And the Simpsons didn't make up "crapulance" ("free to wallow in my own crapulance"--according the Simpsons dictionary it's actually been word since the 19th century. Meaning "sleaziness" and so forth.
Flushed Away
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Actually, a couple of years ago the word "d'oh!" was offically added to the Oxford dictionary.
And the Simpsons didn't make up "crapulance" ("free to wallow in my own crapulance"--according the Simpsons dictionary it's actually been word since the 19th century. Meaning "sleaziness" and so forth.
And the Simpsons didn't make up "crapulance" ("free to wallow in my own crapulance"--according the Simpsons dictionary it's actually been word since the 19th century. Meaning "sleaziness" and so forth.
You can’t just have your characters announce how they feel! That makes me feel angry!
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I think sometime in November...?
It's also being animated half at Glendale, with DW story people.
I didn't either.BTW, I didn't have "First Flight" with OTH. Did anyone else?
As long as it's got that good 'ol Aardman charm, it should be pretty good.
It's also being animated half at Glendale, with DW story people.
You can’t just have your characters announce how they feel! That makes me feel angry!
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Oh G-d no...
DW and Aardman split up? How?????
This seems bad, but maybe it's for the best. Maybe Aardman will go back to clay or...I don't know. What the heck happened?!
DW and Aardman split up? How?????
This seems bad, but maybe it's for the best. Maybe Aardman will go back to clay or...I don't know. What the heck happened?!
Last edited by ShyViolet on October 5th, 2006, 6:20 am, edited 2 times in total.
You can’t just have your characters announce how they feel! That makes me feel angry!
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Actually, somehow I'm not all that surprised. Something seemed a little wrong, maybe because we've been hearing so little about Flushed Away.
It seems a lot more DreamWorks-y than Aardman-y to tell the truth. That might have caused some of the tension.
Still, it's kind of a shock.
Wonder what this will mean when Academy Awards time rolls around and DW Over the Hedge is presumebly "in competition" with Flushed Away?
Hoo boy.
It seems a lot more DreamWorks-y than Aardman-y to tell the truth. That might have caused some of the tension.
Still, it's kind of a shock.
Wonder what this will mean when Academy Awards time rolls around and DW Over the Hedge is presumebly "in competition" with Flushed Away?
Hoo boy.
You can’t just have your characters announce how they feel! That makes me feel angry!
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Well, this isn't being widely reported, that's for sure!
Does it come as any great surprise though? I don't think so. Aardman have always retained a "too British" flavor to their films for the broader US market, and none of them, from Chicken Run to Were-Rabbit, have broken any box office barriers.
Then we have Aardman's wish to keep things as they are and not bow to the suggestions made by Hollywood that might see their films doing better internationally (they're still big hits in their native UK though, of course). I think the latest creative spats over Flushed Away have seen the relationship come unglued.
The box office of what was supposed to be the big breakthrough, the Wallace & Gromit feature, was surprisingly low given the popularity of the characters and how fun the film was, though DWs would have seen this as a disappointment, especially considering that, even with the Animated Feature Oscar, it was beaten on video by sales of a Disney sequel (Bambi II).
Certainly, Aardman were handed and ordered to pull off creative changes in the making of Flushed Away, not least because of W&G's underperformance. This would have rubbed up Aardman the wrong way, not helped by the insistence of DWs to produce the film in CG, only for half of it to end up being animated in the US.
To be fair, I think Flushed Away has been getting good exposure. There have been lots of trailers, posters and buzz floating about, and the only insert in the Over The Hedge DVD is a sticker sheet promoting the new film as well as another trailer on the disc.
On DWs part, it will severely lower their combined annual output back to just one film per year, while for Aardman, they now have the uphill struggle to keep their larger operation going and find a new distributor who is going to be willing to fund their movies.
For audiences, it sadly means that it looks like the John Cleese comedy Crood Awakening and the long-in-development The Tortoise And The Hare won't be happening after all...
