case study 2 - Another uk based distributor

A British independent Film and Television production company

Aardman Animations, Ltd., also known as Aardman Studios, is an Academy Award-winning British animation studio based in Bristol, United Kingdom. The studio is famous for its stop-motion, clay animation productions, particularly those featuring Plasticine in Wallace & Gromit.

Aardman was founded by two people in 1976, Peter Lord and David Sproxton, who wanted to achieve their dreams of producing an animated motion picture.In the early years, the companies big recognition was from their famous little clay character called morph; created for a children's programme on Vision on.The two partners went on to produce even more animated productions and widened their audience appeal by creating more characters which suited a wider range of audiences.

Park's short, Creature Comforts, was the first Aardman production to win an Oscar. Park also developed the world famous clay modeled shorts featuring the adventures of Wallace & Gromit. Many films were produced where the pair undertake adventures such as A Grand Day Out (1989), The Wrong Trousers (1993) and A Close Shave (1995), which led to the later two winning Academy awards. In 2000 Aardman Studios produced their first feature film, Chicken Run, an award winning worldwide box office hit. Following the success of Chicken Run, Aardman signed a 3 picture deal with Dreamworks with the first film being a return of Wallace and Gromit after a ten year absence. This film ‘Wallace and Gromit: the curse of the were rabbit’ went on to win an Academy award for full length animated film. In April 2007 Aardman signed a three-year deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment. While Aardman is best known for stop motion, the studio has also dabbled in CGI with productions such as Owzat, Al Dante, The Deadline, Planet Sketch and Flushed Away.

There are a number of productions created by the company, and some of them are:
o Conversation Pieces (1983)
o Sledgehammer (1986)
o A Grand Day Out with Wallace and Gromit (1989)
o The Wrong Trousers (1993)
o Pib and Pog (1994)
o A Close Shave (1995)
o The Morph Files (1995)
o Chevron Cars (1995)
o Wat's Pig (1996)
o Stage Fright (1997)
o Serta (1997-present)

The company has also produced a number of books including
1. Wallace & Gromit and the Lost Slipper (1997)
2. Wallace & Gromit in Anoraknophobia (1998)
3. Wallace & Gromit: Crackers in Space (1999)
4. Creating Creature Comforts (2003)
5. The World of Wallace & Gromit (2004)