British developer Aardman Animations, the company behind such popular films as Shaun the Sheep and Chicken Run, sees itself forced to abandon future projects due to a lack of clay. So reports The Telegraph. Newclay Products, the manufacturer of the clay used, recently closed its doors.
Bad news for fans of animated films such as Wallace & Gromit, Shaun the Sheep and Chicken Run. Aardman Animations, the production studio behind these popular films, has in fact been forced to cease development of new films. This can be read on the Telegraph website. Newclay Products, the factory that developed the clay used by the animators, recently closed its doors. A big loss for the developer, which considered the nylon-reinforced, air-drying clay to be the best, most manageable of its kind. When the factory announced in May that it would stop producing it, Aardman Animations bought up the remaining stock; just enough for the development of a new Wallace & Gromit film.
Newclay Pictures
Paul Dearing, who along with his wife Valerie ran the factory from the small British town of Newtown, said he was honored by the fact that their clay was used all these years by the animation studio’s world-famous films. “It always gave us both enormous satisfaction that Aardman used our product. They thought it was the best material of its kind in the world,” it echoes. “It’s a great legacy to be a part of, to look back and think that all those wonderful characters they created were made with our clay and that our company was such an important part of the artistic process. We’re very proud of it, even though we didn’t always get the credit for it because we were so behind the scenes as suppliers.”
