Gromit, Rex the Runt and Bitzer Deal the Cards in an Aardman Academy Stop-Motion Crossover

Can you name the Aardman dogs? There’s Gromit, of course. Then perhaps Rex the Runt. Finally, you might suggest Bitzer, the long-suffering sheepdog from Shaun the Sheep. If you can name all three, that probably qualifies you as something of an Aardman Animation fan. Now imagine an animation that opens with Gromit, Rex and Bitzer sitting down to a game of poker. If that sounds too good to be true, you’d be right - at least when it comes to them starring together in a full Aardman production.

However, this short is the work of Ben Nightingale, a professional cartoonist who created it as part of the Aardman Academy: Stop Motion 1 course, which I’m guessing he completed last year. (The Aardman Academy emerged from within Aardman Studios in response to the sheer ambition and scale of Chicken Run, and has since grown into a core part of the organisation, embodying the studio’s commitment to inclusivity, skill-sharing, and creative ambition.) It’s fantastic work.

The comments section is absolutely buzzing - especially about the return of Rex the Runt. There appears to be a kind of secret RtR society that emerges whenever anything involving their hero surfaces online. And why not?