Aardman Animations

It's not often noted in the history books, but Queen Victoria simply couldn't stand pirates. In fact, the words "I Hate Pirates" are prominently carved on the royal crest. You could look it up. Well, actually, you can't, because the wacky folks at Aardman Animations made it up as a key plot point of their delightful"The Pirates! Band of Misfits,"a clever piece of business that is a complete pleasure to experience. Based on a novel by Gideon Defoe, who also wrote the screenplay, "Pirates" follows the exploits, such as they are, of Pirate Captain (wonderfully voiced by Hugh Grant)

DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc., the Glendale-based entertainment company led by Hollywood film veteran Jeffrey Katzenberg, is expected to lay off up to 20% of its 2,200-employee workforce, following a decision to shelve production of the movie "Me and My Shadow. " The animation industry giant, home of the animated "Shrek," "Kung Fu Panda" and "Madagascar" films, also said it was changing the release date for its movie "Mr. Peabody & Sherman" from Nov. 1 to March 7, 2014, at the recommendation of its new distributor, 20th Century Fox. As a result of the decision, "Me and My Shadow," which had been scheduled for release in March 2014, will suspend production and go back into development.

Investigators said Friday they have ruled out arson as the cause of a fire in Bristol, England, that destroyed the archive of Wallace & Gromit creator Aardman Animations. The Oct. 10 blaze, which began in a ground-floor office of the animator's Victorian warehouse, resulted from an electrical fault in an appliance, they said. Hundreds of sets, props and models from the company's animated clay films were destroyed.

In a golden age for computer-generated animation, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has rewarded a comparably antique technique - stop-motion animation - with three of its five Oscar nominations for animated feature. "Frankenweenie," directed by Tim Burton, "ParaNorman," directed by Chris Butler and Sam Fell, and "The Pirates! Band of Misfits," directed by Peter Lord, were all made using stop-motion, a homespun, arduous process that requires animators to adjust a puppet's movement frame-by-frame to tell a story.

Wallace & Gromit are heading to the beach for a grand day out filled with cracking contraptions, Wensleydale cheese and family-friendly thrills. > Photos: Wallace & Gromit Thrill-O-Matic at Blackpool Pleasure Beach Set to open in 2013, the $7.8 million Wallace & Gromit Thrill-O-Matic dark ride at the United Kingdom's Blackpool Pleasure Beach will whisk visitors through the world of the eccentric cheese-eating inventor and his anthropomorphic dog....

Charles Solomon closes an otherwise competent article on clay animation with a ridiculous criticism of "Toy Story 2," observing that the characters "remain plastic toys who come to life, rather than animals and people" ("In 'Chicken Run,' a Charming New Art Form Takes Shape," July 3). Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't that the basic premise of the "Toy Story" films? The charm in Nick Park's films comes not from the "tactile surfaces and organic movements" of clay, but from his ability to create appealing characters and entertaining stories--something that is possible in any medium, including computer graphics.

"Ratatouille" swept the 35th annual Annie Awards Friday, winning 10 awards including best animated feature, plus directing and writing honors for Brad Bird. The Pixar/Disney release about a French rat who dreams of becoming a master chef in Paris has already won the Golden Globe for best animated feature and is considered the front-runner for the Oscar in the animated feature category. The animation awards were announced by the International Animated Film Society and were scheduled to be handed out Friday night in a ceremony at UCLA's Royce Hall, hosted by Tom Kenny, best known as the voice of SpongeBob SquarePants.

"What happens in our films is a bit like what happens when you watch a good ventriloquist: You believe that doll on his knee is alive and speaking," explains David Sproxton, who runs the Aardman Animations studio with his friend, Peter Lord. "If there's conviction behind the animation, it carries across: You believe the character on the screen, despite the fact that it's made of balsa wood and clay, and someone's putting words in its mouth."

DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc., the Glendale-based entertainment company led by Hollywood film veteran Jeffrey Katzenberg, is expected to lay off up to 20% of its 2,200-employee workforce, following a decision to shelve production of the movie "Me and My Shadow. " The animation industry giant, home of the animated "Shrek," "Kung Fu Panda" and "Madagascar" films, also said it was changing the release date for its movie "Mr. Peabody & Sherman" from Nov. 1 to March 7, 2014, at the recommendation of its new distributor, 20th Century Fox. As a result of the decision, "Me and My Shadow," which had been scheduled for release in March 2014, will suspend production and go back into development.

DreamWorks Animation may end up losing nearly $100 million on its recent holiday release "Rise of the Guardians. " That's the sobering prediction of Lazard Capital Markets analyst Barton Crockett.  In a research note on Wednesday, Crockett said he expects the Glendale-based studio will take a $96 million write-down on "Rise of the Guardians," which has been a rare box office flop for DreamWorks. 'Rise of the Guardians,' which cost about $145 million to make, has generated $261 million in global box office ticket sales since its debut in late November, well below that of a typical DreamWorks Animation movie.  The movie -- about a group of folk heroes, including the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus, who join forces to protect children from an evil nemesis -- has yet to open in New Zealand, Poland, Turkey and Japan.

