A Grand Night In: The Story of Aardman (2015)

[GabrielAlejo2341]

Your program's starting, Gromit.

I know you've been looking forward to this one. Hm?

Lost your chair, lad?

Let me introduce the Relax-O-Matic.

Hm! [chuckles]

Are we sitting comfortably?

Hm? Mm-hm.

-[dramatic music]
-Let's go!

[narrator] Aardman Animations.

No cheese, Gromit.

For 40 years, they have filled the world with pure Plasticine joy...

[gibbers]

...creating unforgettable moments.

Every single frame is just full of stuff.

In all honestly, I really do like the silliness of it.

We don't like potatoes, we like meat.

Goodness me, how are they going to do this?

Good grief. It's you!

"We have to rip that off for The Simpsons."

And characters we fell in love with.

"Weren't you the voice of a Plasticine chicken?"

I don't want to be a pie!

I remember kind of going... [burbles]

And it was the most bizarre audition.

-Huh?
-Uh...

Let's go plundering!

[deep voice]
I sounded rather... marvelous!

I had this idea of an English guy who builds this rocket.

He may have a cat.

This is a story of how very big things can happen.

One tiny move at a time.

They changed the game entirely.

We did it! Ha-ha!

The only thing you can say is that you feel proud of it.

Welcome to the Aardman world.

Look at it. Innit lovely?

[narrator] Bristol, home of Banksy, Bananarama and the inventor of the blanket, but most excitingly, it's the home of Aardman.

You may not know the name, but one thing is certain.

You will know their creations.

In fact, it's hard to imagine life without them.

What Aardman do so brilliantly is that they appeal to every generation.

So you'll very happily sit and watch an Aardman movie with your kids.

[Wallace] Hang in there, Gromit!

It's not only really, really fantastically ex*cuted, but it's proper comedy writing.

[man] I'm the Pirate Captain and I'm here for your gold!

Personally, I regard them as the people who kind of revolutionized animation worldwide.

I think their impact can't be overstated.

[woman] We'll either die free chickens, or die trying.

I think Aardman is hated by all of us, because they're so damn successful and so wonderful and brilliant.

Yes, I mean, sheer hatred... utter.

[narrator] It all began in the 1970s.

David Sproxton and Peter Lord, two long-haired dreamers, had a crazy idea, to bring still images to life.

I was always interested in photography.

My father had a wind-up cine camera.

I said: "Why don't we get that out the cupboard, set it up and just play around on the kitchen table?"

And we made a film. Was it called...

Did we call it Trash? Was it that one?

-Godzilla.
-Godzilla was the first one.

I mean, chalk drawings. It was complete rubbish, really, but it was great fun.

[narrator] In 1972, they got their big break.

Their kitchen table antics were going to be seen in living rooms across the country.

We'd been making these very short films for Vision On with a character we called Aardman.

Aardman was like a superhero, but absolutely incompetent.

So, simply, the "aard" of aardvark and the "man" of Superman.

And they were very old-school drawn animation, but the BBC liked it, so they bought it and they said: "Who shall we make the check out to?"

And we then discussed all the options, Pete and Dave Animation, Lord-Sproxton Animation, you know, and we just... So we went for Aardman.

[narrator]
Then something magical happened.

A discovery that would change their lives forever.

Plasticine.

And in 1977, Aardman's first star was born.

[burbles]

I loved Morph. Anything in plasticine used to make me very happy.

There you go. All back to normal.

Morph was an animated comedy sidekick for Tony Hart 'cause Tony Hart was a brilliant artist, but maybe not very funny.

[sighs]

[meows]

[Timothy Spall] It was ground-breaking as well, when you think of it.

This little blob of plasticine that can become whatever it wants, but it also seemed to have a personality.

-[waves splashing]
-Oh!

I remember it vividly, as a child, but I would have had no concept of the fact that this was the start of a bold new era in British animation.

Er, I just really enjoyed it.

Thought it was funny.

Er, it was the... it was the bit in Take Hart that you always looked forward to.

Sorry, Tony.

[narrator] Morph went on to have his very own series.

He received a Blue Peter badge and made some new friends along the way.

Ow! [burbles]

Well, I say friends.

[Merlin Crossingham] They have a wonderful innocence about them.

There's a little bit of slapstick comedy violence, there's a bit of magic, there's a bit of surrealism, but ultimately, it comes down to... two... could call them brothers, friends, whatever they are, just having a laugh.

[burbles]

-There's a lot of fun in slapstick.
-[both gibber]

Oop!

But the real fun is character-based, like when Chas comes on, wearing an outrageous tie.

-Ooh, ah, hm...
-[babbles]

[laughs]

Huh. [grumbles]

And Morph just laughs at him for, like, 30 seconds and, in the end, he pats him on the shoulder and thanks him.

"Thanks for giving me such a good laugh."

[babbling and chuckling]

[grumbling]

Grandmorph's home movies I like very much, when some old black-and-white film comes to light.

[all chattering]

And it allows us to play a playful homage to Charlie Chaplin.

But then later in the same sequence, there's some footage of Morph as a baby and what I love is Morph being embarrassed in front of his friends.

[laughter]

[man] He was a very sweet and contented baby, quite unlike Morph as he is today.

I do own a Morph and I made the mistake of showing it to one of my children about a year ago, who reduced Morph to... really, erm, a sausage.

[squeaking]

Ten grand's worth, just gone, erm, but luckily, Peter says he can reconstruct him in about 14 seconds.

Morph has actually been around for 39 years, I guess, which is extraordinary.

