Wallace & Gromit producers hand 75% stake in business to staff - Sensationalist Headlines

Wallace & Gromit producers hand stake in business to staff | Fil.. The owners of Aardman, the animation studio behind Wallace & Gromit, Shaun the Sheep and Morph, are handing over a 75% stake in the business to their 140 employees in a bid to protect the Bristol-based company’s independence. Peter Lord and David Sproxton, who founded the UK’s biggest animation production company while still at school, are set for a multimillion-pound payout as part of the deal, under which they will together continue to own a quarter of Aardman Holdings, the company’s parent group. Employees will own their majority stake in the business via a trust, similar to the way the John Lewis Partnership is organised. The 140 employees, and freelancers, of which there are currently 180 working for Aardman, will also continue to receive a share of profits. Anyone who has worked for the company for at least three months of any financial year is entitled to a bonus.

Aardman is honestly an amazing company and they don't get nearly enough credit for the quality of the content that they produce. Even the classic stuff has aged really well. Their stop-motion style ages really well, especially when you see their style applied in CGI form with the likes of Flushed Away. If you compared Flushed Away with the quality of Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were Rabbit - a film release the year before - the difference is huge. Flushed Away looks very dated by modern standards whilst Curse of the Were Rabbit easily lives up to the standards of any Aardman film released 13 years later. Even in terms of content, Aardman has been at the forefrunt with Creature Comfort, as well as their shorts and Aardman: After Dark. Aardman is basically a fucking fantastic British company that doesn't get nearly enough respect and recognition.

My dad is friends with peter lord, one of the founders of aardman. I've had some cool chats with him and it really seems like an awesome place to work. He, along with some of the other veterans still do a bit of hands on work, animating and modelling alongside the staff which is really awesome.

I remember the first time I watched the W&G shorts was with my grandpa. He really like them

Shaun the Sheep is legitimately one of the top ten films of 2015. Virtually everything they have produced, baring Flushed Away, is solid gold. I hope they stick around as long as there's still a film industry.

All that and no shoutout to rex the runt? Heretcial, honestly. https://youtu.be/MosYqpXry9k Their finest work.

Was flushed away even that terrible? I just remember it being kind of middle of the road

It was mediocre, but the CGI has aged very poorly

Angry Kid by Aardman was my SHIT growing up. Me and my brother used to log in and watch the episodes all the time and always had a good laugh. Glad to see they're a great company to their staff as well.

God, before my mom and dad introduced me to Mel Brooks and fucking Monty Python. Wallace and Gromit was like, one of those tapes we watched into oblivion because we absolutely loved them. When I heard about the Wear Rabbit movie, I was 17 but I didn't care because I ran to watch it just for the nostalgia and it was fantastic.

The Wrong Trousers is something I'll always love, it's so damn good Shame Wallace's VA is dead, I'll have loved a new film.

Flushed Away is good

Great company, this news made me check Netflix and apparently the film is on it, at least here it is. So now I have something to watch.

Eh, its alright for what it is. Plasticine models tend to age better since they are timeless to begin with. Older CGI tends to show its age eventually newer stuff improves. Only reason they went with CGI is because of the water. Its very hard to do in stop motion and ironically, compositing CGI water is difficult and expensive. Now, what could have been done was emulate the imperfections of plasticine to emulate the look. I think that's what's missing, since its just too perfect. But getting computers to make believable "mistakes" is much harder than you would expect. The Lego Movie and even something as old as the Iron Giant were very proud of the techniques they had to emulate different mediums with CGI.

Pretty sure it was because their studio burned down just before they started the project, so they couldn't feasably deliver on it in traditional animation, ergo dreamworks.

While it may be related, this was the official reason given. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4720176.stm

Holy shit, i have the first two seasons of that on DVD. Haven't watched in more than a decade.

Oh yeah that's way too late into production. Nevermind.

still watch the VHS of Grand Day Out my granddad bought in the 90s from time to time

I had a VHS called Aardman Classics when I was younger that had all their old shorts on it. It was mainly made up of less family friendly stuff that blew my mind, and made me really appreciate claymation. I can't say I've really kept up with there output in recent years, but anyone still doing claymation is alright in my books.

https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/112976/dd6f7c15-90e2-4ba1-9e10-5701ed3714f5/Screenshot_1.png c u r s e d