Aardman Animations Limited, stylised 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 with DreamWorks Animation.
Chicken Run is a 2000 animated adventure comedy film produced by Pathé and Aardman Features in partnership with DreamWorks Animation. Aardman's first feature-length film, it was directed by Peter Lord and Nick Park with a screenplay by Karey Kirkpatrick from 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.
20th Century Animation, Inc. is an American animation studio located in Century City, Los Angeles. Formed in 1994, it is organized as a division and label of 20th Century Studios, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios, and is tasked with producing animated feature-length films. At one point, 20th Century Animation had two subsidiaries: Fox Animation Studios, which was shut down on June 26, 2000, and Blue Sky Studios, which was closed on April 10, 2021. Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment distributes the films produced by 20th Century Animation in home media under the 20th Century Home Entertainment banner.
Shrek is an American media franchise of DreamWorks Animation. Loosely based on William Steig's 1990 picture book Shrek!, the series primarily focuses on Shrek, a bad-tempered but good-hearted ogre, who begrudgingly accepts a quest to rescue a princess, resulting in him finding friends and going on many subsequent adventures in a fairy tale world. It includes four animated films: Shrek (2001), Shrek 2 (2004), Shrek the Third (2007), and Shrek Forever After (2010), with a fifth film, Shrek 5, currently in production for a 2026 release. A short 4-D film, Shrek 4-D, which originally was a theme park ride, was released in 2003. Two television specials, the Christmas television special Shrek the Halls (2007) and the Halloween television special Scared Shrekless (2010), have also been produced. Two spin-off films were made centered around the character Puss in Boots: 2011's Puss in Boots and its sequel, 2022's The Last Wish. Additionally, a stage musical adaptation was made and premiered at Broadway for more than a year (2008–2010).
DNEG is a British-Indian visual effects, computer animation and stereo conversion studio that was founded in 1998 in London, and rebranded as DNEG in 2014 after a merger with Indian VFX company Prime Focus; it was named after the letters "D" and "Neg" from their former name.
Jodie Auckland Whittaker is an English actress. Her roles on television include Beth Latimer in Broadchurch (2013–2017) and the Thirteenth Doctor in Doctor Who (2017–2022).
John Powell is an English composer best known for his film scores. He has been based in Los Angeles since 1997 and has composed the scores to over 70 feature films. He is best known for composing the scores for films such as Face/Off, the Bourne film series, the Happy Feet films, United 93, X-Men: The Last Stand, Wicked and its upcoming sequel Wicked: For Good, Evolution, Dr. Seuss' The Lorax, Migration, Drumline, Hancock, The Call of the Wild, Bolt, eight Blue Sky Studios films, and nine DreamWorks Animation films.
Paramount Animation is an American animation studio, serving as the animation division and label of Paramount Pictures, a subsidiary of Paramount Global. The division was founded on July 6, 2011, following the box office success of Paramount's own Rango and the end of their distribution deal with DreamWorks Animation in 2012.
Blur Studio Inc. is an American production company which specialises in CGI visual effects, CGI animation, and CGI design. Located in Culver City, California, the studio has produced CGI-animated films, teasers and ad spots for television, as well as video-game CGI cinematics.
Sarah Christine Smith is an English film director, broadcast producer, and screenwriter. She is the co-founder and former CEO of Locksmith Animation. She is writer and director of the animated feature films Arthur Christmas (2011) and Ron's Gone Wrong (2021). Smith began her career in radio before serving as a television producer for live action British comedy, including as writer for the Armistice news review shows. She later served various other assisting production roles in television, and as writer for the adult animated series I Am Not an Animal. She then joined Aardman Animations as creative director, going on to direct her first feature film Arthur Christmas. She left Aardman and set up Locksmith Animation to direct Ron's Gone Wrong.
Spirit is an American media franchise owned by DreamWorks Animation, which began with the 2002 animated film Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron written by John Fusco from an idea by producer Jeffrey Katzenberg. The franchise follows the adventures of a Kiger Mustang stallion named Spirit and his same named descendants.