[dialing tone and bleeping]

-Hm. [babbles]
-[ringing tone]

Uh-huh.

Ha. Huh.

[man] Please hold. Your call is currently being held in a queue.

-[upbeat music plays]
-[both babble]

[burbling]

[narrator]

Phones may have changed a bit, but Aardman's longest-running character is still making us smile today.

[babbles]

Finally, a cheerful smile.

And the funny thing is, he's always hand-made like this, every time.

When I think that when we started out, Dave and me, the studio was probably about as big as this little box we're in now and we had the modeling clay and the 16mm camera and, like, three or four lights, that was the whole company.

It's just quite amazing how the whole business has sort of grown from him.

[babbles]

[giggles]

Bye-bye! [chuckles]

He said you could come in when you'd like,

-get your meals.
-Yes.

-But he said there's no beds.
-I see.

Right.

[narrator] Meanwhile, as Dave and Pete's Plasticine empire started to grow, little did they know that a young student from Preston had taken inspiration from their work and was about to embark on a fairly ambitious college project.

[Nick Park] I had this idea about an English guy who builds this rocket and the joke was he builds it in the basement of his house.

I was thinking he may have a pet, probably a cat.

I started drawing a cat, but as soon as I started making the clay model, a dog just was easier to make.

I'd animated some of the film before I did any dialogue at all.

When it came to voices, Peter Sallis was the first choice I had.

I wrote to him and he agreed to do it for about 50 quid, I think and I was really surprised that he didn't have a Yorkshire accent.

[posh accent] "Hello, Nick. Thank you for sending me the script. I wonder if this is how Wallace may sound like."

Up until that point, Wallace has got quite a straight face and it's only when I started animating him talking, like "cheese" and the way he stretched his vowels, his face changes.

[gulps] Gromit. That's it! Cheese!

We'll go somewhere where there's cheese.

I'd bitten off more than I could chew with Grand Day Out.

The script was about 20 pages long and there was one paragraph that just said: "There is now a sequence where Wallace and Gromit build a rocket."

That paragraph took me a year and a half to film!

[narrator] Keen to meet his animation idols, Nick invited Dave and Pete to come and visit his college.

He had a Morph badge on his lapel.

And I was thinking: "That is the bee's knees."

You know, to actually have one of your characters on your lapel.

[laughs] I was impressed by that kind of thing.

[Peter Lord] He was building the sets, making the puppets, doing the animation, just kind of doing everything, 'cause that's how it used to be back in the day.

I got very disillusioned at times and had absolutely no money at all.

I was living in a grotty little bedsit in Cricklewood, but I had to fulfill this vision, this film I had in my head.

We said to the film school: "Nick's going to take forever to finish this. Can we bring Nick's sets down and indeed his camera and we'll help him finish it?"

[narrator] Nick moved to Bristol and joined Aardman.

And finally finished his first animation, A Grand Day Out.

[Peter Sallis] At the time when I did it, I didn't think this is going to make cinema history.

But six years later, in 1989, when the phone went, and he said: "I've finished it!"

I thought: "Oh, it's only taken him six years."

[narrator] The film not only launched Nick's career, but two of animation's greatest characters.

They've appeared on stamps, they have a ride at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, they've met the Queen and they even helped to save the Wensleydale dairy from closure.

[cheering and applause]

I think we're about to go up in the world, lad.

It's not an obvious pitch, is it?

Old bloke and a dog, er... do stuff.

[Timothy Spall] A dog, and a funny-looking dog to boot, and this kind of suburban man, you think: "Oh, his life must be dull,". but what Aardman do with him is take him to the moon!

[Terry Gilliam] Wallace and Gromit have got to be up there with Eric and Ernie.

They're in love with each other.

They need each other.

And they both just are so...

irritated with each other.

That's perfect! [laughs]

Sorry, Gromit. That was a bit thick.

The very kind of mundanity of Wallace and Gromit's existence...

Porridge today, Gromit! Tuesday!

...set against the extraordinary kind of Thunderbirds lifestyle that they lead.

Geronimo!

A great poster that was done for Were-Rabbit, by Wallace, it says "Master", by Gromit, it says "Mind" and I think that really sums them up perfectly.

Gromit is one of my favorite characters ever created in animation and he never speaks.

[card plays note]

[card plays For He's A Jolly Good Fellow]

Yet there's so much expression in him.

It's about body language and the way his face presents itself to the camera and making your audience understand what he's thinking, without saying a word.

It's so difficult!

Oh, come on, Gromit. A bit more...

[chuckles] you know, alluring.

[Music: "The Stripper"]

Oh-h*! Oh! Very cheeky.

[Martin Freeman] I've seen less capable comedic human actors than Gromit.

Do you know what I mean?

What he can do with a look...

I say he, or whoever the 15 people who have made him have that look is sort of Stan Laurel-esque, you know?

It's, erm...

I would say it's approaching genius, if not actual genius.

Set coordinates for 62 West Wallaby Street.

[narrator] A Grand Day Out earned Nick an Oscar nomination, but sadly, it didn't win.

And there was only one person who was good enough to beat Nick Park...

Nick Park.

[woman] Sound running. When you're ready.

[John Lasseter] I remember the first time I saw an Aardman animated film.

I was sitting there in this big auditorium and Creature Comforts came on and I was amazed.

Well, sometimes you can't get out and about as much as you would like to.

You're stuck in for some reason, like I'm stuck in today.

And, erm, then, yes, you get bored and you get fed up with looking at the same four walls.

There's always been stop motion work going on, but nothing like that.

Nothing that had that sense of, oh, character.

