harvey @ deneroff.com

Film historian Kristin Thompson is trying to compile a rather extensive chronology/filmography for Aardman Animations. The results so far have been posted on her and David Bordwell’s blog in hopes of filling in the blanks, so to speak.

The project arose as a byproduct of Thompson and Bordwell’s work on revising their Film History: An Introduction (which I use in some of my classes). She notes that,

In setting out to update the section on Aardman animation, I ran into difficulties pinning down the dates of certain television series or the director of a given short film. Indeed, I was quite surprised at the dearth of complete chronologies or filmographies for such a famous and important company.

She has, however, set some limits, indicating that,

Aardman has produced many ephemeral animations for station-identification logos, credit sequences, and websites, as well as perhaps hundreds of commercials. I’ve made no attempt to include commercials, apart from the Heat Electric series, which are available on DVD. The [list] primarily includes television shorts and series, as well as films.

As someone who has faced similar difficulties in compiling my studio filmographies, I must commend Thompson’s efforts, especially since it also includes an evaluation of Aardman films on DVD and the Internet.