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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.

19 of 189 comments (clear)

  1. I say by MadUndergrad · · Score: 5, Insightful

    good riddance to CG where it's neither needed nor wanted.

    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.

      --
      127.0.0.1
    2. Re:I say by 91degrees · · Score: 5, Informative

      Quite a bit actually. Mostly just effects, but IMDB says "The movie contains a considerable amount of CGI of all kinds, from drifting fog through to the bunny rabbits in the Bun-Vac. In all, there are over 700 shots that contain some kind of digital effects work.". But spiritted away had a lot of computer generated backgrounds. This is when CGI is used properly - when you don't really notice it.

    3. 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.

    4. 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.

      --
      Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
  2. Gromit by blowdog · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Oh well Gromit lets have a cup of tea and a nice bit of cheese. The UK still loves you Ardman

    1. Re:Gromit by elrous0 · · Score: 4, Insightful
      I hate doing a "me too!" post, but I would also like to chime in that there are PLENTY of us Americans who love Wallace and Gromit too (the same goes for Creature Comforts as well). And I absolutely DESPISE Dreamworks and their CGI crapfests.

      -Eric

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  3. Dreamworks... by VAY · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...when winning an Oscar just isn't enough.

    --
    What luck for rulers that men do not think. - Adolf Hitler
    1. Re:Dreamworks... by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Funny

      Oscars don't come with cheques
      No, but they used to come with a nice gift-bag, though.

      I've had it with this cheap-ass movie industry. If Dreamworks doesn't apologized to Wallace and Gromit, I'm going to strap some blinking cartoon characters around my body and go to the next Academy Awards ceremony.
      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
  4. As Wallace might've said... by clickety6 · · Score: 5, Funny


    "...everybody knows Hollywood's made of cheese".

    "They're crackers! We've forgotten they're crackers!"

    "No more Americans -- more trouble than they're worth! I could just fancy some cheese, Gromit. What do you say? Cheddar?... All's well that ends well, that's what I say. Uhmm... I do like a bit of gorgonzola..."

    "It's the wrong company Gromit. And they've gone wrong"

    Plus raised eyebrows and a pained look from Gromit of course!

    --
    ----------------------------------- My Other Sig Is Hilarious -----------------------------------
  5. Smart Move? by FeldBum · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The best two animated films Dreamworks put out since Toy Story and they're dropping the production company? I guess we can look forward Shark Tale 2: Out of Water, Farther Over the Hedge and Madagascar II: Kung Fu Panda (one of those is actually the real name for a planned sequel). Didn't Were Rabbit win a freakin' Oscar?

    1. Re:Smart Move? by owlnation · · Score: 4, Informative

      Toy Story was Pixar, not Dreamworks. Dreamworks did Shrek, which was excellent. Shrek 2 was better and Shrek 3 is coming soon.

      And while WereRabbit was a brilliant movie, Flushed away was really not.

  6. Re:How bad was it? by Knuckles · · Score: 5, Informative

    Exactly how unprofitable was it?

    Very, very unprofitable:

    Production Budget: $30,000,000
    Worldwide Gross: $185,724,838

    --
    "When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
  7. Re:How bad was it? by gbobeck · · Score: 5, Funny
    So, lets do the math...

    30,000,000
    - 185,724,838
    ------------
    - 155,724,838
    This movie suffered a whopping $-155,724,838 loss.
    --
    Navicula hydraulica plena anguilarum est. Omnes castelli tuus nostri sunt. Ed elli avea del cul fatto trombetta.
  8. Re:How bad was it? by Sexy+Bern · · Score: 5, Funny

    I wish I were that unsuccessful.

  9. Praise the Lord! by leptonhead · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Wallace and Gromit and Aardman's other work are such uniquely funny creations (notably, with the exception of the horrid Flushed Away) that I am very happy to see them separate from the marketing machine of Dreamworks. Hopefully this means we will be getting more of that subtle, relaxed British humor as opposed to try-hard material based on focus-group approval ratings that you can expect from a U.S. behemoth like Dreamworks. Not to say that the latter doesn't have its place in the entertainment industry, because it does - as has been proven by the many excellent achievements of this company - but coupled together with Aardman, there is no synergy, just mutual deprecation.

  10. The decision was made years ago by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This announcement is just the "official" one. The decision to dump Aardman was made years ago when Katzenberg was frustrated by Aardman's inability to turn Tortoise & The Hare from a deeply flawed concept (a mockumentary) into something American audiences would want to see. Aardman's refusal to relinquish the merchandise rights for W&G to Dreamworks was the final straw. Since then, we've just been seeing death spasms of this relationship.

    I'm not saying either party is in the wrong, but the whole deal was a disaster waiting to happen. The surprise success of Chicken Run gave everyone rose-tinted glasses. Katzenberg only ever really wanted W&G.

  11. Re:Simple reason by ettlz · · Score: 4, Funny

    Should I stick a Lady Hamilton joke in there?

    Oi! You leave Neil and Christine alone, thank-you very very much!

    Saucy bugger.

  12. Re:How bad was it? by Linker3000 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I think that should have been "What ho, Gromit - bit of a whoosh there, eh, lad?"

    --
    AT&ROFLMAO