I always knew the guys at DreamWorks were dumb for not making their marriage to Aardman work. But here's more proof.
Yes, I know the guys at DreamWorks are more about the franchise than about creating great animated movies with compelling stories. But you wouldn't think their desire to make piles and piles of money would interfere with them messing with a good thing. But that's exactly what they did when they tried to "improve" Aardman Animation.
Aardman had made themselves one of the most respected animation studios in the world, winning multiple Oscar awards for their Wallace and Gromit short films. But DreamWorks obviously didn't have a clue when it came to working with the Bristol-based company. Wallace and Gromit has a sizable cult audience of Anglophiles in the U.S., one that DreamWorks could have used as a base to develop Aardman's movies in North America.
Unfortunately, DreamWorks didn't see it that way. They tried to water down Aardman's distinctive British sensibilities, in an attempt to make them more palatable to American audiences. Some of their ideas were truly insane: at one point, DreamWorks wanted Aardman to replace long-time Wallace voice actor Peter Sallis with someone North American audiences would recognize. I think I can speak for everyone when I say that decision would have infuriated fans of the show.
Undiluted British humour is capable of playing well in North America: witness the continued mania over Monty Python for proof. But DreamWorks, in their craving for the quick buck, couldn't appreciate that. They tried to dilute Aardman's style (a style that had already earned them admirers around the world) and made something that neither Americans nor Britons wanted to see. Nice one.
I only hope that Aardman can find a smarter North American distributor and we can see their next flick (most likely the Bob Hoskins vehicle Tortoise Versus Hare) without anyone trying to second-guess them.
Don't believe me? Check out these genius Purple and Brown spots and realize that Katzenberg and Company deserve a boot to the head for trying to fix what wasn't broken and nearly breaking it in the process.
