The creative founders of Aardman Animations, the British film production company behind Wallace & Gromit, criticised their former Hollywood partner yesterday as they announced a new three-year film deal with Sony Pictures.

David Sproxton, Aardman’s executive chairman and founder, accused Stephen Spielberg’s Dreamworks Animations SKG of having “no interest” in “stop-frame” animation. Aardman has used the method since the creation of the Morph character in the late 1970s. He said that Sony was “less precious” and more flexible than their former backers, who parted ways with Aardman two months ago, halfway through a £150 million, five-film deal that delivered three films in nine years.

Aardman began negotiating the Sony deal a year ago, it emerged yesterday, before the tie-up with Dreamworks was officially severed.

Mr Sproxton said: “One of the joys of the Sony arrangement is that there is no deadline pressure. They are less precious and we can discuss release dates when appropriate.”

Under the terms of the Sony deal, the clayzine animators’ production targets will increase from an average of one film every 3½ years to one every 18 months. Aardman initially will produce one stop-frame feature and another that is computer-generated.

The Dreamworks deal collapsed after Flushed Away, Aardman’s first all computer-generated film, failed at the US box office. In response to accusations that the film had failed because it was “too British”, Mr Sproxton said that was Aardman’s key strength.

The production company is planning to hire and train hundreds of new animators at its headquarters in Bristol to cope with the more intense turnaround of films. It will recruit from abroad as well as Britain.

Stephen Moore, the chief operating officer of Aardman, said: “We have a major role in expanding UK animation, but we want to make movies for a global market, so it is logical to partner with a worldwide distributor.”

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