I always had the idea in my head that Aardman was the British version of the Disney owned Pixar Animation Studios; the main idea being that the place is a hive of activity and now, after having the privilege of visiting both studios, I can confirm that I was 100% right!
A couple of weeks ago, I headed off to Bristol in the West of England to visit a place oozing with creativity and a dedication to work in a way that has never been done before. As I’d been to Pixar previously, I was expecting the UK equivalent for Aardman; a purpose built building with all the trimmings but instead, I arrived and saw a rather drab looking 30 000 square foot warehouse! It was later explained to us that this building isn’t ‘Aardman’ but was acquired when they began making Chicken Run back in 1997 and the moral of the...
A couple of weeks ago, I headed off to Bristol in the West of England to visit a place oozing with creativity and a dedication to work in a way that has never been done before. As I’d been to Pixar previously, I was expecting the UK equivalent for Aardman; a purpose built building with all the trimmings but instead, I arrived and saw a rather drab looking 30 000 square foot warehouse! It was later explained to us that this building isn’t ‘Aardman’ but was acquired when they began making Chicken Run back in 1997 and the moral of the...
- 12/1/2011
- by David Sztypuljak
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Aardman Animation's latest handmade extravaganza is taking to the high seas. Leo Benedictus visits their studios and finds out why stop-motion beats Jack Sparrow
One ordinary day in 1970, a BBC producer called Patrick Dowling, who was working at the time on the children's TV series Vision On, had a visit from a colleague in religious programming. The colleague explained that his son David, with his friend Peter – both of them still at school – had made a short animated film. Crude and formless, composed on the kitchen table from snipped-out photographs and pastel scrawls, it nevertheless caught Dowling's eye. Shortly afterwards, when he met the boys, he gave them 100ft of film and suggested that they go away and make something interesting. What Peter Lord and David Sproxton made, with a little help here and there, was the British animation industry.
Today, the company they started, Aardman Animations, is a name to conjure with.
One ordinary day in 1970, a BBC producer called Patrick Dowling, who was working at the time on the children's TV series Vision On, had a visit from a colleague in religious programming. The colleague explained that his son David, with his friend Peter – both of them still at school – had made a short animated film. Crude and formless, composed on the kitchen table from snipped-out photographs and pastel scrawls, it nevertheless caught Dowling's eye. Shortly afterwards, when he met the boys, he gave them 100ft of film and suggested that they go away and make something interesting. What Peter Lord and David Sproxton made, with a little help here and there, was the British animation industry.
Today, the company they started, Aardman Animations, is a name to conjure with.
- 10/28/2011
- by Leo Benedictus
- The Guardian - Film News
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