Shout! Factory and Academy Award-winning animation studio Aardman announced today a new North American distribution agreement for the award-winning titles Shaun the Sheep, Wallace & Gromit, Morph and Timmy Time. The announcement was made by Melissa Boag, Shout’s Executive Vice President of Kids & Family, and Laura Taylor-Williams, Head of Digital & Strategic Development at Aardman.
The agreement provides Shout! Factory with exclusive physical home video, EST and TVOD rights, as well as limited theatrical rights, in U.S. and Canada to the four of Aardman properties.
Over its storied history, the Bristol-based studio has garnered seven Academy Award nominations and won four. Aardman has delighted audiences for over 50 years with their unique brand of independent film, series content, games and interactive experiences.
“We’re big fans of Aardman and these wonderful films and series and are very much looking forward to creating a release plan that excites dedicated fans and creates new ones,” said Boag. “Aardman’s worldwide reputation as an innovative home for compelling stories that captivate audiences make them an ideal partner for Shout! Factory.”
“We are thrilled to be entering into such a great partnership with Shout Factory, who are real experts in the physical and digital ownership space,” said Taylor-Williams. “To be delighting North American audiences once again with our much-loved catalogue is key to our new strategy. We are collaborating on an exciting release schedule that will speak to ardent Aardman fans as well as bringing our joyful animations to new audiences.”
The distribution deal was negotiated by Boag and Jordan Fields, SVP of Acquisitions & Originals, on behalf of Shout! Factory, and Taylor-Williams and Alison Taylor, Director of Distribution, for Aardman.
About the brands:
Shaun the Sheep, Aardman’s family-favorite TV series, is recognized the world over for its slapstick humor, distinctive look and strong, quirky characters and enjoyed across multiple media platforms. First appearing in Nick Park’s 1995 Academy Award-winning Wallace & Gromit ‘A Close Shave’, Shaun then went on to star in his own series created by Richard Starzak, which launched on BBC One in 2007. Shaun the Sheep is currently broadcast in 170 territories around the world and is an internationally celebrated icon with over 5.6 million fans on Facebook.
In 2015 the first Shaun the Sheep Movie with feature film partner Studiocanal was released around the world to critical acclaim and the first half hour TV special aired as part of many broadcaster’s festive season., The feature film sequel Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon was released in October 2019 and nominated for an Academy Award, and was closely followed by a sixth season of the series in 2020. A new festive special Shaun the Sheep: The Flight Before Christmas was released in December 2021.
Wallace & Gromit, Aardman’s most iconic duo, have been delighting family audiences around the world for 30 years. First hitting our screens in Nick Park’s Academy Award-winning Wallace & Gromit: A Grand Day Out (1989) the pair went on to star in three further half-hour specials (Wallace & Gromit: The Wrong Trousers [1993], Wallace & Gromit: A Close Shave [1995] and Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf or Death [2009]) and a feature length film Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005) and are internationally celebrated winning over 100 awards at festivals — including three Academy Awards and five BAFTA Awards.
A regular highlight of the primetime BBC schedules, especially during the festive season, they have become British national treasures and icons in their own right. Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf or Death still remains the most watched Christmas Day program since 2008 when it premiered on BBCOne. Most recently, the duo featured in their first augmented reality story The Big Fix Up that launched in 2021, and a new Wallace & Gromit film has been announced for 2024, directed by Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham.
With a permanent attraction at Blackpool Pleasure Beach with over 500,000 riders every year, over 1 million fans on Facebook and over 15 million views on YouTube, these perennial characters continue to grow audiences across multiple platforms. Wallace & Gromit’s Children’s Charity is a national charity raising funds to improve the lives of sick children in hospitals and hospices throughout the U.K., raising over £50 million since 1995.
Morph is the animated clay character who made his TV debut in 1977 in the children’s BBC program Take Hart, alongside the artist and presenter Tony Hart. He was one of Aardman’s first creations and was later joined by his cream-colored partner-in-crime, Chas. Morph was a regular fixture on children’s television throughout the ’70s and ’80s, and received his own Blue Peter badge on March 9, 1981, when Blue Peter presenter Sarah Greene visited the Aardman studios.
In 2013, almost 40 years after his TV debut, Morph made a comeback following a hugely successful crowdfunding campaign. He has a dedicated fan base of nostalgic adult fans and a growing audience of children who follow his adventures on his thriving YouTube channel and on Sky Kids. Most recently Morph and his sidekick Chas have been delighting fans with all-new adventures in The Epic Adventures of Morph, a longer format series which launched on Sky Kids and NowTV in 2020.
Despite now being in his 40s, Morph is as mischievous as ever.
Timmy is the littlest lamb in Shaun the Sheep’s flock and the star of his own award-winning spin-off series, Timmy Time, which premiered on CBeebies in April 2009 and is broadcast in over 150 territories worldwide. Timmy Time is set in a nursery and the core audience are preschoolers. Each episode follows a day in the life of Timmy and his friends as they learn about life and friendship. The original series consisted of 78 x 10-minute episodes with no dialog. Aardman recently produced an updated version of Timmy Time for a new generation of fans, creating five-minute edits of the original episodes and featuring a child’s voiceover.
Aardman and the British Council joined forces in 2014 to create Learning Time with Timmy — a multi-dimensional learning experience to help children aged two to six around the world to learn the English language. The portfolio has various learner touchpoints including face to face courses in themed venues around the world, apps, complementary merchandise and an animated video series which launched on a dedicated YouTube channel in 2018.
