This is unfortunate news, but the long-term impact will impact Dreamworks more than it does Aardman:
After a critically lauded but commercially troubled six-year partnership with DreamWorks Animation, Aardman is back on its own.
The British claymation giant, best known for its signature Wallace and Gromit characters and 2000 hit “Chicken Run,” officially terminated its five-picture deal with DreamWorks on Tuesday.
The main reason is that neither the Wallace and Gromit film nor Flushed Away did well enough at the box-office. To be honest, the latter film actually bored my daughter, who is probably Aardman’s prime demographic. If Aardman can return to its roots in claymation and build up a decent CG capability in house, or even better if they can find a way to merge the two, then they will do fine on their own. Or maybe they will just get picked up by Pixar 🙂
This puts Dreamworks at a major content/talent disadvantage relative to Disney, though. Other than Shrek, what does Dreamworks really have?
AICN also has the story and will be talking to people inside Dreamworks for more details.