Wallace and Gromit creator Nick Park remembers that Pixar and Toy Story briefly threatened the world of stop-motion animation.
Toy Story changed everything about the animation game. As the first fully computer-generated feature, it meant the studio had to step up its game. Let’s take a look at the highest-grossing animated films of all time. There are probably three movies in the top 50, and they’re all Disney Renaissance films. So it’s safe to say that Toy Story (and Pixar) are the main reasons. But if you think traditional animation is under threat, what about stop-motion? Nick Park, creator of the Wallace and Gromit series, says it’s put him and his studio on high alert. I remember.
Nick Park, a key figure at Aardman Animations, recalled Pixar’s rise in animation as a moment of reckoning for both himself and the art form he cultivated. As he told Inverse, “When ‘Toy Story’ first came out in the ’90s, studios like us were thinking, ‘Man, how much more do we have left?'” So what did Nick Park and company do? They refused to give new technology a say in their storytelling and moved on. “But we kept going. As long as we’re telling a good story, a compelling story with interesting characters, it’s just a technique.”
Thanks to Toy Story, which won the Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement, an unusual achievement for an animated film, and the influx of (computer) animation into the industry, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2016. Introduced awards. 2002. Just a few years later, Wallace and Gromit became the first stop-motion film to win the award, although it didn’t compete with Pixar. (Interestingly, another stop-motion film, Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride, was nominated for the same award.) However, this year’s nominee was Wallace and Gromit: Revenge of the Most Foul. There is a high possibility that it will be released, and it will be in direct competition with the next work. Inside Head 2…but my money is on Latvian Flo taking home the Oscar.
Now, we don’t mean to pit one against the other, but even as technology and artificial intelligence develop, Nick Park is one of the most important voices in ensuring that stop motion animation remains unforgettable. I have to point that out. Because of that, and Vengeance Most Fowl being one of the best movies of 2024 (read our 9/10 review here) – many are calling for more stop-motion wins at the Oscars .
