Aardman’s 20 best films ranked!
September 23, 2019From early experiments in claymation TV to its forthcoming Shaun the Sheep big-screen sequel, we rate the animation studios output
20. My Baby Just Cares for Me (1987)
After it was used for a perfume ad, Nina Simones jazz classic made it into the top 10 in the autumn of 1987. Inspired, no doubt, by the (non-Aardman) video for a successful re-release of Jackie Wilsons Reet Petite earlier in the year, this music video became a second bite at claymation-meets-1950s. Peter Lord, who directed, went with a sultry singing cat and some artistic shots of piano keys.
19. Next (1990)
Aardman Animation secured a high-profile commission from Channel 4 at the end of the 80s: a five-part short film series called Lip Sync, mostly comprising animation of pre-recorded interview material. Next, directed by Barry Purves, deviates from the concept: its basic gag is that William Shakespeare himself is auditioning for an uninterested Peter Hall. On the stage, Shakespeare whizzes through references to every one of his plays; Hall couldnt be less impressed. Clever.
18. Going Equipped (1990)
A more orthodox interpretation of the Lip Sync concept: a small-time offender talks bluntly about prison life and how he became a law-breaker. It may not have the comedy disjunction of the more famous Creature Comforts short, from the same series, but the direct, untricksy treatment remains melancholy and even haunting.
17. Stage Fright (1997)
Steve Box, who would go on to direct the unlovely Spice Girls Viva Forever video and co-direct Curse of the Were-Rabbit, made his directorial debut with this impressive 11-minute short that mixes Nick Park-ish ingredients to considerably creepier effect. A vaudeville-act dog trainer called Tiny loses his confidence after clashing with Arnold, a hulking silent-film actor; it all ends up a bit Phantom of the Opera. Theres something a little bit freaky about it.
16. Adam (1992)
Lord was nominated for his first Oscar for this funny short, which showcases his more fingery, freeform style compared to Parks smoothly-polished modelling. A stream of jokes about the first created human, perched atop a tiny planet Earth, keeps this ticking along, with the real-flesh hand of God hammering points home. Not to get too meta, but there is some fun comment here on the god-like processes of claymation: Adam, after all, was fashioned out of clay in the first place. By the Lord. A coincidence? I think not.
15. Sledgehammer (1986)
Aardman was founded by Lord and Dave Sproxton in 1972, and early jobs included the opening credits for The Great Egg Race and squeaking homunculus Morph on Take Hart. But it was its involvement in the amazingly successful promo for Peter Gabriels Sledgehammer single in 1986 that put it firmly on the map. Sledgehammer wasnt strictly an Aardman production it was directed by Stephen R Johnson (famous for Talking Heads Road to Nowhere) but they did craft the still-spectacular animated sequences, which include painted clouds flitting across Gabriels face, Arcimboldo-esque singing vegetables and Parks legendary dancing chickens. Even if it runs out of ideas a bit in the final third, its still a great watch.
14. Wats Pig (1996)
Lord stretched his narrative muscles with this rather lovely 11-minute short, which resulted in his second Oscar nomination. There is something of Monty Python in its medieval setting: twin princes, separated at birth, one growing up in the castle, the other in a hovel just outside. Its the latter, of course, who has got the eponymous pig, the typically anthropomorphised critter beloved by Aardman, although perhaps not quite so instrumental to the narrative as Gromit. Lords deployment of a split screen, to parallel the brothers development, is inspired.
13. Flushed Away (2006)
Reports at the time suggested the production of this rodenty feature wasnt the happiest experience for Aardman, as backers Dreamworks put the hammer down after disappointing box-office figures for their previous collaboration, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. It shows on screen and led directly to the companies ending their agreement. Even if Aardman seems incapable of making a bad film, such is its iron grip on quality control, the pressure to abandon claymation and move into computer-generated animation led to a charm deficit. The film has got all the Aardman ingredients quirky characters, relentless gags, top-notch voice cast but theres something a tiny bit inauthentic about its vision of an underground London and, of course, the shiny, flaw-free visuals are a long way from the Aardman stock-in-trade.
12. Creature Comforts (1989)
The jewel in the crown of the Lip Synch series, and endlessly recycled since. Only five minutes long, Parks film manages to be both brilliantly simple and fantastically audacious at the same time; building on the idea of animating a vox pop interview (see Going Equipped, above) but switching in zoo animals to create a hilarious disjunction between voice and visuals. Not only did it nab the companys first Oscar, but it also turned into Aardmans financial safety net, via a string of popular TV ads in the 1990s and an ITV series in the 2000s.
11. Early Man (2018)
Aardmans ability to attract the cream of British acting talent has been one of its strengths, but to get Eddie Redmayne hot off his Oscar win for The Theory of Everything was a major coup. He plays Dug, a bucktoothed cave-kid who spearheads a stone age tribes contest with a more sophisticated bronze age civilisation through the medium of football. Conceived, as usual, with Aardmans amazing attention to detail, theres something a little CBBC about the basic football-match idea in a World Cup year, a slightly anxious attempt to try to reach a mass audience. Its still cute and funny, naturally.
