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Dreamworks Dumps Wallace and Gromit

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the just-need-some-space dept.

Tiger4 writes "Aardman Animation and Dreamworks are splitting their relationship. Apparently Dreamworks feels they lost money on 'Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were Rabbit' and 'Flushed Away.' So off to their separate ways they go. Aardman is going back to stop motion and clay, Dreamworks will be staying with their CGI ways." In addition, Aardman Animation announced that a new Wallace and Gromit film is in the works.

3 of 189 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I say by DarkLegacy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Funny, I didn't know that Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were Rabbitway featured any CG. It seemed like it was claymation to me. Just shows how realistic CG gets nowadays.

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  2. Re:I say by jimicus · · Score: 4, Interesting

    There was an article in a local newspaper interviewing Nick Park (his company's based in Bristol, UK) - he said that while he liked the flexibility CGI offered him, he didn't like working with a US team as communication was difficult and they lost too much control over the end result.

    I think this is just Dreamworks trying to gloss over that by announcing that it didn't make them any money so they want out.

  3. Re:I say by MsGeek · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Dreamworks basically has as much clue with regard to Aardman as Disney has with Studio Ghibli: NONE.

    Dreamworks buried both Curse of the Were-Rabbit and Flushed Away. They had NO IDEA how to promote the movies, and basically threw up their hands and said "OMG it's too British." They also took Innocence: Ghost In The Shell II and buried it. That was a freaking impressive movie on a big screen. It just doesn't have the same impact on your TV.

    Same with Disney. They have buried all of the movies they released for Studio Ghibli. They made more of a noise for Valiant than Howl's Moving Castle.

    I think that both Dreamworks and Disney see Aardman and Ghibli product respectively as DVD fodder. I suspect that Miyazaki-sensei will be the next one to take his ball and play elsewhere. The Aardman move was in the works even before Flushed Away was released. Aardman was ticked, to say the least, about how Were-rabbit was released.

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