Aardman Adds to Third-Party Properties

BRISTOL: Aardman Rights has expanded its portfolio with the addition of Log Jam, a series of short films from Studio Baestarts.

Studio Baestarts has already secured deals for the shorts with Nickelodeon for multiple territories and with Canal+ for France. Aardman will manage the remaining rights to Log Jam for the rest of the world, covering TV, home entertainment, online, digital, mobile, in-flight and licensing.

Log Jam follows forest creatures who freestyle jam with their home-made instruments. The bear is on bass, the wolf howls and the rabbit bangs out the beats with his head. The series of shorts were created by Alexei Alexeev as a sequel to the KJFG no.5 short and were produced by Andras Erkel, the managing director of Studio Baestarts, and Peter Drake, the VP and creative director of Nick UK.

Sean Clarke, the head of Aardman Rights, said: “Log Jam is fun and irreverent and appeals to kids and adults of all ages. As Aardman Rights continues to expand its portfolio, we are delighted to add these new films to our own growing slate of in-house productions and hope to support Studio Baestarts in producing a lot more episodes of Log Jam.”

Alexeev added: “I always liked animals but never liked their music because I’d never heard them playing music. After making Log Jam shorts I still cannot decide do I like animal music or not…”