Present animators


The Brothers Quay



The Brothers Quay are identical twins who are American animators. They both live in England, studied here and went to the same schools. Most of their animations include puppets and dolls that are slightly disassembled to create a sinister, surreal mood - most notably in 'Street of Crocodiles'. They rarely have any dialogue, and the films that do have characters speaking speak nonsense. The Brothers Quay have developed animation to something even further - taking inspiration from David Lynch and Jan Svankmajer, their animation is now revolved around fantasy surrealism, a genre never seen before. The film 'Street of Crocodiles' is an example of this. Terry Gilliam declared Street of Crocodiles to be in the top 10 list of best animated films ever, and in 1998 received the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Set Design for their work on the play 'The Chairs'.


Tim Burton

Tim Burton is American film director, animator and artist, who deals especially in surrealism and horror. He famously produced A Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride within years of each other. In 1984 he produced a film, commissioned by Disney, called 'Frankenweenie'. Disney did not approve, saying that it was far too dark for a child audience. They refused to pay him and gave him the sack, only to be re-employed in 2008 to make it again - a change in heart from Disney, due to reconsideration of suitability. Tim Burton has a similar style to the Brothers Quay - dark and sinister. He often uses surrealism too, also taking inspiration from David Lynch and Jan Svankmajer. He, however, has not stuck to his roots and makes animations for Disney. They're still pretty weird, but it seems as if his ideas are now strained. Frankenweenie was released on the 5th October 2012. He has won numerous awards in his lifetime including a Golden Globe for Sweeny Todd, an Emmy for his remake of Beetlejuice and a Bafta for The Corpse Bride.


Aardman 


Aardman are a British animation company, most famous for the contribution of Wallace and Gromit to the animated film scene. Founded in 1997 with a low budget, Peter Lord and David Sproxton wanted to make their animated dreams a reality and Aardman was formed. Aardman and Dreamworks teamed up (Aardman had the skill, Dreamworks had the money) to produce the first ever full length stop motion film 'Chicken Run'. A success, Aardman were funded $250 million to make an additional four films in the next twelve years - a hard task, due to the amount of time needed to make stop motion films. They made Curse of the Warerabbit, Flushed Away, Crooked Awakening and a show at the Ghibli exhibit in 2006 - another success. Aardman are very different from the Brothers Quay and Tim Burton, as Aardman are not surrealist at all - they are, instead, based around animation for children. Aardman have finally evolved stop motion animation into a family friendly sub-genre. Throughout the years, Aardman have won numerous Accademy Awards, making them the most revolutionary animation studio to have every existed.


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