Wallace & Gromit goes up in flames!!!

The "Wallace & Gromit" series of films are some of my favorites so this news really struck home. It's with a heavy heart that I share.

"Fire destroys Gromit's U.K. lair Aardman Animations' HQ up in flames Fire gutted Aardman Animations' warehouse in Bristol, England, on Monday, destroying props and sets from several of its claymation films, including "Wallace & Gromit" and "Chicken Run," Aardman's first feature-length release. "

"Three floors collapsed after fire broke out at 5:30 a.m.; a cause has not been determined.
With a $16 million opening weekend, DreamWorks/Aardman's "Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit" landed on top of the domestic box office over the weekend.
Sets and props for "Were-Rabbit" were unaffected, as was the company's film archive. But sets from Wallace & Gromit shorts "A Grand Day Out," "The Wrong Trousers" and "A Close Shave" were destroyed.

Aardman spokesman Arthur Sheriff said the fire "had nothing to do with the studio. It was a storage warehouse on the other side of Bristol." Location is, however, where public tours are conducted. Sheriff said, "Everything from 'Morph' to 'Chicken Run' has gone. All the sets, all the props, a lot of the models and particularly the storyboards. When any director works on one of our projects, the storyboards have a lot of comments on them, and we save them for exhibition purposes. It is devastating."

W&G creator Nick Park said, "Even though it is precious and nostalgic stuff -- and valuable to the company -- in light of other current tragedies in the news, it's not a big deal."
"Were-Rabbit" took $5 million in previews on Oct. 8 and 9 on home turf. It opens wide Friday in the U.K.

Aardman was founded by Dave Sproxton and Peter Lord in 1976. Studio has a five-picture deal with DreamWorks, though "Were-Rabbit" is not part of that deal, because Aardman exclusively owns the rights to the film's characters, which debuted in a series of acclaimed shorts.
DreamWorks had no comment."

From the Aardman Studios Website... "Fire destroys historical Aardman artefacts
On the day that Aardman celebrate a chart-topping opening weekend in the US with Wallace & Gromit 'The Curse of the Were-rabbit', news of a fire at our storage unit in Bristol has been devastating.The facility used to store sets, awards, and historical artefacts, is not a part of the Aardman studio, and we are glad to report that no Aardman staff have been affected. However, we have lost a number of irreplaceable storyboards, awards, props and pieces of film memorabilia from our 30 year history.None of the material from the new Wallace & Gromit film ‘The Curse of the Wererabbit’ was in storage at the time, but we have lost many original sets from Chicken Run, Creature Comforts, and the three Wallace & Gromit short films, that were used for reference and toured around the world for exhibition.This will not in any way affect existing or future Aardman productions as 100% of sets and props are purpose built for each production."

It's definitely a sad day for everyone.