WALLACE AND GROMIT - BRITISH ANIMATORS SPLIT FROM HOLLYWOOD STUDIO

Hollywood film studio DreamWorks Animation and the makers of the WALLACE AND GROMIT films have severed their troubled partnership after their quirky British characters failed to catch on in the US. The collaboration yielded Oscar-winning film WALLACE AND GROMIT: THE CURSE OF THE WERE RABBIT, featuring cheese-loving Wallace and his dog Gromit, CHICKEN RUN and FLUSHED AWAY about an upper-class rat who disappears down a toilet. ARTHUR SHERIFF, a spokesman for the film's British makers, Aardman Animators, said it had been "extremely hard" for their films to crack the United States. He explains, "It seems that in the US market, Wallace and Gromit are incredibly popular in the main cities, but it's more difficult when you go to middle America. The humour is a bit more subtle. We want to stay with our English quirkiness and I think the fans want us to as well." JEFFREY KATZENBERG, the US firm's chief executive officer, adds, "While I will always be a fan and an admirer of Aardman's work, our different business goals no longer support each other." Speculation the deal could be doomed emerged last year after Dreamworks said it expected to lose money on Flushed Away, which cost well over $100 million (GBP51 million) to make, but only grossed $63.4 million (GBP33 million).