Locksmith Animation is a British-American independent computer animation feature film studio owned by Sister Group. Headquartered in London, England with an office in Los Angeles, California, Locksmith is best known for producing and developing independent computer-animated feature films.
Ron's Gone Wrong is a 2021 animated science fiction comedy film directed by Sarah Smith and Jean-Philippe Vine and written by Peter Baynham and Smith. The film features the voice of Jack Dylan Grazer as Barney, a socially awkward middle-schooler who befriends a defective robot he names Ron, voiced by Zach Galifianakis. Barney must find a way to protect Ron, who comes under danger from corporate employees. Additional voices include Ed Helms, Justice Smith, Rob Delaney, Kylie Cantrall, Ricardo Hurtado, and Olivia Colman.
Klaus is a 2019 animated Christmas adventure comedy film co-written, co-produced, and directed by Sergio Pablos in his directorial debut, produced by his company The SPA Studios and distributed by Netflix. Co-written by Zach Lewis and Jim Mahoney, and co-directed by Carlos Martinez Lopez, the traditionally animated film stars the voices of Jason Schwartzman, J. K. Simmons, Rashida Jones, Will Sasso, Neda Margrethe Labba, Sergio Pablos, Norm Macdonald, and Joan Cusack. Serving as an alternate origin story of Santa Claus independent from the historical Saint Nicholas of Myra and using a fictional 19th-century setting, the plot revolves around a postman stationed in an island town to the Far North who befriends a reclusive toymaker (Klaus).
Entergalactic is a 2022 adult animated music television special created by American musician and actor Kid Cudi, that serves as a visual companion piece to the album of the same name. Initially announced as a television series, in August 2022, Entergalactic was then redeveloped as a TV special. The special premiered on September 30, 2022, exclusively on Netflix, simultaneously with the album.
Netflix Animation is an American animation studio and a subsidiary of Netflix, Inc. It was founded in March 2018 and based in Los Angeles, California. The studio is best known for producing and developing animated television programs and animated feature films which are all hosted on the Netflix streaming service.
Living is a 2022 British historical drama film directed by Oliver Hermanus. Its screenplay by Kazuo Ishiguro was adapted from the 1952 Akira Kurosawa film Ikiru. Set in 1953 London, it stars Bill Nighy as a bureaucrat in the public works department who learns he has a fatal illness.
The Garfield Movie is a 2024 American animated comedy film based on the comic strip Garfield created by Jim Davis. Directed by Mark Dindal from a screenplay by Paul A. Kaplan, Mark Torgove, and David Reynolds, the film stars Chris Pratt as the voice of the titular character, alongside the voices of Samuel L. Jackson, Hannah Waddingham, Ving Rhames, Nicholas Hoult, Cecily Strong, Harvey Guillén, Brett Goldstein, Bowen Yang, and Snoop Dogg. In the film, Garfield is reunited with his long-lost father, a street cat named Vic, before being forced into joining him on a high-stakes adventure. It is the sixth Garfield film adaptation and the first since Garfield's Pet Force, which was released fifteen years prior.
Nimona is a 2023 American animated science fantasy action film directed by Nick Bruno and Troy Quane from a screenplay by Robert L. Baird and Lloyd Taylor. It is based on the 2015 graphic novel of the same name by ND Stevenson. Set in a science fantasy world influenced by the Middle Ages, the film features the voices of Chloë Grace Moretz as the eponymous shapeshifting character and Riz Ahmed as her boss and former knight Ballister, with Eugene Lee Yang and Frances Conroy voicing supporting roles.
"Under the Tree" is a song by English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran, featured in the 2024 Netflix and Locksmith Animation film That Christmas. The song was released as a non-album digital single in the United Kingdom on November 26, 2024 by Gingerbread Man Records. Sheeran wrote and produced the song with Johnny McDaid. The music video for "Under the Tree" was directed by Richard Curtis, produced by Ramshackle Productions, cinematographed by Danny Cohen and edited by Sim Evan-Jones and it stars Sheeran as himself and Claudia Jessie as Anna.
