![\"cracking-contraptions.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/cracking-contraptions.jpg\")
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Cracking Contraptions: The Tellyscope<\/em><\/p>\n Kristin here\u2014<\/p>\n David and I are currently plugging away on revising our Film History<\/em> textbook. In setting out to update the section on Aardman animation, I ran into difficulties pinning down the dates of certain television series or the director of a given short film. Indeed, I was quite surprised at the dearth of complete chronologies or filmographies for such a famous and important company.<\/p>\n The obvious sources such as Wikipedia and the Internet Movie Data Base, are helpful but sketchy. Aardman\u2019s own \u201cHistory\u201d section<\/a> on its official website is even briefer–and ends in 2005. The filmography in Peter Lord and Brian Sibley\u2019s coffee-table book, Creating 3-D Animation <\/em>(p. 189), is far from complete. (I must confess that I’m still using the first edition, but even so the filmography is sketchy for the period it covered. The revised edition<\/a> came out in 2004.) Each source was, however, incomplete in different ways. I decided to try and compile as comprehensive a chronology\/filmography as I could as a research and reference tool. This turned out to be a considerable task. Given how little of this work will end up in the textbook, I decided that I might as well offer it to the world.<\/p>\n I expected to find one or more fan-originated sites that would provide additional information, as so often happens in the world of popular culture. The main \u201cunofficial\u201d site<\/a> that came up when I Googled Aardman is actually an online shop with scarcely any actual information.<\/p>\n What follows is not by any means complete. It\u2019s more like a rough draft for a filmography, though it’s more detailed than any that I have found so far. No doubt it has gaps and perhaps inaccuracies. One problem I encountered is that dates given in various filmographies seem to waver between when a film was made, when it was copyrighted, and when it was released to theaters or first shown in TV. I\u2019ve tried to stick to release\/broadcast dates when I could find them.<\/p>\n Aardman has produced many ephemeral animations for station-identification logos, credit sequences, and websites, as well as perhaps hundreds of commercials. I’ve made no attempt to include commercials, apart from the Heat Electric series, which are available on DVD. The following primarily includes television shorts and series, as well as films.<\/p>\n My main sources of information are: The Internet Movie Datebase; the history section<\/a> of Aardman\u2019s official website (which ends with 2005); the Big Cartoon Database’s Aardman page<\/a>; Lord and Sibley\u2019s Creating 3-D Animation<\/em>; Insideaard<\/em> (a booklet included in the British DVD Aardman Classics<\/em>); and the credits of various Aardman films on DVD and on AtomFilms. Some details have been filled in from the Wikipedia entries on Nick Park<\/a> and Steve Box<\/a>. The main Aardman entry<\/a> is so far rather sketchy, though it includes some films not listed in other filmographies and links to entries on the individual films and series, given below.<\/p>\n [Added January 29: Aardman itself might seem to be the ideal place to start, but the company doesn’t currently have a list of all its productions. It recently hired an archivist who, among other tasks, plans to compile such a list, including the commercials. In the meantime, this entry can serve as a stop-gap reference source.]<\/p>\n * indicates a music video, as identified in Lord and Sibley.