Tim Burton and Aardman and Brothers Quay

Tim Burton was born on Aug. 25, 1958 in Burbank, CA, Burton grew up a lonely and isolated child who quickly became disenchanted with his homogenized suburban surroundings. Burton's withdrawal from his home life - particularly from his father - led him to spend time daydreaming, watching B-movies and pouring through issues of Famous Monsters of Filmland.

During Tims early work he created his first film, Stalk of the celery monster. Due to the success of his first film he was instantly noticed and picked up by Walt Disney Productions' animation studio who offered Tim Burton an apprenticeship at their studio. 

He is famous for his dark, gothic, macabre and quirky take on horror and fantasy style movies such as Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Corpse Bride, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Dark Shadows and Frankenweenie, and for blockbusters such as Pee-wee's Big Adventure, Batman, its first sequel Batman Returns, Planet of the Apes, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Alice in Wonderland.

Aardman

Aardman Animations, Ltd., also known as Aardman Studios, or simply as Aardman, is a British animation studio based in Bristol, United Kingdom. The studio is known for films made using stop-motionclay animation techniques, particularly those featuring Plasticine characters Wallace and Gromit. It entered the computer animation market with Flushed Away (2006).

In 1993 Aardman passed another milestone with the completion of Nick Park's Oscar winning The Wrong Trousers, Aardman's first 30 minute film. Acclaimed world-wide and winner of over thirty awards, The Wrong Trousers has become one of the most successful animated films ever made.

In 1995 Aardman produced Nick Park's third Oscar winning film A Close Shave. An immediate success, it confirmed the studio's reputation as well as establishing Wallace and Gromit as household names. In 1996 the studio produced Peter Lord's Oscar nominated 11' short film, Wat's Pig (for Channel Four) as well as a children's series based on Morph, The Morph Files.

In 1998, Aardman won a BAFTA for Stage Fright, an 11minute short film commissioned by Channel Four Television. Steve Box, Nick Park's key animator on both The Wrong Trousers andA Close Shave, directed Stage Fright.

Chicken Run was Aardman's first full-length theatrical feature film to be funded by DreamWorks. Directed by both Peter Lord and Nick Park it was released in June 2000 in the US and UK to excellent reviews and outstanding box office receipts. Chicken Run grossed over $220M at the worldwide box office.

Brothers Quay

Stephen and Timothy Quay are American identical twin brothers better known as the Brothers Quay or Quay Brothers. They are influential stop-motion animators. They are also the recipients of the 1998 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Set Design for their work on the play The Chairs.

Filmography:

The Cabinet of Jan Svankmajer (1984)
The Unnameable Little Broom (1985)
Street of Crocodiles (1986)
Rehearsals for Extinct Anatomies (1987)
Stille Nacht I-IV
The Comb (1990)
Anamorphosis (1991)
In Absentia (2000)
The Phantom Museum (2003)

BFI Distribution ident (1991)
Introduction by the Quay Brothers (2006)
Nocturna Artificialia (1979)
The Calligraphies (1991)
The Summit (1995)
The Falls (excerpt) (1980)
Archive Interview (2000)