What Went Wrong Between Dreamworks & Aardman? - Eddache

[@erinpennington19]

One of the things I love about Aardman is how unapologetically British they are, they're not afraid to use very northern slang because it develops their characters and almost makes them feel like real people, even if they are a bunch of chickens Oh and also them getting rid of Julia Sawahla was an absolute disgrace, they wouldn't even let her do a voice test they just dismissed her as being too old even though she was vital to the development of Ginger

[@masterknife8423]

That had to have been Netflix's decision or something since they're partnering with Aardman this time instead of DreamWorks. I doubt Aardman themselves refused to bring back Julia Swalhaa they've got some of the other voice actors and Carey Kirkpatrick back

[@tre-engines]

🇬🇧

[@notaninstrument7707]

To be fair, what the hell is a marrow?

[@mack_r-s]

Julia Sawalalalala lala la la

[@rudolphnch1451]

@@notaninstrument7707it says its a relative to the melon, cucumber, squash, courgette.

[@ryanh3635]

"because it's British, we like things being a bit shit", truer words have never been spoken

[@RealLewis]

Indeed.

[@MarkBonneaux]

Sometimes I wonder if i was British in a past life lol

[@Stuffgamer1]

Which is why the more direct adaptation style of the first season of American The Office didn't work very well. Americans trying to do British downer humor just doesn't fly. Americans who ENJOY British downer humor as performed by Brits are also weirdos. I'm perfectly happy with that, though.

[@jeremyaster7470]

7:40 timestamp

[@Person-wz6iy]

Aardman make the good Shit.

[@IcyDiamond]

Fun Fact: Wallace & Gromit: Curse of The Were-Rabbit is one of the two only Dreamworks films to win best animated picture, the first one being Shrek

[@logannottheonefrommarvel9917]

How to Train Your Dragon 2 should've won as opposed to Big Hero 6

[@davidcortina2340]

In addition to other Academy Award nominated films * Spirit * Shrek 2 * Shark Tale * Kung Fu Panda * How to Train Your Dragon * Kung Fu Panda 2 * Puss in Boots * The Croods * How to Train Your Dragon 2 * How to Train Your Dragon 3

[@JoesAnimationHub]

meeeeeeeh I tend to go by that it's technically not Dreamworks... they DID have rights to distribute it to the states but it's pure through and through Aardman like Chicken Run... and Beverley Hills isn't exactly the Clifton Suspension bridge is it? it was also Nick's win too for the Oscar and not Katzenburg's so in hindsight Aardman won the award and not Dreamworks.

[@masterseal0418]

The rest went to Disney.

[@marionbaggins]

Chicken Run created the Best Animated Picture Oscar!!!

[@BugsyFoga]

The Dreamworks Era of Ardman was definitely a fascinating experience to witness when I was a kid, especially with the amounts of time I’ve watched Flushed Away.

[@JonathanGaeta]

**Flushed Away**

[@MyRegardsToTheDodo]

Ah, yes, Flushed Away. That movie that I'll always remember fondly to be on pay TV back when it was pretty easy to put a firmware on your sat receiver to decode pay TV. Wait, how long is the statute of limitations on that?

[@dericjames2018]

Flushed Away should have stop motion it would have been better...

[@BugsyFoga]

@@dericjames2018Probably would’ve been if their studio didn’t burn down .

[@Grinningcar]

​@@dericjames2018 I like to agree, but they would have to use cgi to animate the water. Water would be hard to stop motion with clay

[@ComicalRealm]

Stop motion always looks so gorgeous and oozes with character in a way that I haven't seen achieved by mass-produced GCI animation. It's really special that these types of productions are around, considering the nature and competitiveness of the industry

[@erinpennington19]

Yesss this! I love the thumbprints you can see all over the characters, you think it'd take you out of the story and remind you its an animation but strangely it draws you in more

[@captainbirch2.079]

The closest I've seen is the lego movies, and that's because the CGI I literally designed to look like stop motion

[@WillowFaded]

@@erinpennington19 is wtw

[@WillowFaded]

@@erinpennington19 is wtwt

[@Lumberjack_king]

Exactly stop motion is so magical and it ages like wine unlike cgi

[@AnimatedTerror]

Ah aardman. That studio everyone likes. No exceptions. You may think you don’t like them but you’re wrong, you do like them because everyone likes them.

[@masterknife8423]

They've got a lot of charm and personality to their works so no wonder Jeffrey Katzenberg sought them out back in the 90s

[@loke6664]

I don't think everyone likes them, but I think everyone respect them for doing their own thing. They are certainly one of the most charming studios around but I don't think everyone agree to like anything. They are certainly the best at British kids movies and shows (Peppa pig is the worst).

[@HarryRobins]

I love them... but I don't like their use of Wallace and Gromit to only advertise stuff, it seems like cheapening their brand, although they probably paid for a lot of productions with that money.

[@loke6664]

@@HarryRobins It is kinda a necessary evil in the modern world. You have to to advertising and selling toy licenses to get around today unless every single one of your movies become huge hits. Just look on Disney, if a movie wont bring in that extra money they don't even bother to make the movie no matter how good it is. It sounds nice to not do all that commercial stuff but smaller companies can't even afford to do that no matter how much they want to and larger are more interested in that part then the movie itself since there is far more money to earn on commercials, toys, T-shirts, lunchboxes and who knows what else then you earn from movie tickets and streaming.

