A new exciting collaboration project between The Pokemon Company and Aardman Animations, the talented people behind stop-motion staples like Wallace and Gromit, Shaun the Sheep, and Chicken Run, has just been announced.
The Pokemon Company announced the project on Twitter (now X) in a short video featuring a claymation Poke Ball. The tweet also included the project’s prospective release year. At the moment, we are unsure of whether this new project will be a film, television series, or something else entirely, with Aardman Animations having a wealth of experience in all media properties.
Aardman also released an official post on their website where they included comments about the new project from both Taito Okiura, VP of Marketing and Media at the Pokemon Company, and Sean Clarke, Managing Director of Aardman Animations. Okiura specifically stated that this was “a dream partnership for Pokemon” whereas Clarke called the collaboration a “huge honour”.
“This is a dream partnership for Pokémon. Aardman are masters of their craft, and we have been blown away by their talent and creativity. What we have been working on together ensures our global Pokémon fans are in for a treat!”
Taito Okiura, VP of Marketing and Media at the Pokemon Company
“It’s a huge honour to be working with The Pokémon Company International — we feel sincerely privileged to be trusted with bringing their characters and world to life in a brand-new way. Bringing together Pokémon, the world’s biggest entertainment brand, together with our love of craft, character and comedic storytelling feels incredibly exciting. Aardman and TPCi share an emphasis on heritage and attention to detail as well as putting our fans and audiences at the heart of what we do, which we know will steer us right as we together create charming, original and new stories for audiences around the world”
Sean Clarke, Managing Director of Aardman Animations
The only unfortunate news to come from the announcement is how long we’ll have to wait as the Pokemon x Aardman Animations project isn’t due to release until 2027. Aardman’s famous stop-motion animation is infamous for taking a long time to produce, with Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Wererabbit taking five years to complete, and they’ve been suffering from clay shortages after the shutdown of Newclay Products in 2023.
This is the second major outing for The Pokemon Company when it comes to developing stop-motion animation projects. Previously, the company partnered with Dwarf Studios to create Pokemon Concierge for Netflix in 2023, and they also have an intensive history of working with clay and sculpture artists for the Pokemon TCG, the most notable being Yuka Morii.
Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl Coming 2024