<\/p>\n 1970s<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n c. 1972<\/strong>, Friends and amateur animations Peter Lord and David Sproxton sell an untitled cel short featuring a \u201cSuperman\u201d gag (illustrated on p. 10 of Lord and Sibley) to the BBC for about \u20a415, for its \u201c<\/em>Vision On\u201d series (producer Patrick Dowling; aimed at deaf children).<\/em> The superhero\u2019s name, Aardman, would give the pair\u2019s company its name.<\/p>\n 1978<\/strong> Two films for \u201cAnimated Conversations\u201d series, BBC: Down and Out<\/em> (copyright 1977) and Confessions of a Foyer Girl<\/em> (left; both dir. Lord and Sproxton). First use of real-life interviews for soundtracks.<\/p>\n 1980s<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n 1979-1982<\/strong> Morph shorts for BBC. Initially part of \u201cVision On\u201d series, then \u201cTake Hart,\u201d<\/a> and finally on its own as \u201cThe Amazing Adventures of Morph\u201d (dated 1981-83 in Lord and Sibley; 1980-81 on imdb).<\/p>\n c. <\/strong>1982 Aardman starts making commercials. This becomes the financial staple of the studio and allows the company to move into larger facilities and hire more staff. Thereafter Aardman has produced 25-30 commercials a year. Lord and Sibley\u2019s filmography contains a list of the products\/companies for which Aardman made commercials from 1982 to 1998, but listed alphabetically without individual dates. (A few of these are on YouTube, such as this one for Chevron<\/a>.)<\/p>\n 1983<\/strong> \u201cConversation Pieces\u201d series: Sales Pitch<\/em>, Palmy Days<\/em>, Late Edition<\/em>, Early Bird<\/em>, and On Probation <\/em>(dir. Lord and Sproxton). All shown during one week on Channel Four for its first anniversary.<\/p>\n 1985<\/strong> Nick Park joins Aardman full time<\/p>\n 1986<\/strong> Babylon<\/em> (Lord and Sproxton) First film that Nick Park worked on. Channel Four<\/p>\n * Sledgehammer<\/em> (dir. Stephen Johnson; Aardman\u2019s portion animated by Park, Lord, Richard Goleszowski) Peter Gabriel music video.<\/p>\n 1986-91<\/strong> Aardman provides the \u201cPenny\u201d segments for five seasons of \u201cPee-wee\u2019s Playhouse,\u201d CBS.<\/p>\n * 1987<\/strong> My Baby Just Cares for Me<\/em> (dir. Lord; right)<\/p>\n Going Equipped<\/em> (dir. Lord)<\/p>\n * Barefootin\u2019<\/em> (dir. Goleszowski) On YouTube<\/a><\/p>\n * 1988<\/strong> Harvest for the World<\/em> (one sequence, dir. Sproxton, Lord, and Goleszowski)<\/p>\n Creature Comforts<\/em> spawns the “Heat Electric” series of ads<\/p>\n A Grand Day Out<\/em> (dir. Park) Produced by the National Film & Television School and finished with help from Aardman. The introduction of Wallace & Gromit.<\/p>\n Lifting the Blues<\/em> (dir. Sproxton)<\/p>\n 1990s<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n 1990<\/strong> Steve Box joins Aardman<\/p>\n 1990-91<\/strong> Rex the Runt: How Dinosaurs Became Extinct<\/em> (dir. Goleszowski)<\/p>\n Rex the Runt: Dreams<\/em> (Goloeszowski)<\/p>\n 1992<\/strong> Never Say Pink Fury Die<\/em> (dir. Louise Spraggon)<\/p>\n Love Me … Loves me Not<\/em> (dir. Jeff Newitt)<\/p>\n 1993<\/strong> The Wrong Trousers<\/em> (dir. Park). Co-financed by Aardman and the BBC. Shown during the Christmas season.<\/p>\n Not without My Handbag<\/em> (dir. Boris Kossmehl) Channel Four<\/p>\n 1995<\/strong> A Close Shave<\/em> (dir. Park), shown on the BBC at Christmas.