Sort of like english "dough"?

Well actually "Knete" is even more specificly the kind of clay that aardman uses instead of a general term describing "clay" - it is typically this colorful material that children are given. The term comes from the verb "kneten" which means pushing and forming something - like dough (kneading - very similar word). One makes a dough by kneten-ing it. So the verb is used in many situations where something is forcefully manipulated like that, but the thing is almost only the children's toy, less frequently the professionally used material for animation films - PLUS "money". Colloquially having had a massage we sometimes say "ich bin richtig durchgeknetet worden" - I was being kneaded through and through". "Clay" in German would be more accurately described by "Ton". So the headline is even better than you described. ( But "Ton" means a bunch of completely different things) Sorry for being nit-picky.