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Beloved stop motion animation studio Aardman was already having a great year in London thanks to its excellent Inside Aardman exhibition at the Young V&A. And now it ups the ante by announcing a new immersive film that’ll run at Kings Cross’s Lightroom from October.
If you’re unfamiliar with the Lightroom, it ‘screens’ gigantic immersive films across the walls floor and ceiling of its gallery-like space using super-powerful digital projectors. The films it shows are all original: currently in its repertoire is the Tom Hanks-narrated lunar landings doc The Moonwalkers and the CGI dinosaur fest Prehistoric Planet: Discovering Dinosaurs; a new David Bowie documentary entitled You’re Not Alone is due to start its run next month.
And the next new show after that will be Larger Than Life: Starring Wallace & Gromit, Shaun and More. Marking Aardman’s 50th anniversary, it’s a behind-the-scenes look at the iconic British studio, pepped up with plenty of footage of beloved characters from Morph onwards, including never before seen outtakes and original animations. It’s heaven for Aardman fans, basically, or at least that’s what it’s aiming for and while it opens in time for October half-term and has a chunky discount on kids’ tickets, it’s suitable for all ages: we’ve all grown up with Aardman.
Quoth Aardman co-founder Peter Lord: ‘The magic of what we do at Aardman is not about making things move, it’s about making them live; and this immersive journey at Lightroom is a brilliant celebration of the art and craft and – yes – the pure magic of animation. It’s incredibly moving to see audiences experience our characters in new and innovative ways, honouring decades of storytelling while pushing the boundaries of how these tales can be told.’
Larger Than Life: Starring Wallace & Gromit, Shaun and More is at the Lightroom from Oct 14.
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