<\/p>\n The Title Sequence<\/em> (dir. Luis Cook and Dave Alex Riddett)<\/p>\n The Morph Files<\/em> (dir. Lord and Sproxton) BBC<\/p>\n 1996<\/strong> Rex the Runt: North by North Pole<\/em> (Goleszowski) \u201cPilot\u201d<\/p>\n Wat\u2019s Pig<\/em> (dir. Lord) Channel Four<\/p>\n Pop<\/em> (dir. Sam Fell)<\/p>\n * Never in Your Wildest Dreams<\/em> (dir. Bill Mather)<\/p>\n Stage Fright<\/em> (dir. Box, right)<\/p>\n Owzat<\/em> (dir. Mark Brierly)<\/p>\n 1998<\/strong> Humdrum<\/em> (dir. Peake) Channel Four and Canal +<\/p>\n Al Dente <\/em>(dir. Brierly)<\/p>\n \u201cRex the Runt\u201d (dir. Goleszowski) 13 episodes for BBC2, aired December 1998 to January 1999<\/p>\n \u201cThe Angry Kid\u201d series (dir. Darren Walsh) 3 episodes posted on the internet by AtomFilms<\/p>\n * Viva Forever<\/em> (dir. Box)<\/p>\n 1999<\/strong> \u201cThe Angry Kid\u201d (dir. Darren Walsh) 13 episodes distributed on the internet by AtomFilms<\/p>\n Minotaur and Little Nerkin<\/em> (dir. Nick Mackie) Theatrical release<\/p>\n Rabbits!<\/em> (dir. Sam Fell)<\/p>\n 2000s<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n 2000 <\/strong>\u201cThe Angry Kid\u201d (dir. Walsh) episodes 14-25 (continuation of season one)<\/p>\n Chicken Run<\/em> (dir. Lord and Park) Aardman\u2019s first feature. Released in the U.S. by DreamWorks and in the U.K. by Path\u00e9.<\/p>\n Non-Domestic Appliance<\/em> (dir. Sergio Delfino) This and the next four films were posted on AtomFilms in 2003.<\/p>\n Chunga Chui<\/em> (dir. Stefano Cassini)<\/p>\n Comfy<\/em> (dir. Seth Watkins)<\/p>\n Ernest<\/em> (dir. Darren Robbie)<\/p>\n Hot Shot<\/em> (dir. Michael Cash)<\/p>\n The Deadline <\/em>(dir. Stefan Marjoram) A CGI short imitating Aardman’s traditional claymation style, made for an Aardman retrospective in New York. Nickelodeon subsequently commissioned twenty one-minute episodes with the same characters to create the series The Presenters (The Deadline<\/em> on YouTube<\/a>.)<\/p>\n 2002<\/strong> \u201cCracking Contraptions\u201d (dir. Lloyd Price and Christopher Sadler) Ten episodes shown by BBC during the Christmas season.<\/p>\n Chump<\/em> (dir. Fell) Theatrical<\/p>\n 2003<\/strong> \u201cCreature Comforts\u201d (dir. Goleszowski) First season, 13 episodes, ITV1<\/p>\n \u201cThe Angry Kid\u201d moves from the internet to BBC3<\/em><\/p>\n 2004 <\/strong>The Angry Kid: Who Do You Think You Are?<\/em> (dir. Walsh) 22 minute film outside the series.<\/p>\n 2005<\/strong> Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit<\/em> (dir. Box and Park) Released in the U.S. by DreamWorks and in the U.K. by United International Pictures.<\/p>\n \u201cPlanet Sketch\u201d (dir. ?) 13 episodes, 2005-2006. For a breakdown of episodes, see the Wikipedia entry<\/a>.<\/p>\n Creature Comforts<\/em>, second season, ITV starting in October.<\/p>\n 2006 <\/strong> Flushed Away<\/em> (dir. David Bowers and Fell) Distributed in the U.S. by DreamWorks and in the U.K. by United International Pictures. Aardman’s first CGI feature.<\/p>\n Purple and Brown<\/em> (dir. Richard Webber) 21 episodes, Nickelodeon U.K. (Episode list<\/a> on Wikipedia; a collection of the YouTube postings have been collected here<\/a>, with some repetition.)<\/p>\n 2007<\/strong> January, DreamWorks terminates its five-feature contract with Aardman (claiming a write-off of $25 million for Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit<\/em> and $109 million for Flushed Away<\/em>)<\/p>\n \u201cPib and Pog\u201d (dir. Peake) Five shorts for the AtomFilms site: The Kitchen, X-Factor, Peter\u2019s Room, Daddy\u2019s Study,<\/em> and The Dentist<\/em> (copyright date 2006)<\/p>\n April, Sony announces that it has a deal to distribute Aardman features<\/p>\n \u201cShaun the Sheep\u201d (dir. Sadler) 20 episodes, BBC, first series March, second series September.