Does it come as any great surprise though? I don't think so. Aardman have always retained a "too British" flavor to their films for the broader US market, and none of them, from Chicken Run to Were-Rabbit, have broken any box office barriers.
Then we have Aardman's wish to keep things as they are and not bow to the suggestions made by Hollywood that might see their films doing better internationally (they're still big hits in their native UK though, of course). I think the latest creative spats over Flushed Away have seen the relationship come unglued.
The box office of what was supposed to be the big breakthrough, the Wallace & Gromit feature, was surprisingly low given the popularity of the characters and how fun the film was, though DWs would have seen this as a disappointment, especially considering that, even with the Animated Feature Oscar, it was beaten on video by sales of a Disney sequel (Bambi II).
Certainly, Aardman were handed and ordered to pull off creative changes in the making of Flushed Away, not least because of W&G's underperformance. This would have rubbed up Aardman the wrong way, not helped by the insistence of DWs to produce the film in CG, only for half of it to end up being animated in the US.
To be fair, I think Flushed Away has been getting good exposure. There have been lots of trailers, posters and buzz floating about, and the only insert in the Over The Hedge DVD is a sticker sheet promoting the new film as well as another trailer on the disc.
On DWs part, it will severely lower their combined annual output back to just one film per year, while for Aardman, they now have the uphill struggle to keep their larger operation going and find a new distributor who is going to be willing to fund their movies.
For audiences, it sadly means that it looks like the John Cleese comedy Crood Awakening and the long-in-development The Tortoise And The Hare won't be happening after all...
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There's something to be said though for having what might be compared to, for lack of a better example, an art house label though. Just like Fox Spotlight or Warner Independent or Miramax, Aardman's films may not have had box office clout as their distributors' in house films, but they were far more critically acclaimed. And as the fact that those studios even have the independent labels shows, critical clout counts for something - even if it's nowhere near the stature of what the dollar is!
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Oh, absolutely. In fact, that's pretty much what I thought was keeping the partnership together. DreamWorks also has an on/off arrangement with Woody Allen for that very purpose.
I really do think the frustrations of working on Flushed Away have contributed to this more than anything though. For one, it can't be a very good decision overall to cut out the prestige that Aardman brought to DWs' output, nor also the mere fact that this will cut back DWs' dominance in the animation arena.
Disney were chasing Aardman before they teamed with DreamWorks, and one could easily see them ending up at such a label as Miramax, where they could produce their brand of animation with more of that "specialist" approach.
However, I can't but help think that this will hurt DreamWorks in some way. Perhaps, now that they're basically making movies for Paramount, that studio feels that they have enough with a combination between DWs Animation films and Nick Movies and could do without the added expense of having to promote Aardman's features too.
I know which I would pick out of a Wallace & Gromit or a Barnyard, though!
I really do think the frustrations of working on Flushed Away have contributed to this more than anything though. For one, it can't be a very good decision overall to cut out the prestige that Aardman brought to DWs' output, nor also the mere fact that this will cut back DWs' dominance in the animation arena.
Disney were chasing Aardman before they teamed with DreamWorks, and one could easily see them ending up at such a label as Miramax, where they could produce their brand of animation with more of that "specialist" approach.
However, I can't but help think that this will hurt DreamWorks in some way. Perhaps, now that they're basically making movies for Paramount, that studio feels that they have enough with a combination between DWs Animation films and Nick Movies and could do without the added expense of having to promote Aardman's features too.
I know which I would pick out of a Wallace & Gromit or a Barnyard, though!
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Well, this isn't being widely reported, that's for sure!
Yeah, I only found out about it because of brief reference to it in the summary of the NYT story about the CG animaton glut ("Th-th-that's all folks?") in the news section.
I tried to find other info, but came up with nothing!
I kinda hope, however, that this will in some way lead to Disney buying DWA.
Yeah, that was when Katzenberg was there....Disney were chasing Aardman before they teamed with DreamWorks,
You can’t just have your characters announce how they feel! That makes me feel angry!