I’ve been covering many animation studios and animation legends recently and there has been a particular studio that I’ve been holding off discussing, Aardman. The reason that I’ve held off on discussing Aardman Animations is because I have a weird relationship with their works in that I hold many of their titles in high esteem while I also feel that they’ve wasted their potential. However, I feel that it’s high time that I take a look at the company, their works and my thoughts.
In case you’re unfamiliar with Aardman Animations, they are a UK based animation company that are famous for using stop-motion. They were originally founded in 1972 and have since developed many notable animated works such as Morph, Wallace & Gromit, Chicken Run etc. It’s also worth noting that Chicken Run, their first theatrical movie, retains the record for being the highest-grossing stop-motion animated film in history.
The first Aardman work that I remember watching was Morph, either The Amazing Adventures of Morph or The Morph Files, on VHS. I also have memories of going to see Chicken Run in the cinema and enjoying the film. However, it wasn’t until the release of Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit that I started to take note of the company itself. Having newly discovered the company, I eagerly picked up a boxset containing the Wallace & Gromit shorts which I enjoyed immensely.
However, a funny thing happened. The next Aardman boxset that I picked up was called “Aardman Classics” and contained a variety of short films that they had produced over the 80s and 90s. While I can’t say that I’m a fan of every short film in this collection, one of the things that I noticed was their astounding creativity and subject matter. Many of these shorts were funded by Channel 4, a UK television channel which apparently used to have the reputation for producing unusual content.
Some of my favourite shorts from the collection include “Babylon”, a short about arms dealers and features a surprising amount of blood, “Loves Me, Loves Me Not”, a short about a man who’s playing loves me, loves me not with a flower and realises that the stakes are higher than he realises, “Humdrum”, a short about two bored shadows figuring out what to do, and “Ident”, a short about a man traveling a maze and wearing masks in his social interactions. As you might imagine, these shorts are bizarre, dark and incredibly fascinating.
Ever since seeing these shorts, I can’t help but feel consistently disappointed at nearly everything Aardman produces these days. Everything I’ve seen since then seems so juvenile and kid-oriented, not to mention that their works feel much more standard and less experimental. Whenever I hear people talking about Shaun the Sheep, Early Man or the recent Robin Robin these days, I can’t help but think about the fact that they feel like standard kid’s fare and do nothing to change the perception that animation is targeted at children.
I absolutely adore the old shorts that Aardman Animations used to produce and have a soft spot for Chicken Run and the Wallace & Gromit series. However, I can’t watch their recent content without feeling disappointed at how kid-friendly and uncreative it is. Let me know your thoughts on Aardman Animations: why I feel they’ve wasted their potential, whether you agree or disagree with me, which of their shorts you like, whether you enjoy their new content or old content more and any additional information you might have on the topic.
Hopefully you have found this article interesting and informative and, if you wish to seek any of the works I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk and amazon.com for all of your needs!