Aardman Animations Ltd. - Introduction

Introduction

Gasferry Rd.
Bristol BS1 6UN
United Kingdom
Telephone: +44-1179-848-485
Web site: http://www.aardman.co.uk

Private Company
Founded: 1976
NAIC: 512110 Motion Picture and Video Production; 512191 Teleproduction and Other Postproduction Services

Aardman Animations Ltd. is among the world's most celebrated film and video animation studios. Aardman has achieved widespread recognition for its stop-motion animation techniques—filming three-dimensional objects frame-by-frame—and especially its series of Wallace and Gromit short films, including the Oscar award-winning The Wrong Trousers and A Close Shave. Led by cofounders Peter Lord and David Sproxton, Aardman has branched out into feature films, including the 2001 success, Chicken Run, through a $150 million, four-film production agreement with DreamWorks. That agreement also includes the first full-length Wallace and Gromit film, expected to be released in 2005. Yet a primary source of the private company's revenues has long been its groundbreaking production for the advertising industry. Aardman is also a noted animator for the music video industry, particularly through its work for the 1980s hits "Sledgehammer" by Peter Gabriel and "My Baby Just Cares For Me," by Nina Simone. The company continues to produce for the British television industry, as well as for other television markets, including the Crackling Contraptions series aired on BBC One in 2002 and streamed on the Internet, through AtomFilms, in 2003.