In recent years Aardman animations has experienced a creative boom. After carving out success using plasticine and traditional stop motion, as well as the occasional 2D and CGI film, the studio has gone on to produce some rather fantastic work outside of the expected. We have seen a whole range of techniques applied to films such as the 3D printers used in conjunction with CGI software combined with traditional stop motion for “The Pirates!” to mobile phone touch screen gaming with “Home Sheep Home”. Where once stood just Aardman animations now stands Aardman Digital, Aardman Effects and Aardman 3D Effects alongside, challenging boundaries and innovating every step of the way.  So it is nice to see when the studio famous for “Wallace and Gromit” and “Morph” return to that original material that made it all possible. Plasticine.

Rich Webber has recently directed 10 one minute shorts “The Old Fashioned Way” using the same techniques that made his name as the creator and director of the delightfully infantile and charming “Purple and Brown” which took plasticine and the medium of stop motion animation to a tactile level of imagination not experienced since the days when “Morph” graced the screens with his unpredictable and malleable adventures. Rich Webber has also directed episodes of Shaun the Sheep for the studio and voiced members of the cast! Webber and Aardman have recently teamed up with DC, the company responsible for such properties as Superman and Batman to deliver versions of such classic characters never seen before. Taking the vocal performances of children Supes’, Bats and the gang have been re-imagined as childish playful entities inhabiting a comic world that sits between Adam Wests bright and colourful Batman universe and Nick Park’s “Creature Comforts”. Here is a clip from one of the shorts

Skwigly caught up with Rich Webber to discuss the DC Nation animated shorts that will populate the programming block alongside anchor series Green Lantern: The Animated Series and Young Justice 10am on Cartoon Network with new shorts every Wednesday.

Hi Rich thanks for talking to Skwigly. You have recently completed a project for Aardman animations in collaboration with DC comics, what can you tell us about it?

It was a pretty exciting brief, if I’m honest.

We’ve just made ten one minute episodes for DC Nation shorts, where we were pretty much given the freedom to use any DC super heroes we wanted!

How did DC approach Aardman for the project, was it always going to be an animated interview like creature comforts or were other ideas considered?

We were approached along with a number of other studios to produce a series of one minute shorts using DC characters, in whatever way we felt would work.

It’s similar to Creature Comforts but without the creatures!

It seems unusual for DC to allow their tried and tested characters be altered in this way, were there many restrictions or did you have free reign?

Although DC did give us a free reign, I felt it was important to keep some of the essence of these iconic characters, hence the the Joker retains his ‘off the wall’, slightly sinister persona.  All be it a 9 year old (Jake) talking about how his mum says its warmer higher up.  It was also important for us to stay true to the comic book style and palette with the sets which were designed by Andy Janes.

How much recording did it tackle before you realised you had the right material for each character? Or do some just leap out at you as ‘perfect Joker’ or ‘perfect Batman’?

I think we interviewed about thirty children in all. Most interviews took about 2 hours, so we had to trawl through about 60 hours of recordings, but you kind of have to listen to everything just in case there’s a little gem in there.  I had a rough idea of the situations I wanted the characters to be in, so I tailored questions to try and get close to this.  The interviews are best approached with an open mind and see what evolves, especially if you get a really chatty kid with a lot to say.

We also took along a page of images of Superheroes  and asked the kids to comment on these, hence ”Whoah! Is that Wonder Woman? She’s not got much clothes on has she?”  This line worked really well with the slightly robust Superman sat on top of a skyscraper eating cookies and watching the day go by.

You created and directed ‘Purple and Brown’ how did they find their way into your portfolio and will we be seeing any more of their delightful nonsensical adventures?

I originally created Purple and Brown as part of a flatulent acrobatic troupe for a completely different show.  I did a small squash and stretch animated piece using these two characters which was seen by Howard Litton at Nickelodeon who commissioned two series. I had the privilege of working with a fantastic crew here at Aardman. We had such fun making it, I hope this is reflected in the show. There are no plans for a third series at the moment, but who knows?

You voiced Shaun the Sheep in the TV series. Will you be voicing Shaun again for the up-coming feature film?

Um, actually I’m not the voice of Shaun but I was given the role of the voice of Shirley, the rather large lazy one who eats a lot. (Hang on a minute!) I directed some of the episodes too which was great fun.  Haven’t been approached to voice Shirley for the feature film, but ‘ewe’ never know.

In an age where Aardman are expanding and experimenting with CGI, 3D Printing and other digital innovations, it is very refreshing to see the studio still present more ‘traditional’ Aardman work such as yours. Are you ever tempted to step up to a different medium?

My background is 2D animation. I have dabbled a bit in CGI and look forward to working in this way again at some point in the future.  However I am most comfortable with Plastecine which I find really tactile and exciting to work with.

What’s next for Rich Webber and Aardman?

I am currently working on my new show which is being developed at Aardman for Disney.  There is also a possibility that we may be doing some more shorts for DC Nation.  Aardman’s new feature ‘The Pirates in an adventure with Scientists’ is being released on the 28th March.  I’ve been lucky enough to see some of this movie, it looks amazing and really funny.