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The Right Trousers for the 1990s

With Park and a growing number of other animators on board, Aardman began accepting new and more diversified commissions. The growing market for music videos offered a natural outlet for the company's technical prowess. In 1986 the company broke new ground with its work on Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer" video. That effort was followed by a number of others, including Nina Simone's 1987 music video for "My Baby Just Cares for Me."

By 1989, Park and Aardman had completed A Grand Day Out, which went on to receive an Oscar nomination that year. Aardman had also begun work on a new project, the "Lip Synch" series of short subjects, featuring films from each of the group's animators. That series, completed in 1990, gave Aardman its first Oscar, for Creature Comforts, directed by Nick Park. The success of that film also inspired a number of television commercials, both in the United Kingdom and in the United States.

In the meantime, Aardman had begun work on a new Wallace and Gromit film. Competed in 1993, The Wrong Trousers earned Aardman a new Oscar—and international acclaim. The strong appeal of the Wallace and Gromit characters also spawned a new and steady source of product licensing revenues for the group.

If Wallace and Gromit became Aardman's signature characters, and Nick Park, the company's public face, during the 1990s, Aardman's growing staff of animators continued to produce a wide variety of films, including Ident, by Richard Goleszowski, produced in 1991 and launching a new character, Rex the Runt. Other films of the 1990s included Peter Lord's Academy Award-nominated Adam (1991) and Wat's Pig (1996); Knobs in Space (1994), by David Riddett and Luis Cook, as well as that duo's Sam Fell's Pop (1996); and Stagefright (1997) by Steve Box.

In the meantime, Aardman went to work on the next Wallace and Gromit film, A Close Shave. Completed in 1995, the new film once again met with international acclaim, and earned the company a new Oscar. The success of Wallace and Gromit went beyond mere financial rewards. As Lord explained to Billboard, "It's proven to appeal to every audience. And that makes British people feel good about our own culture and says that we don't have to pretend to be something we're not to succeed in Europe or America."

Wallace and Gromit's success also encouraged the company to attempt a still riskier transition, from short subjects into fulllength feature films. The company likened this decision to that of Walt Disney before them, who had met skepticism when he began work on his own first full-length film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Aardman began development of its first film in 1997, working with producer Jake Eberts, who had previously worked on Dances with Wolves and the animated film James and the Giant Peach.

Eberts then brought Aardman into contact with Dream-Works, and former Disney chief Jeffrey Katzenberg. The DreamWorks partnership quickly solidified into an agreement that promised Aardman $150 million in a four-film, 12-year contract signed near the end of 1999.

1. Introduction
2. Kitchen Table Animators in the 1970s
3. The Right Trousers for the 1990s
4. Big Plans for the Future
5. Principal Competitors
6. Further Reading
7. Copyright Page
8. About Page