DreamWorks Animation may end up losing nearly $100 million on its recent holiday release "Rise of the Guardians. " That's the sobering prediction of Lazard Capital Markets analyst Barton Crockett.  In a research note on Wednesday, Crockett said he expects the Glendale-based studio will take a $96 million write-down on "Rise of the Guardians," which has been a rare box office flop for DreamWorks. 'Rise of the Guardians,' which cost about $145 million to make, has generated $261 million in global box office ticket sales since its debut in late November, well below that of a typical DreamWorks Animation movie.  The movie -- about a group of folk heroes, including the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus, who join forces to protect children from an evil nemesis -- has yet to open in New Zealand, Poland, Turkey and Japan.

"Brave," "Frankenweenie," "Hotel Transylvania," "ParaNorman," "Rise of the Guardians," "The Pirates! Band of Misfits," "The Rabbi's Cat" and "Wreck-It Ralph" have earned nominations for  animated film of the year for the Annie Awards. Notably missing from the best picture list were "Ice Age: Continental Drift" and "Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted. " The announcements Monday for the 40th annual Annie Awards, presented by the International Animated Film Society, ASIFA-Hollywood, encompass 30 categories including film, TV production, commercials, short subjects, video games, student films and honorary and achievement awards.

Wallace & Gromit are heading to the beach for a grand day out filled with cracking contraptions, Wensleydale cheese and family-friendly thrills. > Photos: Wallace & Gromit Thrill-O-Matic at Blackpool Pleasure Beach Set to open in 2013, the $7.8 million Wallace & Gromit Thrill-O-Matic dark ride at the United Kingdom's Blackpool Pleasure Beach will whisk visitors through the world of the eccentric cheese-eating inventor and his anthropomorphic dog....

It's not often noted in the history books, but Queen Victoria simply couldn't stand pirates. In fact, the words "I Hate Pirates" are prominently carved on the royal crest. You could look it up. Well, actually, you can't, because the wacky folks at Aardman Animations made it up as a key plot point of their delightful"The Pirates! Band of Misfits,"a clever piece of business that is a complete pleasure to experience. Based on a novel by Gideon Defoe, who also wrote the screenplay, "Pirates" follows the exploits, such as they are, of Pirate Captain (wonderfully voiced by Hugh Grant)

The Pirate Captain, the lead swashbuckler voiced by Hugh Grant in the new stop-motion animated film"The Pirates! Band of Misfits," possesses an overweening sense of optimism and some spectacular facial hair. It was the latter - a dense nest of curlicues that the character repeatedly refers to as his "luxuriant beard" - that kept the filmmakers up at night. Model makers labored for months to find a natural way to animate the rubber whiskers, eventually fashioning a mechanism out of the tuning head of a guitar to make the beard spring to life.

The clumsy son of a washed-up Santa and his curmudgeonly grandfather embark on an audacious mission to deliver a Christmas present to a little girl in Cornwall, England. Also embarking on a daring mission are the new studio partners behind the unconventional Santa tale, "Arthur Christmas," which marks the first collaboration between Sony Pictures Animation and British animation house Aardman Animations. Both companies have a lot riding on the success of the 3-D CG animated movie, which debuts in U.S. theaters Wednesday.

Anyone interested in surveying the state of the personal animated film should consider a new series of videocassettes issued by Expanded Entertainment. In addition to "Creature Comforts" and "Next!," Aardman Animations offers four examples of stop-motion work from the innovative London Studio.

DreamWorks Animation's third-quarter earnings beat Wall Street expectations Tuesday, but analysts remained skeptical about how well the studio's animated release, "Flushed Away," would fare when it debuts this weekend. It's up against Walt Disney Co.'s family film, "The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause," starring Tim Allen. DreamWorks Chief Executive Jeffrey Katzenberg said it was hard nowadays to find a weekend that isn't jam-packed with family fare.

Growing up in Belgium, the animating duo of Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar loved to play with plastic toy figurines. "I had a neighbor who I was kind of jealous of because he had more," said Aubier on the phone from New York, speaking through a translator."

"Ratatouille" swept the 35th annual Annie Awards Friday, winning 10 awards including best animated feature, plus directing and writing honors for Brad Bird. The Pixar/Disney release about a French rat who dreams of becoming a master chef in Paris has already won the Golden Globe for best animated feature and is considered the front-runner for the Oscar in the animated feature category. The animation awards were announced by the International Animated Film Society and were scheduled to be handed out Friday night in a ceremony at UCLA's Royce Hall, hosted by Tom Kenny, best known as the voice of SpongeBob SquarePants.