Well, erm, most of the cages are a bit small and... they're grotty and everything.

I thought: "God, who wrote this stuff? Who were the actors that said it?"

But it wasn't, it was real people, that's what was the magic.

Well, it's reasonably comfortable, I suppose, the space, but, er...

Me and a journalist went out, trying to find people who were not that happy with where they are.

If you try to compare the situations and the environment to live here with the environment to live in Brazil, there is a big difference.

Here you live in a very small place, without the technological advances possible...

[Nick Park] The Brazilian jaguar guy and he hated the food and the weather and...

He's got a little flat and he stole the show, really.

I miss the fresh meat.

You know? Because in Brazil, we are predominantly carnivores.

We are not, you know, vegetarian and we don't like potatoes, we like meat.

And we like fresh meat.

The polar bear has always made me laugh.

They were a family that ran the corner shop around the corner from the studio.

My favorite food is, I'm afraid to say, steak.

[Nick Park]
We told the youngest one, Andrew: "Don't be shy, say what you think."

And so he felt this obligation just to say anything.

[laughs] And just started talking about lion steak.

Do you like lions as well, then?

Do you like steaks and chips with lions with it?

Not with lions, Andrew, no.

When you look at the success of programs like Gogglebox...

people are so wonderfully funny in their own world.

It was just basically knockout scene after knockout scene in a row for several minutes and then it's done.

And it's like, you practically feel Nick Park dropping the mic and backing away, going, like: "That's animation." You know?

[narrator] Despite taking a fraction of the time to create, these more vocal animals pipped Wallace and Gromit to the post and scooped Nick Park and Aardman their very first Oscar.

It's really weird to be against yourself in the same award.

Er, so you're not knowing whether to be happy or cry at the same time.

And having... just being there for doing these plasticine animated films, but you're sat there with Sophia Loren and Dustin Hoffman, and you know, all these...

Erm, everybody I've ever heard of is around.

I'm thinking: "What am I doing here?"

You know?

Hoots, man! There's juice loose aboot this hoose!

[upbeat jazzy music]

[narrator] And just when you thought it was safe to put the kettle on, Aardman start popping up in the commercial breaks.

Re-record, not fade away.

Re-record, not fade away.

-♪ I'm so excited ♪
-♪ I'm so excited ♪

-♪ And I just can't fight it ♪
-♪ No, no, no, no, no ♪

♪ A taste of Lurpak butter is The uppermost... ♪

[narrator] Every Tom, d*ck and advertising Harry wanted a slice of their unique combination of animated wizardry and humor.

[screaming and roaring]

[old-fashioned reporter]

London's under siege!

But beware! This gobbling brute is a master of disguise.

♪ You could have a steam train ♪

[narrator] And back in 1986, they were behind one of pop music's most iconic videos.

♪ Testimony ♪

♪ Ah! I'm your sledgehammer ♪

How about some refreshments, eh, lad?

[chuckles]

Now for a soothing massage.

[Wallace chuckles]

The first time I saw The Wrong Trousers, that was mind-blowing.

It was so funny, it was such a great story and that penguin, I think, is one of the great villains of all time.

[doorbell rings]

Oh. There's someone at the door, Gromit.

I wonder who that could be.

Oh, it's about the room, then.

Well, that's grand.

Er, would you like to come this way and inspect?

I'm asking 20 a week.

That would include your breakfast.

He doesn't do, really, anything before you know that he's sinister.

It's almost just the camera angles and just a little look that he does and you know, uh-oh, there's something animal inside you that goes: "I don't trust this penguin."

It was Hitchcockian.

You've never seen Hitchcock in clay animation, come on!

Gromit hiding in the box and the penguin looking at him?

Oh, my God. That was the best.

In fact, to this day I say: "We've got to rip that off. We have to rip that off for The Simpsons."

-[springs creak]
-What a...

-What a shocking calam...
-[springs groaning]

...calami...

calamity.

[snores]

[Wallace sighs]

When he comes back and puts Wallace into the bed and then he goes off to do the heist at the museum, he puts the rubber glove on his head and he just... brushes it with his hand.

[Wallace grunts]

[Nick Park] That just gives him a slightly dangerous kind of humanity.

You know, like a sort of slight bit of vanity.

And I think it's just adding those little subtle things are what makes them, really.

-[machinery whirring]
-Hm.

In terms of the music, Nick wanted some threat, jeopardy, that kind of thing, in the story that wasn't there in Wallace and Gromit before.

[dramatic music]

Wallace was asleep and was upside down, hanging in the museum.

Nick wanted that sense of threat to come out.

So we used the sort of Bernard Herrmann chord, you know, the...

[plays menacing chord]

And when he takes it off and it's like, Wallace goes: "You!"

Good grief! It's you!

[laughs]

Like he didn't recognize him!

Now, let me out of these trousers this minute!

[narrator] The dramatic finale is one of animation's most memorable moments and one of the most impressive feats of stop motion ever seen.

[Wallace] I can't see a thing!

What's happening?

[train whistle blows]

When Nick actually presented us with the idea of the train chase, we were thinking: "Wow, that's great, but how do we achieve that?"

I still have no idea how they finished it by now, you know?

They would have had to start that in about 1900 if I was in charge of that.

[Wallace] Help me, Gromit!

[Julian Nott] We tried really fast-paced chase music.

But somehow, it didn't have any sense of fun, so we broke the rule for the train chase and actually did out and out comedy music, so this sort of thing.

[plays upbeat tune]

[Wallace] Get him, Gromit!

Argh! Gromit! We're doomed!

Ah!

