After the disappointment of the Oscar-nominated animated shorts, I took myself to Early Man , with the hope that the often-wonderful clay figure animator [ . . . ]
Listen to audio of KUNC film critic Howie Movshovitz review: ‘Early Man’ Should Be Left In The Stone Age
The Hobbledehoy agrees with the top of the list choices, Chicken Run and the Wallace & Gromit shorts. Each were brilliant. Haven’t seen Early Man yet. Have you? What did you think?
Shared from VULTURE 2/18
In honor of the studio’s latest film, Early Man, we look back at its groundbreaking animated films, including Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run.
The easiest way to tell if you’re watching a film produced by Aardman Animations, a British animation studio based out of Bristol, is to check for fingerprints. If you look closely enough at any frame of their stop-motion short or feature films, you can see fingerprint ridges left by an animator who literally moved the Plasticine figures with their own fingers to create movement and expression. Computer animation may be the dominant model for commercial cinema, but there may not be a better illustration of the power of “homemade” animation than literal impressions on the screen.
Founded in 1972 by Peter Lord and David Sproxton, Aardman made its name on the success of short films for British television, as well as featured animation work in music videos like Peter Gabriel’s [ . . . ]
Read Full Story: Every Aardman Animations Movie, Ranked
This stop-motion comedy doesn’t touch the high standards of ‘Wallace and Gromit.’
…The British studio’s name inevitably encourages high expectations. That may not be fair, but the company only has itself to blame if, measured against its own success, “Early Man” is such a disappointment.
In the grand scheme of movies for kids, the stop-motion comedy is hardly a stinker. But it’s also less fun and inventive than you’d expect, given the company’s stellar, Oscar-winning track record…
Read full review: Review | ‘Early Man,’ the latest from hit factory Aardman, is an ordinary underdog-athlete movie
When producing their claymation-style feature films or Wallace and Gromit & Shaun the Sheep animations, Aardman Animations goes through 100s of pounds of modeling clay. As Adam Savage learned on a recent visit to Aardman, bulk clay from the factory is run through several processes to ensure that Gromit’s fur is the same shade in frame #6800 as it was in frame #1 and that the consistency is appropriate for the modelers.
Shot and edited by Joey Fameli Produced by Kristen Lomasney
Voice acting can be challenging for screen actors, often requiring the kind of extreme, over-the-top delivery that they look to avoid when working on a live-action project.
This is clear in a behind-the-scenes look at upcoming Ardmaan stop-motion animation Early Man, which The Independent brings you exclusively today, seeing Eddie Redmayne, Tom Hiddleston and Maisie Williams trying to get their mouths around the dialogue Wallace and Gromit director Nick Park has given them.
At one point, Park has to give Hiddleston a chop-heavy back massage in order to get the right sounds of him [ . . . ]
Watch the AMAZING video interview at: Watch Tom Hiddleston in the booth doing voice acting
