After its partnership with DreamWorks was prematurely ended earlier this year, Bristol-based Aardman Animations has started a new partnership with Sony. It will be a three-year, first-look deal, allowing Aardman's claymation skills to join forces with one of the biggest movie studios in the world.
And good luck to them. Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and Flushed Away may have disappointed at the box office, but they were both a big, fat cut above virtually every animated movie released over the last two years. Hopefully Sony will have a tad more patience with this institution of British animation than DreamWorks could muster. The studio is certainly talking the talk: “Aardman Features are enormously popular all over the world," said Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton. "We believe that their strength is their unique storytelling humor, sensibility and style and we plan to bring their distinctive animated voice to theatres for a long time to come.
In other animation news, Tim Burton's cracking 1982 stop-motion short Vincent (it's about a seven-year-old boy who dreams of being Vincent Price) is to be given a 3D makeover. The reduxed film will be shown ahead of The Nightmare Before Christmas (which discovered the third dimension late last year) from October.
Thanks to Mania .