10. The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! (2012)
Adapted from Gideon Defoes Pirates! book, this is rather openly aimed at the primary school audience, with that title namechecking two key obsessions of the bookish kid. A great cast (including Hugh Grant, Imelda Staunton and David Tennant) give it their all; if anything, they are hampered a little by an over-complex plot that shoehorns in a Pirate of the Year contest, Charles Darwin and a murderous Queen Victoria. It sounds great on paper, but ends up a little frenetic on screen.
9. A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon (2019)
Deriving from a throwaway gag in A Close Shave, Shaun the Sheep has become a safety blanket franchise for Aardman: after 150 episodes of the kid-friendly TV show, the second feature is just about to hit cinemas. I can report that its well up to scratch: a Spielbergian story of Shauns encounter with a blue-and-pink alien bunny who crash lands on a local pizza joint and ends up on Mossy Bottom farm. As charming and unpretentious as it gets.
8. A Grand Day Out (1989)
In retrospect, it seems quixotic that this opening salvo in the Wallace and Gromit series should have lost to Creature Comforts at the 1991 Oscars. Of course, thoughts of a national-treasure franchise were unlikely to be on anyones mind at the time, but this 25-minute tea-cosy space epic rendered in Plasticine was surely robbed, if only by Nick Park himself. All the series key elements are here: the scripts north of England mannerisms; the Jeeves-and-Wooster relationship of the central pair; the sheer fiendish delight in the Heath Robinson contraption Wallace comes up with; and the gentle knowingness of the film references. Compared with later efforts, it is perhaps not as drum-tight, story-wise (the wheeled cooker that wants to ski is still a headscratcher), but for a film school effort, its pretty sensational.
7. Arthur Christmas (2011)
Aardman had more success with its second stab at computer-animation: a fun Christmas movie directed by Sarah Smith and written by Peter Baynham. Like most Aardman films, this is notable for its terrific action sequences kicking off with a legion of elf-ninjas slamming millions of presents across the planet on Christmas Eve. Although there are family resemblances, this is actually pretty different from your traditional Aardman film: less obviously idiosyncratic and a little more conventional in story terms, reflecting the non-Aardman pedigree of the key talent. But it is impeccably put together and goes down a treat.
6. A Close Shave (1995)
Park was fully into his stride with this third in the Wallace and Gromit series and it got him yet another Oscar as well as a prime Christmas slot on the BBC. Adopting a similar genre backstop as The Wrong Trousers a robot dog plots to steal sheep this non-stop cavalcade of whimsy introduces the concept of Wallaces love life and a superb chase scene with Gromits detachable sidecar. As ever, the attention to detail and sense of atmosphere is fantastic.
5. Shaun the Sheep Movie (2015)
I have bit of a soft spot for this as I saw this being made; the patina of tea-time cheeriness masks a painstaking labour of love for everyone who worked on it. Perhaps not the massive hit Aardman has always been searching for, but it is an undeniably successful foray into cross-platform franchising. If that sounds mercenary, it doesnt come out in the film: its the most basically good-natured of Aardmans films, with only gentle sparring between the enterprising Shaun and officious dog Bitzer.
4. A Matter of Loaf and Death (2008)
More romance for Wallace in what would turn out to be Peter Salliss last time in the role; Wallaces yearning for former model Piella Bakewell achieves an implausibly tragic dimension after Piella is unmasked as a serial killer, shortly before ending up as crocodile food. Conceived on near-identical lines to A Close Shave, this is faultlessly realised, with a magnificent example of the by-now traditional high-speed chase as Wallace takes off after Piellas runaway bike. At the other end of the scale, Park shoehorns in a reference to James Camerons Aliens.
3. The Wrong Trousers (1993)
Clearly, it is hard to choose between the Wallace and Gromit shorts, especially as Park hit such a high standard so early and maintained it so well. But The Wrong Trousers gets the nod because it crystallised so much of what Aardman brought to the table: the jokey/sinister crime story; the homely details; and the astonishing application of real-world physics. The train chase scene has been rightly acclaimed as exciting to watch as anything in Raiders of the Lost Ark while Feathers McGraw, the penguin with the glove on his head, is an inscrutably memorable villain. Just as good 26 years on.
2. Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)
A W&G feature was no doubt inevitable, and after years of planning it finally emerged in 2005, in between the third and fourth shorts. If it aint broke, dont fix it was clearly the motto: a genre-movie superstructure (Hammer horror); a lovelorn Wallace; ridiculously complicated home inventions; and thrillingly inventive chases. The directors, Nick Park and Steve Box, imported major guest-acting talent, in the shape of Helena Bonham Carter and Ralph Fiennes and its possible that Aardman unlocked Fienness comedy gene, more recently seen in The Grand Budapest Hotel and A Bigger Splash. Were-Rabbit does all that the short films do, only on a bigger canvas; the payoff for the audience is proportionately larger.
