Aardman Studios 09:53

Aardman studios was founded in 1976 and began as a low budget project by Peter Lord and David Broxton. The two wanted to put their dream into action of creating animated motion pictures. The partnership had provided motions to the BBC for deaf children called "Vision On" which created Morph which was a simple clay character that is still used in an art programme on CBBC called "Smart".

Later in time Aardman produced many shorts for Channel 4 which included the "Conversation Pieces". At this point Aardman started hiring more animators. Three of these new animators made directional debut's with Aardman creating the "Lip Synch" series.

October 28 1999 was a very special day for Aardman studios as they had been signed a $250 million deal to create 5 feature films with DreamWorks (Now DreamWorks animation) which included Chicken Run. On 1 October 2006 just before the release of Flushed Away, The New York Times reported that due to creative differences DreamWorks animation and Aardman would not be extending their contract and the deal was officially terminated on January 30th 2007. Aardmans spokesperson, Arthur Sheriff stated "The business model of DreamWorks no longer suits Aardman and vice versa".

In April 2007 Aardman signed a three year deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment which was renewed in 2010. Aardman co-founder Peter Lord stated "We are all very excited by the potential and have a number of projects we are keen to bring to fruition with this new relationship. In June 2007 these ideas were released:

• Arthur Christmas
• The Pirates!
• The Cat Burglars
• And an untitled project involving Nick Park.

As well as being a huge contributor to the world of animation Aardman also provide generous resources and training to many young animators by providing awards in various animation festivals.

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