Journey, a global design and innovation studio pioneering multidimensional experiences (MDX), celebrates the opening of Larger Than Life: Starring Wallace & Gromit, Shaun and More at Lightroom, a new show that brings 50 years of Aardman craft, character, and imagination to life on a monumental scale.
The show immerses visitors in the world-famous, tactile universe of Aardman Animations, bringing iconic characters to life, including Wallace & Gromit, Shaun the Sheep, Morph, and Creature Comforts.
The experience was created in close collaboration with the production team at Aardman, the award-winning UK studio. It is designed by Journey and written and co-directed by Journey’s Nicol Scott and Kate Stanley, and produced and showcased by Lightroom.
Larger Than Life opened at London's Lightroom on 14 October 2026Image credit Justin Sutcliffe
The 50-minute looping programme immerses audiences in the characters, stories and creative process that have defined Aardman over five decades, combining iconic film moments, seldom-seen archive footage and specially created animation.
The challenge was to bring the intimacy and tactile character of Aardman’s work to an immersive 360° experience on an extraordinary scale, while preserving its unmistakably handmade spirit.
Rather than simply making familiar moments bigger, Journey designed the experience to move between two perspectives: exploring Aardman’s extraordinary fictional worlds and discovering how they’re brought to life behind the camera.
Capturing the Aardman spirit
Celebrating the four-time Oscar-winning studio’s 50th anniversary, the show traces Aardman’s story from Peter Lord and David Sproxton’s first stop-motion experiments at a kitchen table to the high-octane train chase in Wallace & Gromit: The Wrong Trousers.
The new show at Lightroom celebrates the adventures of Wallace and Gromit, Shaun the Sheep, Morph, and many other much-loved charactersImage credit Justin Sutcliffe
See also: Aardman at 50: celebrating evergreen IP & brand anniversaries
Aardman’s Nick Park, creator of Wallace & Gromit, Shaun the Sheep, and Creature Comforts, says: "It’s a thrill to see Aardman’s worlds leap off the screen and into this spectacular immersive experience.
"From the very first sketches of Wallace & Gromit to the mischievous mayhem of Shaun the Sheep, these stories have always been about heart, hand-crafted detail, and a bit of a laugh. Now, fans can step inside Wallace’s invention shed or join Shaun and the Flock in a way that truly captures the tactile spirit of Aardman.
"It’s a wonderful new chapter for these characters, blending our stop-motion heritage with cutting-edge magic to bring everyone right into the centre of the action."
Aardman co-founder Lord adds: "The magic of what we do at Aardman is not about making things move, it’s about making them live; and this immersive journey at Lightroom is a brilliant celebration of the art and craft and – yes – the pure magic of animation.
"It’s incredibly moving to see audiences experience our characters in new and innovative ways, honouring decades of storytelling while pushing the boundaries of how these tales can be told.”
An immersive experience with an emotional connection
The 50-minute, 360-degree experience uses cutting-edge projection technology across Lightroom’s expansive 11-metre-high walls and floor.
Enlarging characters such as Morph from a seven-inch clay figure to an 11-metre-tall version gives guests a fresh perspective on Aardman’s iconic creations. Across Lightroom’s vast walls, Park’s signature “thumbiness”—the visible thumbprints and surface marks in his work—appears on an unprecedented scale.
Larger Than Life takes Lightroom visitors behind the scenes at AardmanImage credit Justin Sutcliffe
Scott, the show's co-writer and co-director, and design director at Journey, says: “The joy of this project was bringing Aardman’s wonderfully handcrafted worlds to life on an extraordinary scale, without losing the detail, humour and personality that make them so special.
"Working closely with the Aardman team, we wanted to create something that audiences could not only immerse themselves in, but feel emotionally connected to. We combined storytelling, animation, sound and music to create an experience that is both playful and emotionally engaging for a wide range of audiences.
"It celebrates not just the characters we know and love, but the people, creativity and craftsmanship behind them, allowing audiences to experience the magic of Aardman in a whole new way.”
Larger Than Life adds to Lightroom’s growing collection of critically acclaimed shows, which have now welcomed over 1.6 million visitors globally.
Earlier this month, Journey also announced a partnership with London Museum to create Londinium: the making of a Roman city. Opening in spring next year, the free-entry exhibition draws on ten years of archaeological research from the Bloomberg Collection to bring the stories of early Roman London to life.
