Wallace and Gromit creators Aardman 'set for 50th anniversary BBC celebration'
The BBC are reportedly working on a documentary to mark 50 years of Aardman Animations.
The BBC is reportedly set to celebrate five decades of Aardman Animations with a new film.
The iconic studio, which is the home of Wallace and Gromit, Morph, Shaun the Sheep, Creature Comforts and Chicken Run, was founded by Peter Lord and David Sproxton back in 1976.
According to British Comedy Guide, the Beeb will mark the occasion with Aardman At 50, a feature length documentary set to air on BBC One.
It's said the film is being made by Ant McPartlin and Dec Donnelly's Mitre Studios.
Nine years after Aardman was first formed, Nick Park joined the studio in 1985, with Wallace and Gromit becoming their most well known creations.
In 2024, the duo returned with Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, which was recognised with an Oscar nomination and two BAFTA Awards.
Reports of the documentary come after the launch of Cracking Exhibition Gromit: 50 Years of Aardman in Bristol, which ran at the city's M Shed from June to September this year.
Meanwhile, Larger Than Life: Starring Wallace Gromit, Shaun and More - an immersive 360-degree experience - is set to open on October 14 at London's Lightroom, and the city's Young V+A Museum has a collection of clay models, props and more on display.
When Vengeance Most Fowl was released, creator Nick Park opened up about the origins of his characters, and why Wallace had such a passionate love of cheese, which started in 1989's A Grand Day Out.
He told the Metro newspaper: "As a student, I wanted him to go to the moon with Gromit, but I couldn’t think of a reason.
"It was more in retrospect, because I did the first scene last and I just – 'Of course, the moon’s made of cheese!'
"And then it became an obsession in all of the films."
With any Aardman project, stop-motion and clay is at its heart, but the studio is open to embracing new technology.
Director Merlin Crossingham said: "We start with the stop-motion and we put them in front of the camera, and if the story needs something that we can’t quite do in stop-motion, then we look at what the alternatives are.
"We have an amazing CG and visual effects team in house at Aardman, whose principal skills are not just technological ones, they’re artistic in as much as they know what they need to do to make it feel appropriate to the film."
Aardman is set to launch Pokémon series The Misadventures of Sirfetch'd Pichu in 2027, while the studio is also working on a new stop motion Pingu series with Mattel.
