When we heard the news that Aardman Animation had lost its deal with DreamWorks, we couldn’t help but think of Nick Park at the Oscars, comedy bow tie, cheeky schoolboy grin – and we felt a heavy weight of sadness.
The nail in the coffin for Aardman has been the poor box office performance of Flushed Away, which set the studio back around $145 million but has only managed to make around $39 million back.
The two firms have previously collaborated on Chicken Run and Wallace And Gromit but DreamWorks activated the option in the contract that ceases the partnership.
Park and his crew are currently working on comic caveman tale, Crood Awakening, co-scribbled by Python legend John Cleese. Aardman will now be sniffing out a new distributor for the project.