[Dave Riddett] The whole of cinematography is an illusion.

If you analyze the train chase, it is ridiculous how long that room would actually be if... [laughs]

But it was a 20-foot set used in some shots over and over again.

If you analyze when he's putting the tracks down, the animator had an arm there, an arm there, he was going that fast.

Sometimes, he'd have to put three arms in there.

[Wallace] All yours, Gromit!

I love a chase. Even though we do use a lot of sophisticated equipment now, always try to emulate that train chase.

Well done! We did it! Ha-ha!

[narrator] The Wrong Trousers became an instant classic, earning Nick Park a second Oscar and making Wallace and Gromit a household name.

But navigating a round trip to the moon and foiling a sinister penguin's diamond heist was a mere walk in the park compared to what they would face on their next adventure.

[Wallace gasps] Oh.

[narrator] Romance!

They said: "We wanted a female version of Wallace."

-[shop bell rings]
-Thank you for coming so quickly.

[chuckles]

Hmm.

I said to Nick: "Why did you choose me?"

And he said: "Well, we saw you on television, we thought your voice sounded like it came out of a puppet."

[deep voice] I said: "Oh, really?

I'd never thought of that." [laughs]

[Wallace] Won't take a minute.

Oh.

Wallace's love interests.

He keeps on trying, bless him.

Piella.

Oh, crumbs!

[Merlin] She was a bad apple.

Gromit!

[Merlin] Lady Tottington.

Besotted by her amazing produce.

He's never shown any interest in my produce.

Ooh! His loss, Lady Tottington.

But it wasn't to be. She was aristocracy.

But Wendolene, she was great.

[Wallace] Oh!

[Anne Reid] How would I describe Wendolene and Wallace?

The same time next week?

It's like talking about Clark Gable and Carole Lombard.

Erm... Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.

I want no more of this rustling.

Oh! It wasn't so bad when it was just the wool, but this is evil!

[narrator] Like many of the classic romances, there was a third person in the relationship.

In this case, an entrepreneurial sheep-murdering cyberdog.

A bit clichéd, I know.

But in the end, it was a much more serious matter that came between them.

Oh, won't you come in?

We were just about to have some cheese.

Oh, no, not cheese.

Sorry, it brings me out in a rash.

Can't stand the stuff.

Not even Wensleydale?

No, no, no, they'd never get on if she didn't like cheese.

Goodbye...

-[door shuts]
-...Chuck.

It's one of those extra layers in the writing of Wallace and Gromit that just makes them, firstly, really funny, but actually quite touching.

It doesn't always have to be a super happy ending into the sunset.

But, you know, while there's eternal hope that you will always find the one, Wallace will keep on going.

What's wrong with Wensleydale?

I've done a lot of interesting things in my life, but that is so special.

And when I was recording the voice, Nick turned my script over on the back and he drew Wallace and Gromit and Wendolene.

This is it. Right?

Isn't that wonderful?

It's one of my treasures.

Wallace and Gromit have won their creator, Nick Park, a record-breaking third Oscar in Hollywood.

[narrator] Whilst Nick Park was probably considering investing in a longer mantelpiece, Aardman received an invitation from Hollywood animation studio DreamWorks.

[Jeffrey Katzenberg] I, over the years, have been a great fan of Aardman and, you know, I sort of had this secret admiration and ambition that maybe some day, there would be a way to work together.

I remember flying on the...

DreamWorks' private jet.

I had to kind of pinch myself.

You know? [laughs]

I never thought Plasticine would lead to such a glamorous lifestyle.

We were invited to a dinner and Steven Spielberg was there and Jeffrey Katzenberg was there.

I just remember being so excited about them, erm...

you know, and their quiet, you know, sort of Bristol, British way.

Jeffrey turned to me and said: "So, guys, er... do you have any ideas that you'd like to pitch to us?"

And in Hollywood, the Hollywood pitch is a sacred moment.

I had drawn a picture of a chicken digging its way out of a chicken coop.

We're going to do The Great Escape with chickens.

I remember Steven Spielberg saying: "The Great Escape is one of my favorite films and I have 300 chickens on my ranch!"

So... [laughs]

And the pitch went great.

[narrator] The little team of animators from Bristol had become hot Hollywood property.

But embarking on their first ever full-length movie was to prove quite a leap.

The budget grew from £1 million to 30 million.

A team of six grew to over 80.

Two actors became a whole cast of stars.

And a small studio in Bristol became, well, a small studio in Bristol.

Aardman insisted that this Hollywood blockbuster was going to be homemade.

They had just 18 months to create poultry in motion.

[Timothy Spall] It was a punt.

It was a daring punt.

We were shown around sort of this massive crew of people.

You know, there was a sense of...

goodness me. There's a sense of risk here.

How are they going to do this?

Jeffrey Katzenberg is a sort of stereotypical Hollywood movie mogul, you know, speaks his mindabout everything, but I felt enormous respect from him at the same time.

I asked them: "What's it like working with Jeffrey Katzenberg?"

And they said: "Oh, my God. That man is a genius. We hear from him with a new idea all the time. He's just a wonderful partner and collaborator. It's fantastic."

Then a production assistant walked in at that moment and said: "Jeffrey Katzenberg is on the line."

And all three of them turned simultaneously and said: "We're not here!" [laughs]

Jeffrey was sort of like Mrs. Tweedy.

[all gasp]

[laughs] He would come into the coop and open up one of the roofs and catch us all...

[laughs] messing around!

No, no, it wasn't like that at all.

[laughs]

[narrator] It was a rocky road, but they did it.

