The Creators of Wallace & Gromit Are Coming to Australia
Peter Lord and David Sproxton will help launch ACMI's massive Aardman Animations exhibition with a series of talks and masterclasses.
In news as exciting as a slice of Wensleydale cheese, the minds behind the world's favourite dairy-eating man and his dog are coming to Melbourne. With the Australian Centre for the Moving Image hosting an exhibition dedicated to Wallace & Gromit, Aardman Animations, and their broader catalogue of film and TV highlights, company co-founders Peter Lord and David Sproxton are heading our way for a series of events and workshops. If you're keen, make like a chicken and run to grab tickets.
In town to launch Wallace & Gromit and friends: The magic of Aardman, the duo will ensure that attendees don't just have a grand day as they peruse more than 350 Aardman items, and celebrate over 40 years of close shaves and wrong trousers — they'll have a grand evening too. The appropriately titled A Night Out with Aardman on June 30 is the main attraction, with the Lord and Sproxton (Aardman's creative director and executive chairman, respectively) taking audiences through their careers, chatting about highlights, showing clips, sharing stories and revealing what inspires them.
If you're in the industry, they'll also take part in a claymation-focused masterclass on June 29, hosted by Aussie Mary and Max and Harvie Krumpet animator Adam Elliot, while Lord will also oversee a hands-on workshop for 25 emerging animators on July 1. And, for those that really fancy their chances of following in their footsteps, ACMI is putting together an Inventors of Melbourne event on August 5 for everyone with innovative ideas. Lord and Sproxton won't be there — they'll be back home chasing were-rabbits and mischievous sheep named Shaun by then — but plenty of inventors, entrepreneurs and researchers will be.
The four-month exhibition also includes a complete cinema retrospective of Aardman's features, so expect to get Flushed Away, get festive with Arthur Christmas and take to the seas with The Pirates! Band of Misfits too. Lord wrote the former and directed the latter (and wrote and directed Chicken Run as well), and Sproxton produced the lot. Forget popcorn — bringing your own slab of cheddar seems like the right thing to do.
Wallace & Gromit and friends: The magic of Aardman will be showing at Melbourne's ACMI from June 29 to October 29. To buy tickets to the exhibition or any of the special events, visit the ACMI website.
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