Alrighty! A teaser for Aardman's next stop-motion animated picture has arrived!
As expected, the teaser displays Aardman's wit, their sense of humor, and some lovely visuals. It's a nice little poke at how some trailers for big blockbusters are, and I especially liked the little Monty Python and the Holy Grail hat-tip. From everything we've seen plus this new teaser, I think the movie looks like it'll be a fun, eccentric good time.
Of course, I'm a rather impatient American. No American distributor has picked this one up yet, and it's due out in Europe in January. Will it get a US distributor soon? Or will we have to wait like last time? Aardman's previous film was Shaun the Sheep Movie, when that entered production they had ended their partnership with Sony Pictures Animation. Sony, like former partner DreamWorks, would release the films around the same time they were released in Europe. Shaun the Sheep Movie didn't land a US distributor until after its European debut in February 2015, Lionsgate picked up the film and then dumped it that following August.
Something tells me that this one will get picked up before it comes out overseas. Shaun the Sheep Movie was based on a fluffy little TV series (made by Aardman themselves, of course) that was barely shown here in America, whereas this is an original movie. Perhaps distributors will find this one to be an easier sell? Plus there's dialogue, Shaun the Sheep Movie was mainly silent.
Who knows. Aardman only scored one domestic smash hit, and that was their first feature-length film: Chicken Run. For a little while, it was actually the highest-earning non-Disney/non-Pixar animated feature until the release of Shrek. Wallace & Gromit did okay business here at best, the rest of their films did even worse. Overseas totals and low budgets keep the future features afloat... But I myself would like to see Aardman score another good-sized hit here in the states. Maybe Early Man is it, maybe it isn't.
What say you?
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