A Grand Night In: The Story of Aardman

This was a nice celebration of all things Aardman, and this documentary - much like anything the team down in Bristol do, seemed like it had been made with love.

Many of the voice actors who had appeared in their projects popped up to salute the film makers, and it was nice to have a comprehensive look at all their major works over the years.

It's a shame that all documentaries can't be like this actually, because this one did stand out from the pack for the sheer quality of the material, and the amount of credible talking heads along the way.

I'm more of a 'Wallace and Gromit' fan than anything else they've done, but they remain a cracking force in the UK film making world.

An amusing albeit truncated doc on Aardman Studios is a delight giving those in on the know what made the studio what it is & a nice intro to those who are unfamiliar w/their characters & adventures.

This film is a celebration of Aardman, describing its humble origins and its breakthrough successes, with doting commentary from various people who have worked for or with the studio. It's a fun hour that'll go by in a flash for anyone who loves Aardman, but it doesn't go too deep into the film-making process-which could probably warrant its own entire documentary.

This is one the most fun documentaries one can ever see. Why? Because it's about the brilliant British studio, Ardman, home of Morph, Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the sheep. As I watched this and saw all the accolades that fellow animators lay upon the studio, who take years to complete their stop motion brilliance, one thought was what did Ray Harryhausen think of this? And another was, oh my goodness, I have to watch all my Wallace and Gromit's again as well as my Shaun the Sheeps! Ardman is to stop motion what Michelangelo is to art. They are the tops and this whirlwind documentary - which I wish could have been longer - is simply so engrossing, that one is sucked in and when it's over you go what? Where did the time go?

As I sat and watched "A Grand Night In: The Story of Aardman", I enjoyed the story but I also had a strong feeling that the film was much more a promotional film than a complete history of the studio. Of course, it does talk about much of the history of Aardman...but it also spends MUCH more time having various folks (mostly voice actors from their films) talk about how marvelous they thought the Aardman products were. In other words, learning HOW they make their shows and films and all the history of the studio was really not the purpose of the film....it was all public relations. To me, that makes for a rather dull sort of picture--worth seeing but not all that informative.

So here's my advice...watch this film if you want but I'd rather see the actual Aardman stop-motion movies and television episodes themselves. That way I don't need folks telling me how great it all is...I can see it for myself.