British Films

Aardman Animation has found itself in a situation that’s not as malleable as the clay they used for their films. In fact, that happens to be the issue they’re facing: a lack of clay. Newclay Products, which creates a specialty clay unavailable anywhere else in the world, closed its doors in March, leaving Aardman to look for another solution, as reported by The Telegraph.

The makers of Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget scrambled to buy the last of Newclay Products’ stock to at least finish the films they already had in development. Valerie Dearing, one of the directors of Newclay Products, said, “Aardman bought a lot of our remaining stock of Newplast to keep them going. They got what they said was two years’ worth. It came to about 40 boxes, which must have been around 400 kg.” The report stated that Aardman has enough clay for one more movie, putting future products from the studio on hold until they can find another supplier. It is unknown at this time what the long-term impacts will be on the company.