The champagne is back on ice at Aardman HQ in Bristol, and the aeroplane flight home from LA for the Aardman crew won’t be as joyful as they had hoped. But still – the Aardman team don’t work just for awards; remember that Nick Park didn’t even know that the Oscars had a short animation award until he was nominated for ‘A Grand Day Out’ and ‘Creature Comforts’!

And what of Logorama – the film that will go down for beating Nick Park? It’s a very good film, there’s no denying that. But – and I know I’m biased – I did have a few niggles with it that, for me, meant it didn’t really contend with Wallace and Gromit much.

Logorama took 6 years to make - but that seems to have been 6 years of fitting as many corporate logos into every shot as possible, rather than on developing the story... The original idea is original and imaginative, but the finished piece doesn’t seem to have evolved much from the original storyline. Also, and I don’t know if this was supposed to be OTT for effect or not, the voice acting and profanity-filled script took the quality of the film down for me as well really.

But of course I’m going to say Wallace and Gromit is better, I’m not running a Logorama fansite (!), and that’s merely my opinion.

Looking on the bright side – maybe it bodes well for the future? Nick Park hinted once or twice, while in LA, at ideas for his next project. He even mentioned a 3D stop motion film, like ‘Coraline’. Missing out on an Oscar won’t hurt the Aardman crew, instead I think it will only serve to fire them up and aim even higher.

And anyway - the film still has the BAFTA and the Annie, and it still drew in those incredible millions of viewers on Christmas Day 2008 (and its repeats), so it’s definitely not a failure for the Aardman studio!

So it’s a shame – but congratulations for the Nomination, congratulations to Logorama for winning, but I don’t think that’s the last time we’ll see Aardman in LA...