[@MovieFan1912]

@@HarryRobins I heard that at one point, Disney thought that using their characters in a jazzercise series on The Disney Channel didn’t cheapen their image. Here’s a link to a video from Defunctland about that jazzercise series if you’re interested: m.kzbin.info/www/bejne/nIObeHWHn62JgZY

[@CurtyTails]

When I think of Aardman and Wallace and Gromit-I always think of the fact that when the show referenced Wensleydale Cheese-it single handedly saved the company from their upcoming bankruptcy.

[@DK-fd3fi]

It also makes me want to eat cheese

[@Big-Chungus21]

The changing of marrow to melon is just a less awful version of changing onigiri to jelly filled donuts.

[@coyraig8332]

A lot less awful if you know what bone marrow is but not that there's a plant called "marrow"

[@Whiteythereaper]

Well at least the Marrow looks somewhat like a Watermelon, Brock must have hit himself in the head with his trusty Drying Pan to make that mistake

[@ob2kenobi388]

Yeah as an Am🇺🇲rican, I can say without a doubt that we don't know what the fuck a marrow is. The only marrow we know is bone marrow (I guess cause we eat so much meat) which is pretty much ubiquitous, so if Wallace had called that plant a "marrow" we'd either have been dumbfounded or assumed it was more British slang and not an actual plant name. Personally I'd probably have thought "marrow" meant "Something valuable which one has been working on for some time" (which wouldn't be an unreasonable assumption, seeing as how reaching bone marrow would be fairly difficult in many cases).

[@GMRay739]

​@@ob2kenobi388it's literally an overgrown courgette (Zucchini)! I'd have loved to hear Wallace say Zucchini in his Yorkshire accent.

[@skorie6180]

I'm gonna have to disagree about Flushed Away, it's one of the most quotable films ever for me and my favourite out of the three DreamWorks films. Some of the crass jokes can be removed but the villain rats and frogs are endlessly funny. All three are excellent tho.

[@logannottheonefrommarvel9917]

"Huzzah, a man of quality!"

[@davidcortina2340]

It's like having Harold (as a frog) and the three blind rats from Shrek in their own spinoff

[@Klick404]

I agree. Flushed Away is a great Dreamworks film, but just an okay Ardman film

[@CrookiNari]

I remember almost nothing about Flushed Away except the phrase "WARNING: Liquid Nitrogen (really very cold)".

[@jiminverness]

Flushed Away is a really good movie. Very rewatchable.

[@Fortzon]

Even though Aardman hasn't made a movie in years that's on the same level of success as Chicken Run, as long as they're financially healthy, I think they'll be okay. In the end Aardman kind of came out on top from the breakup; they're still independent whereas Dreamworks is not.

[@JoesAnimationHub]

I know another secret too... and it's called advertisements. Whenever a stop motion advert airs in the UK (which is usually about 60% of the time) you can bet on a tenner that Aardman animators were manipulating those rigs. That's where other Animation companies fail, because they're flexing and dabbing too hard to be the next Disney... Aardman just keep being Aardman with endless mic drops, and it's been that way now for 50+ years now, and with steady income and animators' steadily increasing passion for stop motion, hopefully 50+ more to come...

[@zeroelus]

The Shawn the Sheep franchise did come out with a movie on Netflix. It probably didn't do too well as I haven't seen any follow ups, but also, it's Netflix, they have their own issues now. My kids love the Wallace and Gromit feature movie and it will be on rotation from time to time (as is with kids, it's either not on or on played almost on repeat for days on end) they liked Shawn the Sheep but it never captured them as much as the movie. I think I'll suggest it again soon.

[@Gojiro7]

wait, I always heard that the reason Flushed Away went full CGI was because Aardman studios suffered a fire that destroyed their main work studio and they didn't have the time to wait for it to get rebuilt so they went full in on the CGI to save time and money

[@masterknife8423]

And sadly destroyed the Chicken run set pieces including the pie machine. What a great loss that was

[@sekiko7183]

Funny, I said this earlier too.

[@wingedfish1175]

@@masterknife8423 yeah if its the fire I'm thinking of the amount of history that was lost is astonishing

[@eddache]

The film was announced in 2002. The fire happened in 2005. The film came out in 2006. So unless they turned around a high budget CG movie within a year, I think it was always planned to be CG.

[@Gojiro7]

@@eddache that does make alot of sense, though im not still ruling it out that since with the script fully done and all the design work and such still there, they already have alot of the time consuming work of making a film from scratch dealt with to turn it around in a year.......but this is likely a Occam's razor situation and your probably right about the movie already being done in CG prior to the fire. oh and Eddache, I think your way too harsh on Flushed Away, this movie is great and toilet humor aside, isn't as off brand as you think.

[@maxresdefault_]

I wouldn't call myself a patriotic person, but Ardman is the kind of Britishness I'm proud to be associated with

[@alexpotts6520]

Embrace the patriotism, or let patriotism (and ultimately the country itself) be defined by the people you hate.

[@nepsvideos4760]

same

[@sonicwave779]

@@alexpotts6520 This can be interpreted in a very bad way.

[@alexpotts6520]

@@sonicwave779 It can but I think from the context it's clear that that would be a deliberate misinterpretation of the point I was making - ie if right-wingers are the only ones to embrace their country, then don't be surprised when the country embraces those right-wingers back. It's important to redefine patriotism more inclusively, rather than merely ceding the idea to our political adversaries. (The reference point I always like to touch on is the song "Jerusalem" - a song about the country sucks but we love it anyway and will strive to make it the place we want it to be.)

[@schnek8927]

@@sonicwave779 Only if you're a very bad person, frankly.

