Aardman Animations Ltd. - Big Plans for the Future

Big Plans for the Future

Aardman released its first feature film, Chicken Run, to critical and box office acclaim in 2000. Featuring a cast of chickens attempting to escape from a POW camp-styled chicken farm, the success of the film also proved that Aardman's appeal extended beyond Wallace and Gromit characters. The company's next project reached a snag in 2002, however, due to problems with the screenplay. That film, based on the "Tortoise and the Hare" fable, was put on hold indefinitely.

Nonetheless, Aardman continued to push ahead on a number of other fronts, including the development of a new Creature Comforts series. At the same time, the company began preproduction of the next Wallace and Gromit film, the first fulllength film to feature the popular characters. Although that film was not slated for release until mid-2005, the company moved to slake its fans' thirsts at the end of 2002, with the release of Cracking Contraptions.

The first installment of the new series of ten short films aired on BBC One in October 2002, followed several hours later by a release on the Internet, through AtomFilms. By the beginning of 2003, the full series of Cracking Contraptions—each featuring one of Wallace's rather unusual inventions—was available for downloading and streaming through the paid AtomFilms service.

Aardman remained buoyant as filming began on the new and eagerly anticipated Wallace and Gromit feature in August 2003. At the same time, the company remained focused on the future, as Peter Lord started development of the next feature film to be produced within the DreamWorks agreement, Flushed Away, a story of two rats expected to begin shooting in 2005. Aardman Animations had molded a reputation as one of the world's top animation houses.