<\/p>\n \u201cCreature Comforts America\u201d (dir. ?) CBS, seven episodes. Three episodes aired in June, and the rest were cancelled due to low ratings.<\/p>\n The Pearce Sisters<\/em> (dir. Cook) Theatrical<\/p>\n \u201cChop Socky Chooks\u201d (dir. Delfino) 26 episodes, Cartoon Network (For character list, see Wikipedia entry<\/a>)<\/p>\n 2008<\/strong> \u201cCreature Discomforts\u201d (dir. Steve Harding-Hill) Four public-service spots featuring disabled characters (with sound provided by people with disabilities), on ITV beginning January (also online<\/a>).<\/p>\n Wallace and Gromit in Trouble at Mill<\/em> (dir. Park) Half-hour Wallace & Gromit film to be shown by the BBC at Christmas.<\/p>\n [February 19, 2009: This films was shown under the title Wallace and Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death. The DVD is currently available for pre-orders on Amazon.UK<\/a> and will be released March 23.]<\/p>\n 1000 Sing\u2019n Slugs<\/em> (dir. ?) Bonus disc for re-issue of Flushed Away<\/em><\/p>\n 2009<\/strong> Announcement of \u201cTimmy\u201d (dir. Jackie Cockle) Spin-off from \u201cShaun the Sheep\u201d aimed at pre-schoolers. 52 ten-minute episodes for BBC.<\/p>\n These features are currently announced as in progress: Tortoise vs. Hare<\/em> (2009), Pirates<\/em> (2009), Untitled Wallace & Gromit project (2010), Operation Rudolph<\/em> (2010), and The Cat Burglars<\/em> (2010).<\/p>\n Aardman has a CGI department mainly used for commercials and station-identification logos, including BBC\u2019s three \u201cBlob\u201d spots, Nickelodeon\u2019s \u201cPresenters,\u201d and BBC2\u2019s \u201cBooksworms\u201d<\/p>\n Lord and Sibley list an undated, untitled public-information film on HIV\/AIDS.<\/p>\n DVDs and the Internet<\/strong><\/p>\n I won\u2019t attempt a complete list of DVDs, given that some of these films have been repackaged in various compilations. I\u2019ll mention the ones in our own collection, which cover most of what is available on DVD.<\/p>\n Leaving aside the Wallace & Gromit films for now, the crucial DVD for the studio\u2019s output is Aardman Classics<\/em><\/a>, which contains 25 shorts plus 12 \u201cHeat Electric\u201d ads that use interviews with animals in the style of Creature Comforts<\/em>. Unfortunately this DVD was issued only in the U.K. [Added January 22: It was also issued in Australia with Region 4 coding.] It\u2019s still available, and if you have a multi-standard player and are interested in Aardman, I can\u2019t recommend it highly enough. It contains most of the films to 1998, going back to Confessions of a Foyer Girl<\/em> and Down and Out<\/em>. Presumably for rights reasons, it does not include the classic music video, Sledgehammer<\/em>.<\/p>\n Sledgehammer<\/em> is included on the Peter Gabriel: Play the Videos<\/em><\/a> DVD. I assume the quality there is distinctly better than the many copies available on YouTube<\/a> and elsewhere on the Internet. By the way, the Quay Brothers did the rest of the animation for Sledgehammer<\/em>.<\/p>\n Some of the TV series are available on DVD. Both seasons of \u201cRex the Runt\u201d <\/a>were released as a boxed set in the U.S. It\u2019s rather pricey but has a 260-minute running time and some minor extras. The British DVD of the first season of \u201cThe Angry Kid\u201d is now out of print. Both seasons of the British series “Creature Comforts”<\/a> are available as a set in the U.S. The ill-fated “Creature Comforts America”<\/a> has also been released. So far the two \u201cShaun the Sheep\u201d series are only available in the U.K., separately or in a boxed set<\/a> containing both.