Brilliant UK animation studio Aardman Animations has recently come clean on their current slate of titles- the first I've heard since they announced a distribution deal with Sony. Mixing their traditional claymation style with Flushed Away-style CG, we can look forward to a selection of tiles, including a (non Wallace and Gromit) new film from the genius Nick Park. Although mentioned in the announcement as almost an afterthought, I was particularly excited by the prospect of Aardman co-founder Peter Lord's project- Pirates! Not just for the obvious reasons either- it's based by on a series of books by Gideon Defoe- once of which was the ace comedic novel Pirates! In an Adventure With Scientists, a book I greatly enjoyed. In fact a couple of times I found myself thinking "this would make an awesome movie!". The fact that it'll be animated, and by one of the World's greatest animation studios (Part of the 'Holy trinity' that also includes Pixar and Japan's Studio Ghibli), well that's just icing on the cake. It would have been really expensive to make live action, that's for sure!

In other animation news the Web's greatest animator Weebl (aka Jonti Picking, Creator of Weebl and Bob) has got a doozy of a commission, creating animation for Seasame Steet! Well done Weebl! I've thought for a long time global stardom (beyond the web) beckoned for him, and it looks like it's on it's way. Why not celebrate by watching his latest strange creation Cat Face? He's got a big Cat Face dont you know?