Jul 14, 2014

Aardman's Morph is back with a new online series

Even before "Wallace and Gromit" and before "Creature Comforts," Aardman had its first stop-motion star: the Morph. The character was created by Aardman co-founders Peter Lord and David Sproxton in 1977 to appear in the comedy segment of the children's arts and crafts series "Take Heart."

And now he is back with an online series funded on Kickstarter. So far, one of the 15 planned episodes is available for viewing: in "Twin Decks," directed by Merlin Crossingham, Morph and Gray's clone, Chas, dance on a pair of records:

Some Morphs had all the supporting characters and a narrator, but the new series is a basic The new series goes back to the basics. There is no dialogue, the running time is 75 seconds, and the emphasis is on character animation and physical comedy.

The short running time associated with morphs was a major hurdle to the series' revival. David Sproxton said in an interview with Skwigly, "We've wanted to do it for years. The TV bits just don't work for really short formats anymore, and YouTube was the way to do it."

The series was also a big hit in the U.S. and Europe, where it was a big hit in the U.S. and Europe.

Various other Aardman series have been pulled by Amazon Prime, and the studio's work seems to be adapting well to online distribution.

In a 1989 BBC documentary, "The Animators," Peter Lord said, "Secretly [Morph] has an ambition to be the Mickey Mouse of the future, and I want it to continue 30 years from now." Well, he may not be as famous as Mickey Mouse, but he is still going strong 25 years after Lord said these words.