<\/p>\n Chicken Run<\/em>, Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit,<\/em> and Flushed Away<\/em> are all out on DVD. (The Were-Rabbit<\/em> disc includes the classic 1997 Steve Box short, Stage Fright<\/em>, as well as some good making-of supplements.) I had held off ordering Flushed Away<\/em> in the hope, probably vain given the film\u2019s weak U.S. box-office showing, that an edition with making-of bonuses will be forthcoming. Now, however, a re-issue<\/a> (NTSC, but with no region coding) is coming out on February 19. (U.K. here<\/a>.) It includes a second \u201call-new slugtacular disc,\u201d 1000 Sing\u2019n Slugs <\/em>(not sold separately). Forget the making-ofs, my pre-order is in!<\/p>\n Finally, the all-important question: which DVD of the three classic Wallace & Gromit shorts to purchase? For once the American disc, \u201cWallace & Gromit in Three Amazing Adventures,\u201d has the advantage, in that it includes all ten episodes of the \u201cCracking Contraptions\u201d series. These are all available on the Aardman website<\/a>, but for a larger image and better visual quality, fans will want the DVD. The British disc, \u201cWallace & Gromit: Three Cracking Adventures!\u201d has only the three films and a bonus, \u201cThe Amazing World of Wallace & Gromit,\u201d a brief history of Aardman that I remember as being pretty good.<\/p>\n Apart from its own website, the official outlet for Aardman shorts on the Internet is AtomFilms, which currently has lists 37 titles under the category \u201cThe Best of Aardman.\u201d<\/a> A group of very short films, Non-Domestic Appliance,<\/em> Chunga Chui, Comfy, Ernest, <\/em>and Hot Shot<\/em> (all copyright 2000 but posted in 2003) look to me as if they might have been training exercises for young animators who also worked on ![\"confessions-of-a-foyer-girl.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/confessions-of-a-foyer-girl.jpg\" "\\"confessions-of-a-foyer-girl.jpg\\"")
1976<\/strong> Aardman Animation founded<\/p>\n![\"my-baby-just-cares-for-me.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/my-baby-just-cares-for-me.jpg\" "\\"my-baby-just-cares-for-me.jpg\\"")
<\/p>\n![\"next.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/next.jpg\" "\\"next.jpg\\"")
1989<\/strong> \u201cLip Sync\u201d series: Next<\/em> (dir. Barry Purves; left), Ident<\/em> (dir. Goleszowski; first appearance of Rex the Runt), Going Equipped<\/em> (dir. Lord), Creature Comforts<\/em> (dir. Park), War Story<\/em> (dir. Lord) Channel Four<\/p>\n![\"adam.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/adam.jpg\" "\\"adam.jpg\\"")
1991<\/strong> Adam<\/em> (Lord; right)<\/p>\n![\"pib-and-pog.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/pib-and-pog.jpg\" "\\"pib-and-pog.jpg\\"")
1994<\/strong> Pib & Pog<\/em> (dir. Peter Peake; left)<\/p>\n![\"stage-fright.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/stage-fright.jpg\" "\\"stage-fright.jpg\\"")
1997<\/strong> Dreamworks pre-buys the U.S. rights to Chicken Run<\/em><\/p>\n![\"rex-the-runt.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/rex-the-runt.jpg\" "\\"rex-the-runt.jpg\\"")
2001 <\/strong>\u201cRex the Runt\u201d (dir. Golwszowski; left) second season, BBC2, 13 episodes, aired September to December<\/p>\n![\"not-without-my-handbag.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/not-without-my-handbag.jpg\" "\\"not-without-my-handbag.jpg\\"")
American viewers restricted to Region 1 DVDs have far less available to them. The American DVD of Creature Comforts<\/em> (now out of print) contained only three other Aardman films: Wat\u2019s Pig<\/em>, Adam<\/em>, and Not without My Handbag <\/em>(left)\u2014among the best, no doubt, but far from the cornucopia on Aardman Classics<\/em>.<\/p>\n