And Aardman's first ever feature film was about to be seen by the world.

[Timothy Spall] That opening scene of them running through that chicken coop, and all of a sudden, you're transported to a Stalag in the Second World w*r.

It's just, you know... It's just joyful.

I'm stuck!

[tuts]

-[dog barking]
-Get back!

[dog barking]

-[yells]
-[all gasp]

[Timothy Spall] You know straightaway you're in safe hands and you're in their world.

"Welcome to the Aardman world and look at it, innit lovely?"

No chicken escapes from Tweedy's Farm!

[narrator] Chicken Run is still the highest-grossing stop-motion film of all time and the reason why the category of Best Animated Feature was introduced to the Oscars.

A person in a shop once said to me: "Weren't you the voice of a Plasticine chicken?"

[laughs]

I thought: "That's my claim to fame now. A Plasticine chicken."

-[sighs]
-Morning, Ginger.

Back from holiday?

I wasn't on holiday, Babs, I was in solitary confinement.

Oh, it's nice to get a bit of time to yourself, isn't it?

They're such great characters, they're well written and the amount of times I've had to say: "I don't want to be a pie! I don't like gravy!"

[chickens gasping]

-Chicken pies?
-[all screaming]

Yes, but...

I don't want to be a pie.

I don't like gravy.

Chickens in a prisoner of w*r camp!

With prisoner of w*r camp characters.

You called?

-Nick and...
-Fetcher.

At your service.

There are people who are slightly dodgy, who can supply things.

I need some more things.

Right you are, Miss. How about this quality hand-crafted tea set?

-Er, no.
-Or this lovely necklace and pendant?

-It's love--
-Or this beautiful little number, all the rage in the fashionable chicken coops of Paris.

Simply pop it on like so and as the French hens say, voilà.

-That is French.
-That's two hats in one, Miss.

For parties. For weddings.

-[gasps]
-Oh, Madame.

This makes you look like a vision, a dream.

-Like a duck.
-No, thank you.

I like the escape at the end.

[gasps]

I think that's fantastic and it really does get you going.

-[creaking]
-[all screaming]

Great Scott, what was that?

A cling-on, captain!

But the engines can't take it!

-[growls]
-[both gasp]

You find yourself really wanting these characters to succeed.

[yells]

Noooo!

And you think: "What am I doing? These are made of plasticine! I'm crying now!"

You know what I mean?

-Uh...
-[sighs]

[gasps]

-Bye-bye!
-[screams]

Bombs away!

Mr. Tweedy!

[all cheering]

Years and tears and joy all go into this, like, you know, these people are...

serious, serious craftsmen.

The process is pretty similar across everything we make.

We start with the idea, which is worked into a script.

We then take that script and we start to visualize in the storyboarding process and then those line drawings are taken into an edit suite, where we start to actually build the film.

We'll record the actual voice artists, we'll start commissioning sets, we'll start making puppets and then we will animate it in stop motion.

So an example would be is if, erm...

you know, Wallace was to just roll his fingers like that, first of all, you'd have to take the little finger and move it just a little bit and then take a picture of it.

Erm, you might need to move it just a bit more if it wasn't quite right.

Erm, then you would have to take, er, the next finger and put it into the position so it was just right.

And then it might need an adjustment and then you take another picture of that.

To be an Aardman animator, I would think you'd have to be slightly...

bonkers, in terms of obsessiveness.

They are shy performers.

That's a very special category.

There's a kind of oddness to them all, which I heartily approve of.

And then you'd probably have to move them both just a little bit.

You have to be passionate about it.

You have to be obsessed by it.

Half of your life on your knees, moving, you know... [laughs]

Moving a little hand from there to there.

You have to be able to go...

Eeh! And then back up.

Click. Eeh! Back up.

And you have to make that noise, too. Eeh!

It's like some weird sort of t*rture, really.

[David Tennant] I thought: "Come on, we've been doing this for two and a half years now. Let's just put a brick wall up."

But no, every single frame is just full of stuff.

None of it would be advised in, you know, the careers office. None of it.

Trouble with animation is you start work on a film and five years later, you finish it and you think: "Yeah, I'm an experienced animation producer. I've got two credits!"

Then you probably need to start on the middle finger. Move it just a little bit.

To make that look realistic, at all, seems to me impossible.

To make it look realistic and funny, with perfect timing, and to get the Plasticine lips moving in synch to the dialogue, this is pure genius.

I like seeing the different fingerprints and shapings and it makes it feel alive to me in a way, quite honestly, that CG does not.

And this is from a guy that's doing CG.

[Martin Freeman] Human beings are able to be very expressive.

But a lump of plasticine isn't.

How do they do that? I don't know.

That's a lot of work.

This end finger's reached the top, it probably needs to be coming down, so you move it down just a little bit.

But this one's still going up, so you need to move that one up just a tiny amount...

Ooh. Animation. It looks like pure t*rture to me, lad.

Shall we see what's on the other side, hm?

-[bleeping]
-[crashing]

Hm. I think this remote's on the blink, lad.

Aw.

[narrator] But whilst American audiences loved the antics of some heroic chickens, what would they make of the quintessentially English escapades of a hapless, cheese-loving inventor and his long-suffering canine companion?

They love the Britishness.

I think they probably think it's a documentary, to be honest.

I think they treat it as documentary.

[laughs]

[David Sproxton] Jeffrey said: "Why is this track rusty?"

We understand why the track would be rusty.

Jeffrey expected him to have a brand-new shiny Chevrolet.

That's the British humor, I think.

Things are cool because they're not.

