'Gromit was nearly a cat!': Secrets from 50 years of Aardman
Summary
Aardman Animations, founded in 1976 in Bristol, celebrates 50 years of creating popular stop-motion films like Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run. The studio grew from simple clay modeling into an Oscar-winning company, helped by key decisions like making Gromit a dog instead of a cat and working with major figures like Steven Spielberg.Key Facts
- Aardman was started by Sir Peter Lord and Sir David Sproxton as school friends experimenting with plasticine.
- Animator Nick Park joined in 1985 and created Wallace and Gromit’s characters.
- Gromit was originally planned as a cat but was changed to a dog because it was easier to model.
- Aardman’s film Chicken Run was the first full-length stop-motion movie, earning over $220 million worldwide.
- Chicken Run helped inspire the creation of the Best Animated Feature Oscar category.
- Wallace and Gromit won the Best Animated Feature Oscar for The Curse of the Were-Rabbit a few years later.
- Shaun the Sheep, another character from Aardman, first appeared in 1995 and became very popular globally.
- Aardman kept its production based in Bristol despite working with major Hollywood studios like DreamWorks.
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