Disney seeks a link with 'Wrong Trousers' studio

(First Edition)

THE DISNEY Corporation is are negotiating a link up with Aardman Animation, the Bristol-based company whose films using clay models, Creature Comforts and The Wrong Trousers have won two Oscars, writes Maggie Brown.

The company confirmed yesterday that Disney was about to sign adevelopment deal for a full-length feature film, using the company's famous clay figures. The development would take place in Bristol. It and would feature be based on an original Aardman story line.

Disney specialises in flat animation, whereas Aardman, which now employs 30 people, has over the past 24 years developed a three-dimensional technique known as 'claymation'. It has applied this to both films and commercials, most memorably with the series of electricity adverts. The negotiations with Aardman exclude the Oscar-winning producer Nick Park, who is currently working on another film for the BBC starring Wallace and Grommit, the characters in The Wrong Trousers.

A BBC2 repeat of The Wrong Trousers screened by BBC2 on Easter Monday attracted was watched by 8.3 million viewers, people with a further 1.6 million videoing it.

BBC2 has dropped Pobol y Cwm, the Welsh Channel 4 soap opera, after trying it in the afternoons, with sub-titles. Michael Jackson, controller of BBC2 said there were further plans to broadcast it: It attracted about 800,000 viewers per episode. Michael Jackson, BBC2 Controller, is looking for a new, satirical Saturday night review, along the lines of That Was The Week That Was.