SlodgerBlog

Aardman Animations is mourning the loss of most of its history following a blaze in its victorian wharehouse in Bristol.

The majority of the sets, props and models used in its Wallace and Gromit, Chicken Run, Morph and Creature Comforts films, plus awards and storyboards, have been lost. Fortunately none of the negatives were affected and the sets and models from their latest film - Curse of the Were-Rabbit were safe on display at a Bristol exhibition.

It was a terrible blow for the company at a time when they should have been celebrating the success of Curse of the Were-Rabbit, which went straight in at number one in the US box office.

Keiran Argo, Ardmann’s events and exhibitions manager, said “Aardman has been at the forefront of British animation and much of it has now been destroyed. One of the big things that has gone is the pie machine from Chicken Run, which was one of the largest pieces of set we have kept. It took months to research, develop and build at huge cost and was the centrepiece of many of our exhibitions over the years.”

Nick Park, however, put the tragedy into a more global perspective, saying it was “dreadful news” for the company but “not a big deal” compared with the earthquake in Pakistan.

(excerpts taken from an article in the Telegraph newspaper, 11^th October 2005)