I was going to call Curse of the Were-Rabbit, The Great Vegetable Plot, but they did a lot of marketing research and came back with: "I'm afraid vegetables are a negative with kids."

Anti-Pesto Humane Pest Control.

How might we be of assistance?

Ah, yes. Lady Tottington here.

Of Tottington Hall?

Your Ladyship! This is an honor.

-[clang]
-Oh! Ow!

It's a disaster! I have the most terrible rabbit problem.

Just stay right where you are, your Ladyship,

and we'll be with you in a...

-Argh!
-[thud]

In an hour? I can't wait an hour!

I have a major infestation!

We saw the world differently. For example, a simple example, think of Aladdin.

Beautiful hero, beautiful heroine with huge eyes, that's what they're used to.

Instead of which, you've got Wallace and Lady Tottington, who are both pretty damn weird-looking.

Sometimes, in the conversation, you just got the idea that they...

they just wish it was a bit less British.

That's all. [laughs]

"We love it, but it's just a bit British."

You know.

We have brought a terrible judgment upon ourselves!

[dramatic organ music]

Hey! Give over!

You're mental.

It is very British.

They've never tried to be anything else and I always think that's a good idea.

[Timothy Spall] And the great thing about the British sense of comedy, it will show you as it is, but it will always say: "Aren't we ludicrous? Look how we carry on."

[French accent] You stupid English!

With your Yorkshire puddings and your chips and fish!

We apologize as soon as we walk into a room, as a national characteristic.

Sorry, can I just...

Oh, sorry. Sorry.

I'm sorry, it's not my fault!

"Would you awfully mind, if it's possible if you could see your way to..."

I think I need a cup of tea after all that.

[narrator] Of course, you can't have a British story without some good old British drama.

[reporter] Six o'clock this morning, a day Aardman was meant to be celebrating.

Its latest movie, top of the US box office.

But in Bristol, much of the company's entire archive was going up in flames.

I got a phone call to say that there'd been a fire and our warehouse, where we kept all the archive, all the models, had burnt down.

A lot of the original Wallace and Gromit sets sadly went up in flames.

And all the Chicken Run models, the whole cast, really.

It was, erm... It was sad, because there was a lot of memories that were lost.

[narrator] But it would take more than this to stop our plucky animators.

Music, maestro!

[dance music]

The following year, Aardman broke their own mold by making their first film without a lump of clay in sight.

[Peter Lord] When we started out doing puppet animation, that was the only way to put good three dimensional character animation on screen.

Bon voyage, me old cream cr*cker!

But gradually, another youthful trend came up alongside us, CG animation, which is doing the same thing, but in a very different way.

[squelching]

-[yells]
-[squeaks]

I know, I'm no fool, I know that everyone loves the handmade plasticine animation, the thing that we do best.

-Good night.
-Good night.

Good night, Roddy!

-Don't let the bedbugs bite.
-[chuckles]

-[chomp]
-Argh!

[bug giggles and squeaks]

[Peter Lord] But telling a good story with good characters, that's the most important thing.

Some people said: "Oh, they lost something in going away from what they know best."

Erm... I don't really care. I... I...

You know, I'm... I'm into us being, erm, brave and eclectic and trying different things, that's important to me.

[narrator] In 2007, Aardman's partnership with DreamWorks came to an end.

[Peter Lord] We declared that we're going to go our own way, because us making British films is terribly important to us.

Of course, I'd say I want it to play everywhere in the world, but what I want is I want the American public to love a completely British film.

That's what I want, not to change what we do.

[narrator] But Aardman bounced back with yet another, wait for it, award-winning Wallace and Gromit adventure.

On my way, Gromit!

Ooh! We're on a roll, lad.

And boy, did it deliver.

Good day's work, lad.

A serial-k*lling fruitcake.

An expl*sive finale.

Gromit! It's a b*mb!

The cake's a b*mb!

-And some puppy love.
-[giggling]

♪ And they called it puppy love ♪

Let's go plundering!

In 2012, with the wind firmly beneath their sails, they set off on their most ambitious venture ever.

Everything I was watching was CG and suddenly, I saw Pirates and I sat there and I was just amazed at how beautiful it was, because it wasn't computer generated.

It was real light hitting real materials.

[man] And welcome to the 59th annual Pirate of the Year Awards!

Initially, with Pirates, we thought we'd have to do the whole thing CGI, because the numbers of characters and the water and so on, but in order for us to understand what it was going to look like, we built the cabin set and it was so beautiful.

As soon as we saw this set, we thought: "Let's just do it like this."

I'm the Pirate Captain and I'm here for your gold!

Gold? This is a plague boat, old man.

I'd give my right arm for some gold.

-Ah!
-Or my left! Ha!

It was based on some children's books and the books themselves are very funny.

Er, brilliant. Anarchic.

The script's quite peculiar.

When you first read it, you think: "So, this is Charles Darwin, but obviously not Darwin and he's also in love with the Queen, who is trying to m*rder a dodo and is also a sort of ninja."

Oh, no, steady on.

In all honesty,

I really do like the silliness of it.

I really do. I'm a big fan of stupidity.

Aha!

-Oh.
-[squawks]

I had to do some acting, which I try to avoid in life.

But I really had to give a performance and I thought: "If I'm going to do that, at least no one can see my face."

Ah, by Neptune! Where's that ship?

[man] Ooh!

[deep voice]
I sounded rather... marvelous, with a sort of big... beardy voice.

Mind out, Captain coming through.

-Thank you very much. Thank you.
-Ah!

My only slight regret is that no one believes it's me.

