Aardman Animations
Beyond Stop-motion
Annabelle Honess Roe
BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC
LONDON • NLU \ORN • OXtORD -MH DI LUI • SVD\L\ Contents
List of Figures ix
List of Contributors x
Acknowledgements xiv
Introduction: Understanding Aardman Annabelle Honess Roe 1
Section One Identity and Brand 21
1 'All you do is call me, I'll be anything you need': Aardman Animations, Music Videos and Commercials Malcolm Cook 23
2 Music, Sound and Northernness in the Wallace and Gromit Films Joseph Darlington 39 3 'Yahoo! My last moment has come': Peter Lord and the Literacy of Wit and Nostalgia Paul Wells 53 4 From Europe to Flollywood and Back Again: Aardman and Its Studio Partners Christopher Meir 71
Section Two Cultural Contexts 87
5 Aardman's Early Shorts and the British Social Realist Tradition Fatemeh Hosseini-Shakib 89 6 A Darker Heartland: Otherness, Dysfunction and the Uncanny in Aardman's Short Films Jane Batkin 105 7 Washed Up: Animating Literary Corpses in 7he Pearce Sisters Nicholas Andrew Miller 119 8 Wallace and Gromit and the British Fantasy Tradition Alexander Sergeant 139
Section Three Process and Production 153
9 Animation Storyboarding as Part of the Pre-Production Process: An Aardman Case Study Paid Ward 155 viii Contents
10 Life's a Treat: Shaun, Timmy, Aardman and Children's Television Linda Simensky 169
11 Shaun the Sheep - Buster Keaton Reborn? Richard Haynes 181
Section Four Surface and Performance 193
12 Aardman's Neo-Baroque: The Dual Nature of Special Effects
in Aardman's Feature Film Production Thomas Walsh 195 13 Performing Authenticity through Clay in the Wallace
and Gromit Films Laura Ivins 211 14 Between Plasticine and Pixel: Aardman's Digital Thumbprint Christopher Holliday 223 15 Aardman! In an Entanglement with CGI! Aylish Wood 241
Select Bibliography 257
Index 267 List of Figures
1.1 Aardmans Annual Turnover, 2000-2017. 2
1.2 Aardmans feature film box office takings vs. budget. 3
7.1 Edna and Lol as 'ugly man heads composited on stop-motion bodies' (reprinted with permission, Luis Cook). 131 7.2 Combining 3D and 2D imagery in Vie Pearce Sisters (reprinted with permission, Luis Cook). 132 7.3 Surface and depth in Vie Pearce Sisters (Aardman Animations, 2007). 133
14.1 Arthurs workspace emphasizes the diligence of attentive labour in Arthur Christmas (dir. Sarah Smith. Aardman Animations/ Sony Pictures Animation, 2011). 229 14.2 Roddy's fall into the underground 'London in Flushed Away (dir. David Bowers and Sam Fell. Aardman Animations/ DreamWorks Animation, 2006) manipulates animated perspective. 233 14.3 Roddy's wardrobe brings together Aardman past and present in Flushed Away (dir. David Bowers and Sam Fell. Aardman Animations/DreamWorks Animation, 2006). 237
15.1 The hybrid materiality of Vie Pirates!: In an Adventure with Scientists! (dir. Peter Lord. Aardman Animations/Sony Pictures
Animation, 2012) enables the remaking of space. 252 15.2 The hybrid materiality of Vie Pirates!: In an Adventure with Scientists! (dir. Peter Lord. Aardman Animations/Sony Pictures
Animation, 2012) enables the remaking of space. 252