[@CrunchyMotorsport]

Wallace and Gromit is brilliant in my opinion. The stop-motion gives it so much more charm than anything else. It also had great stories and a classic of my childhood

[@JoeBleasdaleReal]

“Because it’s British. We like things being a bit shit.” That sentence alone explains every cultural difference between the UK and the US. We acknowledge through our media that life is shit, whereas the US has to tie everything up neatly with happy endings and fuzzy sunsets. At least, for the most part. There are notable exceptions either way.

[@masterknife8423]

Yeah our sense of humour tends to be very cynical and tbh I like that. America's sense of humour in their sitcoms is usually really awful imo

[@RealLewis]

Yeah

[@LanceDa510]

I disagree

[@Trystero_]

can you provide any examples?

[@mk_gamíng0609]

@@Trystero_ Pretty much any UK comedy show adapted for the US

[@JAProductions494]

I legit spat out my drink in shock when I heard that they were planning to recast Peter Sallis as Wallace in Curse of the Were-Rabbit

[@siobhanlawper1051]

Absolute heresy

[@Haybalemelonhead]

I know! That is beyond illegal, like mega illegal

[@edenanimates1465]

“One shall not replace peter salllis with someone else Except Ben whitehead”

[@JonathanGaeta]

@@edenanimates1465 replacing and recasting Peter Sallis (and Ben Whitehead) for the voice of Wallace should be a crime

[@jocelynecupcake]

Peter Sallis did a way better job, than the new Wallace voice. Like, if he was still alive they'd keep him.

[@rachydevil3890]

When you said "were British, we like things a bit shit" I felt both seen and offended, and choked on my tea whilst laughing

[@richardgurney1844]

Same A quote from James Acaster (British comedian) comes to mind - "NEVER have I been SO offended at something I COMPLETELY agree with"!

[@GumSkyloard]

Aardman is British, and very much so. They're not just a studio from Britain, they're a *British* studio. The imperfections, the British slang and words, the way to just.. be! That's what makes Aardman.. Aardman. And it's perfect.

[@ryanbarth6691]

But we Americans are stupid

[@Dawnred956]

I can't get the thought of DreamWorks recasting Wallace out of my head. That's such an uncanny thought...

[@autobotstarscream765]

American Wallace, voiced by Jon St. John: "I came to eat cheese and crackers. And I'm all out of crackers."

[@kaitlyngarner740]

If Katzenberg had suggested it to me... I probably would have punched him square in the nose for even daring to have the thought. I'm not a violent person but I let out a very loud sound of indignation when I got to that part of the video

[@SmallBlogV8]

My god am I glad they didn't recast Peter Sallis/Wallace. That would have been an absolute travesty. I think their desire to do that is the most appalling part of this whole story and shows clearly that the Americans didn't truly get what they'd bought into.

[@DYLANWALSHDREHER]

Same here. I think Nick Park wouldn't have allowed that as it would have been absolutely wrong. A new actor is playing wallace now of course, but that is a different thing entirely as the new voice has had years of experience and Peter Sallis is no longer with us.

[@mrcritical6751]

@@DYLANWALSHDREHERplus Peter picked him specifically to voice Wallace

[@djashley2002]

You actually gave the reason why Flushed Away had to be fully CGI and yet six years later Pirates was able to mix Claymation and CGI - six years! In that time four generations of computer hardware came and went, with modeling and render farms able to handle around 64 times the increase in mathematical complexity in the same time. As such Flushed Away probably could have been done as a mix of stop-motion and CGI, but probably would have cost around half a billion dollars to make to an equivalent quality to Pirates.

[@surrealrosalynd]

"Because it's British. We like things being a bit shit." - SO TRUE THANK YOU FOR SAYING IT I was literally having a conversation with someone the other day why I sometimes don't like American TV over British, and that just concisely explains why

[@gokuxsephiroth4505]

“We’re British! We like things a bit shit!” Hey, that’s... yeah, kinda true, but it’s also nice to see a movie where characters aren’t whining about being poor in one scene and living in a couple million dollar apartment overlooking Central Park NY in the next. Makes you feel like less of a failure

[@miimiiandco]

Ehehehe Shark Tale ehehehe

[@ryanbarth6691]

We can't have that, we Americans are too stupid. 😂😂😂😂😂😂 We need more dumb jokes that little kids will understand.

[@andreagrubaugh9699]

Really wish Pirates and Early Man did better at the box office - Pirates especially is a favorite of mine and incredibly underrated I feel. It's just so much fun! But I'm glad that Aardman isn't at risk of bankruptcy and is still able to do its own thing without worry. Here's hoping the second Chicken Run movie is as good as the first

[@jocelynecupcake]

Early Man was AMAZING, that pirates movie was kinda cringe tho XD and I don't think there's any chance of the second Chicken Run being as good as the first one, it's pretty hard to compete with the first one. I guarantee my chicken run fanfic is going to be better than the sequel...

[@Smyleypan]

After Chicken Run I would probs say the Pirates is my favourite ardman film, followed by wrong trousers, Shaun the sheep movie and the curse of the were rabbit. Flushed away is good but too many english football and London references that I never related to that much.

[@tomo4977]

I still need to watch Early Man but I will forever love pirates, all I can remember about both before they came out is the advertisement being not that great, they were uncommon to find and weren’t that appealing, maybe that didn’t help with the sales…

[@masterknife8423]

Early Man is sadly a disappointment though imo. I respect Nick Park and I like whatever he creates with stop motion but a film about cavemen playing football isn't motion picture worthy material

[@Modding_Jackster]

I remember hating Flushed Away as a kid cuz I thought the rats looked creepy and uncanny, It seems like I was being silly cuz Aardman made BOTH Flushed Away and Wallace and Gromit that I liked. I also remember hating Robots (unrelated to this video) as a kid too, Obviously liking them now crazy enough.

