(Source: www.dreamworksanimation.com)
After 5 months of denial, DreamWorks Animation finally admitted what everyone already knew: after constant acrimony, they and Aardman Animation (the British stop-motion studio best known for the award-winning Wallace and Gromit series) are splitting up.
In a statement on DreamWorks' website, both parties put the best face on what has been rumoured to be a very acrimonious divorce.
"I have had the pleasure and privilege of working with Peter Lord, David Sproxton, (Wallace and Gromit director) Nick Park and the Aardman team for almost ten years and highly respect their storytelling and filmmaking talents," said DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg. "I am proud of the work we have created together and also greatly admire Aardman's passion and expertise for stop motion filmmaking and brilliant storytelling.
"Today, DreamWorks Animation is focused on producing two computer animated movies per year, with a full film slate laid out into 2010. While I will always be a fan and an admirer of Aardman's work, our different business goals no longer support each other."
"We've enjoyed a hugely successful and creative relationship with Jeffrey and DreamWorks Animation," responded Lord and Sproxton, co-owners of Aardman Animations, in the same statement, "but both companies are aware that our ambitions have moved apart, and it feels like the right time to move on. Aardman has an ambitious slate of feature film projects in development and we will announce our future production and distribution plans shortly."
In 1999, the two animation studios signed an exclusive 5-movie deal with each other. Basically, Aardman would make the flicks and DreamWorks would distribute them. Their first movie together, 2000's Chicken Run, was a great success, raking in $106 million at the American box office.
However, storm clouds gathered over their next collaboration, Wallace and Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit. DreamWorks demanded that Aardman replace Peter Sallis (the voice of Wallace since 1989) with someone who American audiences would recognize. Aardman refused, recognizing that dumping Sallis would alienate longstanding Wallace and Gromit fans. The studio compromised by casting more familiar British actors like Helena Bonham Carter (Corpse Bride) and Ralph Fiennes (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) in other roles.
Despite turning a profit, Curse of the Were-Rabbit was more popular with critics than with audiences: it made $56 million in theatres but won the 2005 Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film.
Relations between the studios worsened while Aardman was working on 2006's Flushed Away. DreamWorks had dumped Aardman's original plan to make Flushed Away a pirate film, saying that pirates weren't commercial enough (I'm sure Johnny Depp and Disney would disagree). Then DreamWorks started animating parts of the movie in their studios in a bid for creative control, and to make Flushed Away a more commercial product.
Battles between the studios strained the moviemaking process and drove up costs: Flushed Away ended up costing $149 million to make, nearly $30 million more than Pixar's Cars. Despite opening to decent reviews, Flushed Away was unable to recoup its price tag in theatres, and the DreamWorks/Aardman partnership was doomed.
The split puts two Aardman projects in potential jeopardy: the John Cleese-penned Stone Age comedy Crood Awakening and the mockumentary Tortoise versus Hare, which sends up the Aesop's fable. Aardman is currently looking for a new North American distributor while DreamWorks pursues its motto of "sequels, sequels and more sequels."
