We’ve all been there. A couple gets married. They’re nice enough people, individually. But somehow, not a match. You know, the guy who usually winds up with the lampshade on his head marries the quiet mousy type. And we don’t think, “Wow, opposites attract.” We think, “Wow. How long do you think this is gonna last?”
And that’s how I felt when Dreamworks and Aardman hooked up. Nice companies, both. I like different things about them separately. But they are so… different… from one another, that I couldn’t honestly see them together forever. I mean… did anyone expect it to last? Dreamworks seems to be all about pop culture, sex appeal, self-referential humour, and potty jokes. Aardman seems to be all about a sort of quiet, Northern British humour with tea and crackers, and demands a certain amount of patience and intelligence of its audience.
But now that it’s over, I wonder who will get the honour of distributing the Aardman films? I have to say I liked the Aardman films that came out before the merger much more than I have liked what they’ve done since. Some things Nick Park has said in the Directors’ Commentaries on the films have given me the impression that Dreamworks assisted Aardman in areas of story arc and so on. I have to wonder if that’s the ingredient in those meals that put me off?
Reading between the lines of this article, I believe that is the case. Aardman spokeman Arthur Sherriff said, “We always knew that America would be a hard task for us. We’re a very English company. We embrace the international market, but we think part of our strength is our English sense of humour, and we want to continue with that.”
I wonder. Aardman says they have distribution plans. I hope whatever plans they have leave them free to do what they do best. But I wonder if any distributor in these days of continuous sequels and Sure-Bet economics can be trusted to just let the creatives be creative. Let them do their job, as slow and “backward” and non-Hollywood as they want to, and then just put the film out. I hope there’s a distributor like this out there, because that’s what I think Aardman needs. For that matter, I think we could all use a little of that. I think it’s how you wind up with good movies.