[@jocelynecupcake]

Wallace & Gromit was much more appealing to everyone, especially kids, than Flushed Away was! Like, Flushed Away looked like some sort of weird furry cringe! Wallace & Gromit/ Shaun the sheep movies have a really cute and funny art style, and good humor. (That pizza guy in Shaun the sheep was such an icon! XD also the girl form curse of the wererabbit, I love her crazy hair and outfits). Also, you must remember that it's made by the same STUDIO, not the same people. Flushed Away had a little bit of a different art style. Like, I agree. The designs were horrible and gross! 0_0 like the one rat was supposed to be a little girl's pet but he looked almost human! wth

[@anonymoustroll2432]

​@@jocelynecupcakecgi cause if you mixed clay in water they will fucked up the models.

[@anonymoustroll2432]

They are comparing Roddie to Jonathan Galindo.

[@rockaholictom]

The video that Eddy keeps referring to ‘A Grand Night in: The story of Aardman’ is a beautiful piece that looks into the studio in depth. It’s really worth a watch if you’re a fan of animation.

[@FlyingScott]

I was going to go into this by saying "I actually liked Pirates", but then I remembered that the only thing I remember from that movie was a Dodo, a bearded woman and a dummy Thicc Queen Victoria.

[@tbg8365]

The monkey was good

[@davidcortina2340]

But why are all the pirates nameless???

[@xxxmcnuggwtsxxx9859]

Well Yes but actually no

[@dfanA113]

Hey I like that movie too.

[@jocelynecupcake]

Yeah, that was a weird movie XD I loved it as a kid but if i were to watch it now, I'd probably cringe.

[@AverytheCubanAmerican]

"Now they have the taste of the big money, Disney level of money" which is fitting for a movie that was supposed to be one big "FU" to Disney and Michael Eisner. Many Disney animators followed Katzenberg and joined DreamWorks because of Eisner. Let's just say once Disneyland Paris (or Euro Disney at the time) opened in 1992, things started to take a nosedive because of all the losses from Paris. It began a domino effect that would eventually lead to his downfall And when Eisner's partner in crime Frank Wells died in a helicopter crash in 1994, Eisner lost even more of his former momentum. In fact this is where that Eisner promoting himself thing comes from. Eisner said he didn't want to hurt Frank and give the position to Katzenberg. According to Katzenberg though, Eisner assured him if Frank wasn't there, he'd be number two. However, Roy E Disney (Walt's nephew), told Eisner that if he gave Katzenberg the position, Roy would start a proxy fight. And thus when Frank died, he promoted himself. Roy went on to lead a "Save Disney" campaign in 2003 anyway (things got THAT bad at that point), which led to 43 percent of shareholders in March 2004 not re-electing Eisner to the board. Eisner left in 2005, handing his duties to Bob Iger.

[@Grymbaldknight]

I feel like "Americans not understanding British slang and not seeing British films because of it" is a self-fulfilling prophecy; Americans feel like they don't understand British media, so they don't engage with it, so they don't learn Britishisms, so they feel like they don't understand British media... and so on. Movies such as "Hot Fuzz" found the perfect middle ground, by being unapologetically British (including having unintelligible British slang) but having a clean-cut, fish-out-of-water protagonist who didn't understand the local culture either, despite being from the same country. That also feeds into the British love of "making fun of each other", so it's a formula which works well at home, too. There is nothing the average Brit loves more than viciously ripping the piss out of his fellow countrymen. It's a time-honoured tradition here. I also think that another reason why Wallace and Gromit has a fairly niche audience in the US is because it's very... unglamorous. It's set in the north of England in the 1950s. Things are pokey and the people aren't rich. Things are mostly practical, with decorative items typically being modest affairs with sentimental value. Everything looks slightly dusty. Everyone is middle-aged and world-weary. People are well-meaning and honest, but irritable and pessimistic. It feels like it's been that way for generations. Although Wallace is shown to sometimes struggle for money, his house is actually quite nice. It's a detached Victorian house, with a nice garden, an adjoining garage, and at least 3 bedrooms. It's comfortably furnished and well-maintained. In mid-50s Wigan, Wallace's home is positively middle-class... but to the average 21st-century American, his house is somewhat cramped and extremely dated. Equally, Wallace's van - an Austin A35 - was a new model around the time that Wallace and Gromit is set. However, it's scuffed and well-used, and its vintage stylings look positively medieval to an American audience, who are used to "cars from the 50s" being chrome-winged Cadillac convertibles, not dull vans. In short, 1950s Britain was not the same place as 1950s America. Where America had space rockets and Disneyland, Britain had urban smog and war debt. The difference in culture is stark enough even before one factors in dialects. This is a far cry from the American expectations of British life, which assumes that everyone lives in a manor house in central London, speaks perfect RP English, drinks Darjeeling tea from a china teacup, and drives a Rolls Royce. Wallace living in a suburb, speaking "Northern twaddle", drinking tea from a mug, and driving a van just feels alien to a lot of foreign audiences. Some people really dig the aesthetic (apparently the Japanese really like Wallace and Gromit), but not all, and certainly not the sort of people likely to buy a lot of film tickets... sadly. The only seriously successful film i can think of which portrayed British life as dishevelled and earnest is Disney's "101 Dalmatians"... but this was the juggernaut of classic Disney, and it still gives low-end British life a homely glow which Wallace and Gromit tends not to. It was also set in (and around) London, which US audiences are more familiar with... and featured a lot of cute dogs, whereas Gromit is a single, more cynical pooch. Happily, though, a lot of other Anglosphere countries (such as Canada and Australia) also adore Wallace and Gromit. It appears that having closer ties to the motherland give them the ability to love British culture and history... even if they don't understand a word people are saying.

