Aardman must shed 90 staff from its production of their latest offering Tortoise vs Hare and the release has been pushed back six months after a major script script dispute.

Aardman's Arthur Sherrif stressed last Wednesday that cuts were only temporary but was clearly upset by the announcement, the first of this nature, "We are devastated. This has never happened within Aardman before and it is a shock to us all. We would rather put the film on hold for six months and sort it out than produce an average film."

The magic combination of DreamWorks and the UK animation specialists was tipped to continue after their monster hit Chicken Run with their next $25m comedy taken from the famous Aesop fable.

Paul Whitehouse had signed to voice the Hare with Michael Caine as Tortoise in front of a broad supporting cast included Bob Hoskins Brenda Blethyn, Lee Evans but this setback may cause the Fast Show star to drop out.