Least of all my children.

They say: "That's not Daddy."

[David Tennant] That sequence where the bathtub goes down the stairs.

How you think that sequence up in the first place and then how you start to break that down and to physicalize it, I can't conceive of how long.

It's just...

I mean, it's just... delightful.

Wah!

Sweet Neptune on a bike!

I love Mr. Bobo. There's a bit where they're up to their dastardly plan.

He holds up a card saying "But".

Ssh!

Again, very silly and brilliant.

My favorite joke in the whole film, it made me laugh every time we had to record it, is the bit about the, er...

the sea monster on the map.

When the Pirate Captain said: "We can't go that way!"

There's this dirty great sea monster in the way.

Erm... Mm. I think they just add those on to maps for decoration... Captain.

And then, of course, what's even more delicious is that right at the end of the film, it gets paid off.

[Pirate Captain] See, I told you!

Just added on for decoration, my foot.

When something's as good as their films are, of course you want to be involved in that. It's not... it's not...

They don't have to beg actors to sign up.

Actors are begging them.

So very wise, Captain.

I wanted to be part of that process.

Actually, no. That's a lie.

Not the process.

I just thought: "I want to be in an Aardman film."

You can't just say "Arr" at the end of a sentence and think that makes everything all right.

Directing the actors is...

a huge pleasure and a privilege, but I have to admit that we are such control freaks in animation, actors do end up doing a lot of takes and sometimes, it's frankly embarrassing.

[Hugh Grant] On take 72 of "Avast!"

I did slightly feel like running my cutlass through Peter Lord occasionally.

You think: "How many more ways do you want me to say captain?

"You know, there aren't any more ways to say it."

And it turns out there were more ways.

Captain! Cap'n. Captaaain!

[laughs] 'Cause I did 'em.

Capt... [sighs]

I apologize to any actors who have been driven mad in the process.

-Ooh!
-Sweet Neptune's briny pants.

[narrator] Then we had Aardman's unique twist on a Christmas classic, answering all those age-old questions.

-h*-h*-h*!
-It's a h*-h*-h* house.

Field elves, jingle. Jingle, jingle.

Drop time, 18.14 seconds per household.

[Sarah Smith] We actually set out to answer how Santa does it.

So we're here for the parents, to help you... [laughs]

help you explain to your kids: "Here's how it can all be done in one night."

Isn't this the best bit of Christmas?

[narrator] And we got to meet the whole Claus family.

It certainly is, Arthur.

The whole family, together.

It was a very witty idea to have Father Christmas as a completely bemused and bewildered chap.

Erm, well, er... here's to me doing an even better job next year!

Then there's his old dad, who's going: "Oh, it was much better in my day."

Christmas 1941, World w*r II, I did the whole thing with six reindeer and a drunken elf!

Then the younger son, Arthur, who's the kind of goofy misfit, he's terrified of heights, a fear of flying, he's allergic to snow, he's frightened of reindeer...

Erm, I'm not really good with big animals.

But he absolutely is passionate about Christmas.

[Arthur] Yes. Do believe in Santa.

I particularly liked Steve, played by Hugh Laurie, who was addicted to espresso and technology, which was a very nice idea for Father Christmas's son.

Forget Techno Tommy. He's texting on his calculator after another job.

It's a handheld operational and homing organizer.

The Hoho 3000.

Woo! Whoopee-doo!

Aren't you the Fancy Nancy?

And the thing about it is, is the dialogue actually does resemble the way in which people speak, which is very rare, in any form, whether it's movies or even the theater.

[narrator] But, of course, some of Aardman's funniest, scariest and most loveable characters have never uttered a single word.

Including the most successful character in their 40-year history.

No, no. Not you, Gromit, love.

[Wallace] We'll call him Shaun, eh?

When we did A Close Shave, Shaun has a very small role, I think it's six minutes on screen, we had no idea it would take off.

It was partly due to, er, Baby Spice wearing a Shaun the Sheep rucksack in a photograph and suddenly, Shaun the Sheep, you know, just rocketed.

In typical Aardman fashion, sort of another ten or 12 years later, we eventually got round to making a series.

♪ It's Shaun the Sheep It's Shaun the Sheep ♪

♪ He even knocks about With those who cannot bleat ♪

His character was so obvious from the start that he was a lovable, friendly, but naughty type of sheep.

Oh-h*!

[Richard Starzak]
We chose not to do dialogue.

I wanted to make silent comedy. You don't see a great deal of it in the modern day.

[grunting and bleating]

Slapstick comedy needs to look effortless.

Ah!

It's hard enough to do it in live action, but to do it animated has to be...

[laughs] even harder.

-Huh?
-[munching]

I remember the audition very clearly.

I had to do things like...

I had to vocalize Shaun being pulled along by a lawn mower.

And I remember kind of going...

[bleats]

[bleats]

It was the most bizarre audition.

[narrator] After 130 episodes, the time had come for Shaun to step up to the big screen, leaving the farm for the big city, where not everyone is as friendly.

[yelps]

[growls]

I like noises. When you get older, you make noises.

It's a cliché, but we all make noises, like when you drop your phone.

You kind of go...

[mutters and grunts]

I can't reach this thing.

I'll buy another one.

With Shaun the Sheep, it's dialogue interpretation, so you are interpreting as an actor what the sheep are hearing when the humans speak.

-Ahem.
-[gasps]

[gulps]

Ah? [mutters]

[sighs]

Hmm.