[@spiderwog1908]

I'm from aus and I could almost understand everything

[@idunnobutyay2520]

I’m American and I like how even though Wallace and Gromit have wild adventures, there’s still a slice of life aspect to it.

[@NamelessGamer29]

I was afraid of claymation growing up, (and am still a little creeped out by it) but now whenever I watch something like Wallace & Gromit I really do admire the amount of effort that was put into the most time consuming form of animation

[@adammyers7383]

Personally, I really like all three of the Aardman/Dreamworks films, but then again I’m also American. I definitely see how the latter two were Americanized, but I felt like Curse of the Were-Rabbit kept most of the classic British charm-even if there were some American elements that could have been left out. (The Great Vegetable Plot is such a fantastic title btw)

[@masterknife8423]

What American elements? I'm not offended just curious

[@JonathanGaeta]

@@masterknife8423 I honestly couldn’t find any American elements in the movie but someone can correct me

[@ninfan6434]

I remember watching Early Man in theaters and there was literally nobody else in the theater other than my father and brother who were with me. I enjoyed the film though.

[@davidcortina2340]

It even became a flop

[@jocelynecupcake]

Who doesn't love Early Man? XD it was filled with dirty jokes and LGBT, but it wasn't sexist against women and had a really adorable girl character help save the caveman tribe! How bout that gay villain tho! with the pig! That bathing scene was so funny

[@MovieFan1912]

I guess everyone else was busy watching Black Panther instead.

[@diegosanchez5412]

Same story for me, saw it with my mom when it came out, there was another small family there, but that was it. However, in our case, Peter Rabbit was out at the same time so I guess they all went to that.

[@ellenday2155]

I loved Early Man. It’s such a shame it flopped.

[@Tickerbee]

For me, the fingerprints on Aardman characters are a big part of why I love the animation so much, it's like Into the Spider-Verse with the varying framerates to represent different characters, I like art styles with imperfections that remind you there's a human behind it. Extremely smooth looking animation is incredibly skillful to pull off but it also looks boring more times than not.

[@grayoso1828]

A thing I wanted to add about Eisner v Katzenburg is that Katzenburg's record at Disney wasn't as squeaky clean as he made it seem. Katzenburg was the one who pushed the infamous Black Friday Reel of Toy Story, which almost got the whole movie tanked. He was the one who approved the Genie's voice in use in commercial's, which nearly caused Robin Williams to stop working with Disney altogether. Lastly, and most seriously, Katzenburg's repeated comments toward Jim Henson about owning Sesame Street delayed the Muppets deal until Jim died, screwing disney out of the Muppets for over 20 years.

[@ucantbeme]

Minus the genie stuff that's all kinda based tbh

[@steamboatwill3.367]

@@ucantbeme ) "based"?

[@weathermansam2]

I applaud him for the Muppet thing. Disney was definitely not the one who got screwed over with that deal.

[@grayoso1828]

@@weathermansam2 I mean, I was presenting from Disney perspective position, and it explains why Katzenburg didn't get the job. Otherwise, I don't really care.

[@Gambit771]

Stopping diney owning something else sounds like a good thing to do.

[@magnetoonproductions9541]

If only Dreamworks was willing to give Aardman more creative freedom. That way, not only could they have their own Pixar, but they could also see the joys of British entertainment. They could have had the best of both worlds.

[@DeanIrvine]

It’s scary when you dig into what franchises dreamworks actually owns and/or has a hand in. I mean they own the entire filmation library and produced the recent she-ra

[@jgdsgh]

they don't own all of Filmation's Back Catalogue, such as their Star Trek Animated series, or any of their DC Cartoons from the 60s

[@michaeleisner4758]

Michael Eisner promoting himself is a certified Michael Eisner classic. That Eisner guy is a legend for opening Disney's California Adventure, it's a masterpiece of a park

[@drdewott9154]

A masterpiece flop in its first few years, remember Superstar Limo?

[@harrisongrant8558]

"A California-themed theme park to be located in the already California-themed California" -Kevin Perjurer, 2018

[@MovieFan1912]

@@harrisongrant8558 That’s exactly why I’m subscribed to Defunctland.

[@scotginger4690]

"WE LIKE THINGS BEING A BIT SHIT!" is the most relatable thing I've heard as a Brit.

[@sia7051]

They’ll always hold a special place in my heart as a Bristol local. Not only were they super involved in the community, David Sproxton, one of the cofounders, met my little brother when he game in as a guest speaker at his college for BTEC media studies. He then continued to mentor my brother when he went to uni in Bath to study Film Production, with the aim of becoming a director, and invited him to the studios whenever he wanted to. The reason this was so special is although my brother no longer is interested in animation, it was aardman that got him so interested in film in the first place, at a very young age he was making little stop motion movies in his bedroom by borrowing my laptop and using a shitty digital camera.

[@N-GinAndTonicTM]

Words cannot describe how much I love Aardman Studios. Their company is the reason I adore the art of Stop-motion, and would love to join a studio like theirs one day.

[@TheMelloyMan]

Imagine paying for eddache to say your name at the end of his video but he puts it through text to speech instead

[@chainlink2459]

9:37 To clarify, in the original ending Wallace would've had to go through the machine one more time to remove his rabbit ears, but they decided it would be simpler to just have him change entirely back to normal. Just something to streamline the plot.