1. Chicken Run (2000)
I will admit that I was bit of a sceptic when Aardman announced it would move into feature films after it had signed its deal with Dreamworks. Could this comfy-cardigan cottage industry outfit with a few TV shorts behind it really do it on the big stage? But Aardmans first full-length film, masterminded by Park and Lord, remains a treat that even the ensuing disgrace of Mel Gibson cant ruin. Like all Aardman films, this has a simple premise The Great Escape with chickens but such is the animators ability to humanise the birds plight that it turns into an improbably emotional epic. It is also arguably Julia Sawalhas finest hour she voices Ginger, the feisty hen who practically forces her dozy fellow chickens to save themselves while Gibson does a fine job of Rocky, the rooster who becomes the great hope of saving everyone from the dreaded pie machine. The film proved that Aardman could hold its own with Hollywoods great animation traditions, as a beautifully judged balance was struck between the two. Chicken Run was a massive hit, too, giving Aardman some elbow room; but it didnt last long. In retrospect, Chicken Run actually looks a little miraculous: how on earth did Aardman pull it off?
Quick guide
The best of ‘Ranked!’
Actors playing nightmarish versions of themselves in cinema – ranked!
Michael Caine’s best films – ranked!
The 10 best Glenn Close movies – ranked!
Tom Cruise – top 20 movies – ranked!
Judi Dench – every film – ranked!
Ryan Gosling movies – ranked!
10 best Hugh Grant films – ranked!
Nicole Kidmans top 10 films – ranked!
The best and the worst Jennifer Lopez films – ranked!
All Helen Mirren’s 61 movies – ranked!
Robert Redford’s greatest screen roles – ranked!
Winona Ryder’s 20 best films – ranked!
Movie Santa Clauses – ranked!
Maggie Smith’s 20 best films ranked!
Jason Statham – every film – ranked!
Emma Thompson’s best films – ranked!
Wes Anderson movies – ranked!
The Coen brothers films – ranked!
Stanley Kubrick’s best films – ranked!
Biopics trashed by families, friends and fans – ranked!
Purr evil: cats in movies with hidden agendas – ranked!
Dog weepie movies – ranked!
Top 20 J-horror films – ranked!
Movies that have grossed more than $1bn – ranked!
Palme d’Or winners – ranked!
The scariest horror films ever – ranked!
The best Shakespeare films – ranked!
The 10 best movie shark performances – ranked!
The best Stephen King movies – ranked!
From Trolls to Transformers: toy films ranked!
Worst holidays in cinema – ranked!
Aardman’s 20 best films ranked!
James Bond on film 007’s best and worst movies – ranked!
The 20 best Marvel films – ranked!
Top 10 Merchant Ivory films – ranked!
Pixar – every film ever made – ranked!
Planet of the Apes – the best and worst of the movies – ranked!
Star Wars – every film – ranked!
The 20 best music documentaries – ranked!
The weirdest Brits performances – ranked!
Game of Thrones – every episode – ranked!
Oscar nominees – the weirdest ever – ranked!
Oscar snubs – the 20 greatest ever – ranked!
The biggest Rock & Roll Hall of Fame snubs ever – ranked!
Super Bowl half-time shows – the 10 greatest – ranked!
The best X Factor finalists – ranked!
From Niall Horan’s toast to Russell Crowes jockstrap: celebrity auction items – ranked!
All Abba’s UK singles – ranked!
Every one of Madonna’s 78 singles – ranked!
Kate Bush every UK single – ranked!
Missy Elliott’s solo singles ranked!
Prince’s 50 greatest singles ranked!
Queen’s 50 UK singles – ranked!
Taylor Swift’s singles – ranked!
The Who: their UK singles – ranked!
Black Sabbath – every album – ranked!
David Byrne (almost) all of his albums – ranked!
Miles Davis’s 20 greatest albums ranked!
Lil Wayne’s albums – ranked!
Every Mercury prize-winning album – ranked!
Joni Mitchell’s albums ranked!
The Rolling Stones every album – ranked!
10 best Paul Simon albums – ranked!
Bruce Springsteen’s albums – ranked!
Kanye West every album – ranked!
Stevie Wonder’s albums – ranked!
20 greatest breakup songs ever – ranked!
Aphex Twin’s best songs – ranked!
Barry Manilow all his greatest songs – ranked!
Cher’s 30 greatest songs – ranked!
The 30 greatest Disney songs ranked!
Elton John’s 50 greatest songs – ranked!
From Drake to Wet Wet Wet: songs with 10 weeks at No 1 – ranked!
From MC5 to Jeff Mills: the greatest Detroit tracks ever – ranked!
Giorgio Moroder’s 20 greatest songs – ranked!
Nirvana’s 20 greatest songs – ranked!
The best songs from teen movies – ranked!
The best UK garage tracks – ranked!
The greatest banned songs of all time – ranked!
The greatest ever female rap tracks – ranked!
The greatest pop music dance crazes – ranked!
All 43 Spice Girls songs – ranked!
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us
