, but they hold their characters very near and dear to their heart. \u201cThere are so many [moments], it\u2019s incredible that after all this time it hasn\u2019t run out of steam, but it hasn\u2019t yet!\u201d Park exclaims.<\/span><\/p>\n Lord takes a moment to reflect, leaning back in his chair \u2013 looking around the room at the various Aardman paraphernalia upon the walls. \u201cTo build this small, cosy animation empire, I suppose you could call it, to create characters that people love and remember, and will always remember, that\u2019s pretty amazing. That is pretty amazing.\u201d<\/span><\/p> \n
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