[@dinomation]

Aardman has always had a great legacy making many great films and entertaining millions. While they rant a part of dreamworks at the moment and more so on their own it is still nice to see them making great films.

[@michaelchristian6096]

Amazing to think of El Dorado, and Spirit as the box office failures they were. Both movies are great, and very important to me as a small child

[@marieoconnor1283]

I saw that move "Wallace and Gromit and the curse of the were rabbit" on TV2 in new Zealand just before I played "Fall Guys" on PS4 this month

[@thetwistedsamurai]

Yessss, Wallace and Grommit! Literally one of my favorite series of all time. It's like, the first SERIES I remember watching as a child. (My mom taped all 3 movies for me!)

[@superfurryfox1]

" Were British! We like things a little bit shit!" That tickled my stoned little heart thank you

[@BriansBrain]

I wrote my Master's degree thesis on exactly this topic; how British production companies fail in partnership with Hollywood. Aardman is a perfect example of how British cinema needs to work alongside Hollywood to be successful internationally, but fundamentally loses its creative identity by being moulded by the Hollywood machine. Great video!

[@Gambit771]

An example of why British studios need to stay away from the yanks and build up the British film industry and sell internationally regardless of whether the yanks watch it or not. Rebellion should focus on this the wat Film4 used to.

[@legodavid9260]

I will always wonder what DreamWorks could have become had Shrek not been the massive hit it was... Not gonna lie, after starting out with such an unbelievable movie like Prince of Egypt, it is kind of embarrassing how they've slowly deteriorated over time into... Boss Baby of all things.

[@bomoose]

and then puss and boots: the last wish

[@lenag2002]

One of the main things I love about Aardman is how it’s not just how unapologetically British it is but specifically how Yorkshire it is with the slang, the food (especially Wensleydale cheese) plus the architecture, clothing and cars

[@JoesAnimationHub]

being from Sheffield and a graduate of Hallam Uni (whom one Nick Park is on our Alumni) I always view Wallace and Gromit as "Northern Culture in a Nutshell and then some", cause the creator is from Preston, the narrative is set in Wigan, Wallace is presumably a Yorkshireman (probably hailing a Holmfirth birthright based on Sallis' performance and Wallace's preference for Wensleydale Cheese). Heck I know Wallace and Gromit's full house address... it's 62 West Wallaby Street WG7 3FU

[@sekiko7183]

The other reason why Flushed Away was 100% CGI was that their entire studio burned down during it's production. Just giving another little fact on that.

[@davidcortina2340]

But Arthur Christmas looks nothing like Flushed Away

[@unripetheberrby6283]

Oh right! So sad..

[@sekiko7183]

@@davidcortina2340 Because they improved on their CGI skills as well as Arthur Christmas being years after Flushed Away.

[@Gambit771]

Except the film came out not too long after the fire.

[@DominoFalls]

Both Arthur Christmas and Pirates were excellent. I will die on this hill.

[@davidcortina2340]

I like Flushed Away and the Pirates

[@tinypizza4278]

The fact that until Deadpool 3 comes out the scene in Flushed away where Roddy is looking through his wardrobe has been the closest we’ve gotten to Hugh Jackman wearing a comic accurate Wolverine costume is amazing

[@SytroCC]

My dad used to work for Aardman in Bristol in early 2000 and I got to see behind the scenes which was cool

[@JoesAnimationHub]

wow, that's neat... my uni mentor worked there in the 1980's, I still know him to this day, he made a lot of sets and models there... created Douglas the Lurpack man, he worked on the chewits adverts from the 80's, he even worked on both Sledgehammer and Creature Comforts! When I first started he told all the students in my group the hilarious story of Nick Park having to wear a face mask for the dancing chickens since they were REAL supermarket chickens and they went rank under the hot lights.

[@SytroCC]

@@JoesAnimationHub Aardman really made some classics

[@ebony6544]

Such a good analysis video. I adore learning about the history of animation and a focus on the studio that is so distinctly British is pretty awesome. Insane to think Aardman was supposed to be Dreamworks' version of Pixar. Also Early Man is underrated, I can't wait for the day it becomes a cult classic.

[@masterknife8423]

I think Chicken Run was the most Dreamworks Aardman film they were involved with. I mean you had Katzenberg as executive producer and Carey Kirkpatrick (who went on to direct Over the Hedge) in charge of the screenplay

[@PrismPoint]

6:41 To be fair, I have no idea what a marrow is, and the outside of it looks enough like a wonky watermelon

[@Oretal]

I man I still gotta watch chicken run one day. It’s a dang shame they couldn’t keep creative control but I’m glad they ended the deal on a mutual agreement. I love Aardman’s and Dreamwork’s movies so me just finding out they worked together for more than just flushed away is wild. also DID YOU USED THAT TEXT TO SPEECH APP THAT CORRIDOR DIGITAL USED?!

[@Whoohoonutty2020]

Wallace and gromit and pirates are some of my favorite stop motion films. With the latter being one of my favorite movies in general

[@icecreamhero2375]

7:38 Lessons in Wallace and Grommit of all things? It's supposed to be cute slapstick like Mickey Mouse.