The laughing baa, I used to kind of do this kind of... [squealing laugh]

[sheep giggling]

But the whisper, that was quite a challenge, where you had to bring it right down, this kind of... [whispers and bleats]

[whispering bleat]

[all murmur]

It's a weird thing to direct. You're asking somebody to make a little squeak and then you're saying: "Can you put a little bit more fear into that squeak?"

[squealing bleat]

We take it seriously, you know.

You may as well be making, er...

Apocalypse Now, or The Godfather.

It wasn't always smooth. They'd say: "Can you just give us a simple hm?"

I went: "All right, yeah." [groans]

They went: "No, no. It's just a simple hm."

I went: "But I don't think my character would do that."

They go: "Just give us a hm."

I said I wouldn't do it.

"Shall we take five?"

I said: "Fine, let's take five."

And I'd sit there and there'd be tension.

But that's the kind of, you know, forensic look at the creative process.

You really do have an argument about hm or bleh.

[laughs]

You've got masses of comedy, but it's sometimes very subtle.

[quacks]

[quacks]

[quacks]

[whistles]

If you get physical humor right...

you can't really beat it.

Ha-ha-ha!

-[clang]
-Ow!

[laughs] I thought...

No messing about, he's up, he's down. Off, finished.

But you've also got some really poignant moments that are lovely.

[gasps]

The last sequence, where it looks like it's game over, and then, the farmer puts his arms round the entire flock and it just... phew, it gives me a lump in the throat thinking about it.

-[shivering]
-Ah...

What I love about it is there is no language barrier, anyone in the world can sit down and watch Shaun and know exactly what's going on and enjoy it.

[theme sung in Spanish]

[narrator] Shaun and his pals are now global superstars.

And today, Aardman's creations are enjoyed by families in over 170 countries around the world.

[dialogue dubbed into Polish]

What a lot of people don't know about the zoos, um, are that there is a whole world that goes on there when they're not there.

They have no idea what goes on.

I can't tell you more than that, sorry!

[laughs]

[narrator] And I must say, these two look vaguely familiar.

Crumble will soon have your garden gnomes back in tip-top condition.

Willis and Crumble has nothing to do with Wallace and Gromit and I don't know why people think that.

You must come in for a spot of tea and a homemade Marmite sandwich.

Homemade Marmite!

[laughs] No, of course! It was our loving tribute to Wallace and Gromit and my favorite part is having Nick Park playing himself and it was his voice, on The Simpsons.

Good luck, Mr. Park.

There'd be no shame in losing to you.

Oh, that's very sweet of you.

Thank you for saying so.

-Ah!
-[chuckles] No worries.

I'll just stick 'em back on.

I'm more clay than man, now.

It's nice to be spoofed and sent up.

It's, er... it's an honor. [laughs]

Oh. Oh.

Eh? Oh, stop fooling around, Gromit!

-Argh!
-[crackling]

-Cor!
-[whirring]

[narrator] Aardman and Nick Park are now working on their next film.

200,000 years in the making.

That's slow, even for them.

Well! Come in here for a sneak peek at my new project.

This is, er... Dug, who's the main character from Early Man, who's a plucky little caveman and he is the hero that leads his tribe against the superpower of the Bronze Age.

There's going to be a lot more treacherous and dangerous looking places and prehistoric creatures.

I would say we've taken a bit of license with history, I guess!

I feel at home, now that I'm back with clay characters.

Going to be quite an exciting couple of years. Slow, but exciting.

[Peter Lord] Looking back, where we are now is miraculous.

I mean, it's incredible, frankly.

Nobody was making animated feature films, virtually, except Disney.

The fact we've made six British animated feature films is astonishing.

For me now to be at festivals and wherever, and have students and people in their 20s coming up to me, saying: "I was inspired by your work and Aardman is the reason I got into animated films,"

it's a... it's a lovely thing.

That's a fantastic thing to be able to do.

To come up and dream up those worlds and actually tell stories in them and let people sort of immerse themselves in them.

What's to complain about?

[narrator] 40 years, over 500 awards and more unforgettable moments and characters than you can shake a clay stick at.

Isn't it amazing what can be made with some patience, Plasticine and a little imagination?

As someone who loves animation, and as an animator, I am so thankful that Aardman has been around these last 40 years.

[Bill Nighy] There aren't many things that move me to patriotism.

The Rolling Stones, obviously.

Harold Pinter.

Er, Crystal Palace Football Club.

Er, but they're just really, really good filmmakers.

And they make big...

I know it's another cliché, and you'll just put your fingers in your ears, but big-hearted and full of humanity and humor.

And we can use some of that.

It's a celebration of the medium of animation.

It is great entertainment, it's great storytelling, there's a lot of laughs, but ultimately, you come away with a feeling of joy.

Without Aardman, the world would be slightly less silly and slightly less fun.

I don't care whether you're six or 16 or 66, they're funny and they make you laugh.

I love them for staying British and for staying Bristol to make these films that embrace the world.

We need magic. We need magic more now than we ever have.

Aardman continue to produce it and, my God, does magic take a lot of work.

I passionately hope that they continue what they're doing, because I'm not even kidding when I say that I think they make the world a slightly better place to be in.

Well done, old pal!

Oh, I love a happy ending.

Aw!

[chuckling]

Eeh.

You came! I knew you would!

Really, what they've done is made everyone happy.

Er... and that is surely the only legacy anyone who works in that world could really wish for.

Oh, guess what's next, lad.

It's live churning from Wensleydale!

[chuckling]

Eeh! Eh.

Eh! Eeh.

Ah! Phew! [chuckles]

Ooh! Ah.

Ah! [chuckles]

Bye-bye! [chuckles]

Ah!