Film / News
Aardman avoids another headache
One of the many downsides of the social media age is the advent of Twitter Mob Fury. Of course, this can be put to good use, holding the rich and powerful to account. But it also provides a platform for determined, frequently humourless offence-seekers, often acting on behalf of others who aren’t actually offended, to grab their virtual torches and pitchforks and launch a self-righteous crusade that quickly spirals out of control. That’s what happened to Aardman with a leper gag in the studio’s trailer for Peter Lord’s The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! At first, they tried to ride out the Twitterstorm, arguing that this was just a silly joke and was never intended to be an accurate representation of leprosy. Nor was it a deliberate slight on the modern-day leper community. But once Stephen Fry tweeted his disapproval to his gazillion followers, the game was up. Aardman threw in the towel and cut the sequence. “It wasn’t done to offend people, of course,” Lord told me at the time. “It was done as a stupid schoolboy joke, of which I entirely approve.”
This time, they seem to be taking no chances. Shaun the Sheep the Movie has a scene in which the Farmer gets a comedy bash on the head. It is perhaps no coincidence that the film’s charity partner is Headway, the brain injury association. “Actually, it’s to do with my co-writer and director Mark Burton, who does a bit of work for Headway,” clarifies co-director Richard ‘Golly’ Starzak. “He started to really fret about the bang on the head. He said head injuries aren’t funny. But it’s a slapstick staple. You see someone get a bang on the head and you’re glad it’s not you. That’s why you laugh. We just contacted them to say, ‘Is it alright that we represent head injury this way?’ Somebody from Headway came round and we talked about it and they were fine with it. I just didn’t want to have any bad publicity over that.”
Shaun the Sheep opens on Fri 6 Feb. Go here for our full review.
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