[@davidcortina2340]

And Bugs Bunny

[@loke6664]

Yeah, trying to make a studio like Aardman to ponder to an American audience is a terrible idea. The selling point should really be that it isn't, I think most Americans find these types of movies charming. There are already tons of movies with farthing and pop culture references and micro managing studios that know what they are doing is not very bright. Dreamworks real problem is that when Shrek was so successful they decided they should make a lot of movies like that but a large part of why Shrek did so well is because it was so different from anything else when it released. You can certainly still make Shrek sequels but trying to recreate it to new IPs is just missing the point. How to train your dragon was a far better idea since once again, it was different (even if they butchered the book). There is logic in the idea that you can't beat Disney in just copying them but copying yourself over and over doesn't work either, except with sequels for some reason. I don't think Aardman using CGI for a movie instead of stop motion is a problem, as long as the movie is good people will see it no matter if it is CGI, stop motion or hand drawn.

[@heykak]

I feel like using ian mckellens performance as a plus is a bit like saying "well, the water was wet atleast"

[@BeanieBoi69]

one of the more major reasons they did flushed away in cg was because their studio where they made their claymation had recently burned down at the time, so while it was being rebuilt they decided to make good use with the recent cg assets they had obtained.

[@muskatDR]

Dreamworks would probably planning on having Aardman grow, hire more people and produce movies at a rapid pace and i just dont think thats Aardman. It more struck me as a small, but dedicated group thats so british you could pay for their movies in fish and chips And i never understood the whole marrow thing. I dont know what a marror is, but the movie shows it and you get a idea of what it is. And if you dont get it you wont miss a thing! The marrow is not the important part, its the competition around it that matters

[@SimplySleepy]

“Because it’s British! We like things being a bit shit!” That line made me fall off my chair laughing!

[@Teag_Brohman15]

I would honestly love to see Aardman making a Discworld movie in the future

[@11Legorex]

I love flushed away, that’s a forgotten gem

[@Jonathanest90s]

I’m an American and I adore the British humor in the Wallace and Gromit films and Aardman in general.

[@jocelynecupcake]

Same XD I liked it more in Early man tho (that movie had a lot of dirty jokes haha, not for kids) but I like how Wallace&Gromit/Shaun the sheep both had clean humor, and even tho it was made by the same studio i could tell it's different people writing it

[@SupremeLeaderKimJong-un]

"Because it's British, we like things being a bit sh!t" Exactly....that's why you voted for Brexit and Diet Trump Boris Johnson...and Beeching shutting down 8,000km of railways. Growing up in Switzerland, the best kind of cheese is Swiss cheese, and if it's true that the Moon is indeed made of Swiss cheese, then we'd love to claim it for our country!

[@2Fat2Wizard]

Like you're one to lecture us about politics, Kim Jong Un

[@rickardberglund1564]

Wondering what an Aardman animation Lord of the Rings would look like?

[@HassanKhan0987]

Aardman was my childhood. They were my biggest connection to my home in my childhood and being so unapologetically British is what makes me love them even more

[@AnaandVerity1259]

What I admire about this video is the fact that you not only told the story of DreamWorks and Aardman’s relationship, but you also told the story of Jeffrey Katzenberg as well.

[@avacornthelastponybender8583]

The Croods being Early Mans' long lost brother is one of the biggest plot twists of all time

[@davidlevy706]

The word "poppycock" originated in _American_ English in the 1860s.

[@jamestierney4596]

What I love about aardman is all the hidden Easter eggs in their films I must of seen them hundreds of times and you pick up new things all the time be it references to other aardman films or just little British jokes

[@SamuelSarette]

To be fair about *some* terminology... I've never in my life heard "marrow" mean anything other than the stuff in bones and since gromit's a dog I would've assumed a bone-related thing and been confused. It is referring to a stripey gourd, so "mellon" isn't too bad whilst matching lip-flaps.

[@brain_spill]

I have so much love for these movies, here's hoping we can see a return to form!

[@peterobinson3678]

My old flatmate spent months making the beaks for Chicken Run, and once, under threats of death if i revealed anything, brought me home a script, which I found rather underwhelming.And I was a MASSIVE Aardman fan... ... Until he suggested I mentally read it in the voices of Mel Gibson and Jane Horrocks... That made it better, but it was still very different from the release version... On a related note, he wangled me an invite to Nick Parkes 40th(?) birthday party at their studios. I took a piss next to a VEEERY drunk Mr Parkes, which to this day is the highlight of my life. Also, Curse of the Were Rabbit was re-titled (on posters at least, there was no cinema!) ' Curse of the Were Bunnies' on my old home of Portland (UK) because the word 'rabbit' was historically 'unlucky'. That probably garnered them a couple of £million in advertising for a few hundred pounds of outlay, being reported worldwide. Very British.

[@leftonred11]

wallace and gromit are such a nostalgic series of movies for me! as a kid I never put together that it was made by the same people as chicken run... but I guess now I see why I like these movies so much

[@TurbopropPuppy]

Worth pointing out is that Aardman is a worker-owned company. So that's pretty cool.

[@RP_Creative]

Wasn't flushed away made in CG due to a fire at Aardman? I swear I remember something about all their old work being lost

[@crcoghill]

It's kind of wild to think people weren't seeing the Aardman movies at the time. now I'm not gonna sit here and say their movies are fine art of cinema that deserve to be seen by the millions of people and shown through out the generations but i will say they are a lot of fun. I still love the Wererabbit movie as well as Wallace and Gormit themselves and watch it every year around Halloween since it's official release, have a few BK toys as well, still like Flushed Away even with it's humor and tone being different and, of course, Chicken Run is a classic to me. between those movies and Nightmare Before Christmas (a personal favorite movie of mine): I feel in love with Stop Motion.

