Aardman Animations Limited, stylized as AARDMAN since 2022, is a British animation studio based in Bristol. It is known for films and television series made using stop motion and clay animation techniques, particularly those featuring its plasticine characters from Wallace & Gromit, Chicken Run, Shaun the Sheep, and Morph. After some experimental computer-animated short films during the late 1990s, beginning with Owzat (1997), Aardman entered the computer animation market with Flushed Away (2006). As of February 2020, it had earned $1.1 billion worldwide, with an average $135.6 million per film. Between 2000 and 2006, Aardman partnered ways with DreamWorks Animation.
Nicholas Wulstan Park is an English filmmaker and animator who created Wallace & Gromit, Creature Comforts, Chicken Run, Shaun the Sheep, and Early Man. Park has been nominated for an Academy Award a total of six times and won four with Creature Comforts (1989), The Wrong Trousers (1993), A Close Shave (1995) and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005).
Creature Comforts is a British adult stop-motion comedy mockumentary franchise originating in a 1989 British humorous animated short film of the same name. The film matched animated zoo animals with a soundtrack of people talking about their homes, making it appear as if the animals were being interviewed about their living conditions. It was created by Nick Park and Aardman Animations. The film later became the basis of a series of television advertisements for the electricity boards in the United Kingdom. In 2003, a television series in the same style was released. An American version of the series was also made. A sequel series, Things We Love, first aired on BBC One in 2024.
Chicken Run is a 2000 animated adventure comedy film produced by Pathé and Aardman Animations in partnership with DreamWorks Animation. Aardman's first feature-length film, it was directed by Peter Lord and Nick Park from a screenplay by Karey Kirkpatrick and based on an original story by Lord and Park. The film stars the voices of Julia Sawalha, Mel Gibson, Tony Haygarth, Miranda Richardson, Phil Daniels, Lynn Ferguson, Timothy Spall, Imelda Staunton, and Benjamin Whitrow. Set in the countryside of Yorkshire, the plot centres on a group of British anthropomorphic chickens who see an American rooster named Rocky Rhodes as their only hope to escape the farm when their owners want to turn them into chicken pies.
A Grand Day Out is a 1989 British stop-motion animated short film starring Wallace & Gromit. It was directed, animated and co-written by Nick Park at the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield and Aardman Animations in Bristol.
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is a 2005 animated comedy film directed by Nick Park and Steve Box. It was produced, made and owned by DreamWorks Animation in collaboration with Aardman Animations. It was the second feature-length film by Aardman, after Chicken Run (2000) and the last DreamWorks Animation film distributed by its parent DreamWorks Pictures, as the studio spun off as an independent studio in 2004 until its acquisition by NBCUniversal in 2016. The film debuted in Sydney, Australia on 4 September 2005, before being released in theaters in the United States on 7 October 2005 and in the United Kingdom a week later on 14 October 2005.
Steven Royston Box is an English animator and director who works for Aardman Animations.
Richard Starzak, previously known as Richard "Golly" Goleszowski, is an English animator, screenwriter, and film director.
Purple and Brown is a British stop-motion animated short series made in collaboration with Nickelodeon and Aardman Animations, the creators of Wallace and Gromit. The series was devised and directed by Rich Webber and edited by Mike Percival, who also offered the voices of the characters, and first aired in February 2006, on Nickelodeon's UK and Ireland channel, and then later became a staple on the US Nickelodeon network as part of its former Nick Extra short program.
The Annecy International Animation Film Festival was created in 1960 and takes place at the beginning of June in the town of Annecy, France. Initially occurring every two years, the festival became an annual event in 1998. It is one of the four international animated film festivals sponsored by the International Animated Film Association.
The animated documentary is a moving image form that combines animation and documentary. This form should not be confused with documentaries about movie and TV animation history that feature excerpts.
Christopher Sadler is a British animator, director and writer. He is primarily known for his work on Wallace and Gromit, Chicken Run, Rex the Runt, Cracking Contraptions, Creature Comforts and Shaun the Sheep.
Michael Please is an English animator, illustrator, director, and writer.
The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! is a 2012 animated swashbuckler comedy film produced by Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation in association with Aardman Animations, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. The second and final collaborative project between Sony and Aardman, it is Aardman's first book-based movie as well as their first stop-motion feature film since Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005), and Sony Pictures Entertainment's first stop-motion film. The film was directed by Peter Lord, co-directed by Jeff Newitt, and written by Gideon Defoe, based on Defoe's 2004 novel The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists. The film stars the voices of Hugh Grant, David Tennant, Imelda Staunton, Martin Freeman, Salma Hayek, and Jeremy Piven, and follows a crew of amateur pirates in their attempt to win the Pirate of the Year competition.
Lip Synch is a series of five 1989-1990 short films made by Aardman Animations which used vox pops as inspiration for their subject matter. They were commissioned by Channel 4. Nick Park's contribution to the series was the film Creature Comforts, which later won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short of 1990. Channel 4 screened the films as part of their Four-Mations UK season in November 1990.
War Story is a 1989 animated short film created by Aardman Animations. It was directed by Peter Lord.
Steve Cutts is an activist illustrator and animator based in London, England. His artwork satirises the excesses of modern society. His style is inspired by cartoons from the 1920s-1930s, as well as modern comic books and graphic novels.
Aardman Animations is an animation studio in Bristol, England that produces stop motion and computer-animated features, shorts, TV series and adverts.
Robin Robin is a 2021 stop-motion animated musical short film produced by Aardman Animations, created and directed by Dan Ojari and Mikey Please, and written by Ojari, Please, and Sam Morrison.
Ronald J. Diamond is an American film producer from Los Angeles, CA. He is the founder of Acme Filmworks, the Animation Show of Shows and the co-founder of Animation World Network.