[@Mordecrox]

Oh boy you pulled the Michael Eisner card in 30 seconds flat this gonna be good

[@logannottheonefrommarvel9917]

A little off topic, but has anyone ever played any of the Wallace and Gromit games? There are only three but the best one was probably Telltale's point and click series with the wonderful characters they created specifically for that game.

[@gcasey662]

I remember there being 4? The bee one, the flood one, the carnival one and the golf one.

[@logannottheonefrommarvel9917]

@@gcasey662 right, but in addition to the Telltale series, there was the game based on Were-Rabbit and Project Zoo

[@gcasey662]

@@logannottheonefrommarvel9917 the only one I can think of is a DVD ROM Wererabbit game. I played it with friends recently and it didn't hold up well lmao

[@logannottheonefrommarvel9917]

@@gcasey662 no the one I'm talking about released on the original Xbox, GameCube, and PS2

[@jocelynecupcake]

Those exist? 0_0 I played a shaun the sheep flash game on Y8 before but I never played a wallace & gromit one.

[@scoutart1508]

Chicken run is one of my top favorite non Disney animated films and speaking of European animation studios, you should know about an interesting spanish studio called Lightbox animation studios featuring another prominent animator on par with Park called Enrique Gato who made two movies featuring an iconic character called Tadeo Jones (Tad Stones in other countries) and my personal favorite Capture the Flag. As for the mentioning Flushed away it actually became an underrated gem with its award winning animation, writing, and humor plus voice acting since it triumphed at the Annie awards

[@juneBug412]

the british culture vs american culture thing is very interesting to me, because between the two extremes given here, being chicken run and flushed away, i as an american actually prefer *chicken run*. both are movies i enjoyed in my childhood, definately up there in the list of "top ten movies i'd watch at least once a week", but chicken run had a certain charm and engaging quality to it that, even as a child, i could tell flushed away lacked. flushed away still felt british to me, but it felt very cartoon british if you get what i mean. most of what you got were stereotypes, which while funny, don't really hold your attention the same way things like actual british slang in chicken run did one of the things that i think helped chicken run in regard to its british nature is that there was a character who acted as a lense for americans watching the movie; Rocky. the entire point of the character is that he's *exquisitely* american compared to the british hens he's surrounded by, which not only makes him appealing as a character by seeming strange and enticing, but also makes him *relatable* as a protagonist, just by being constantly a little confused as to what everyone around him is saying. it didn't matter that you might not understand words like "nellypodging", "pillock", or "chuffed" mean, because you're not the only one who's out of the language loop! and let's be honest, a lot of the folks behind shows n movies these days really don't give viewers enough credit when it comes to intuiting what things mean through their context. they assume that if people don't immediately understand what's being said or done, they won't enjoy it

[@SheldonT.]

"Heard you had a spot of rabbit bother and toodled straight on over to sort the little blighters out." Best quote in any movie.

[@manoftheusajones5147]

It was FLUSHED AWAY! It's Cost had gone over DreamWorks' Fortune.

[@davidcortina2340]

Why is the wolf from the Bad Guys designed like Roddy from Flushed Away??

[@GrizzlyAdams94]

I'll always have a lot of fond memories of those Wallace & Gromit shorts, I can't tell you how many times I watched A Grand Day Out or The Wrong Trousers when I was a kid

[@loupetron]

You know that's one of the things that really annoy me about a lot of American movies - The moral lesson/become better at the end bit. It ruined The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie for me. Just let the sh*t characters be sh*t characters.

[@autobotstarscream765]

And Wallace isn't even a shit character, he's just too old to change and not even wrong enough to violently course-correct for the sake of whizbang "plot". He's a grown man who has a roof over his head and a good dog, not a straw-brat designed to be as obnoxious as possible until taught a lesson in an attempt to grab Bart Simpson money.

[@eringray1160]

Prince of Egypt and Spirit Stallion of the Cimarron was peak Dreamworks

[@Grane1234]

Man, Shaun the Sheep is one of my all time favourites. I would watch it all the time

[@stronautninjatoxic]

Me too.

[@Snowflash38]

Flushed away is incredible, one of my all time favourites

[@nathancarter8239]

Great video! But I shall not take this slander of Flushed Away. That movie is a masterpiece of a different flavor, and comparing it to the others is like comparing a perfect cocktail to a somehow-perfect jar of jungle juice. (Joking, of course, and obviously your mileage may vary and I can see some of the movie's flaws. It was just one of my family's favorite movies to watch together, and we still quote it sometimes)

[@HiBuddyyyyyy]

I’m British and when I watched the were-rabbit one I didn’t know what a marrow was because my parents didn’t grow courgettes that big and I was a little tiny child not interested in plants. But it’s a big vegetable, you can see that in the film and get that from Gromit growing it for a vegetable competition.

[@Santoryu90]

Aardman definitely has it’s charm and maybe some of it was lost in Flushed Away but I still think that movie was pretty good.

[@cha0ticneutralbigs]

Growing up with Wallace and Gromit and Shawn the Sheep kickstarted my love of stopmotion animation and I was fortunate enough to see a W&G exhibit showcasing the original sets and models

[@notoriouswhitemoth]

I don't know much about Wallace & Grommit, but I do know trying to Americanize it totally misses the point

[@SalariaStudios]

Couldn't have been the fact their entier warehouse caught fire and plunged them back 4 decades of clay mation work. Or the fact it takes 30mins to an hour to make 1 to two seconds of claymotion

[@ma3mc3mu-X]

Just be thankful that Wererabbit won a Best Animated Feature award.

[@glitchdrno3450]

Didn't know that Sinbad was a DreamWorks movie I remember watching it in daycare and loving it