Merry Christmas to everyone at theOtaku, for post 29 of the 30 reviews since I turned 30 we look at all the short movies of Wallace & Gromit, so quite the treat this Christmas as we are looking at a true British Television tradtion as these short films are on every Christmas without fail.
A Grand Day Out
One thing you'll notice about all these films is that it's all done in Claymation, the British are the masters of stop motion animation and claymation is a sub form of this art as thousands upon thousands of clay models are made and animated over a period of many years, 7 years for this first film alone and the effort really shows in the end results along with the writing. Gromit has no voice as well as a few other characters through out these short film reviews as body language and facial expressions are used to show Gromit's emotions while Wallace is voice by veteran actor Peter Sallis who portrays the inventor as a nice but dim sort with a strong love for cheese and sounding somewhat Yorkshire.
In their first adventure Wallace is out of cheese so the inventor decides to create a rocket to travel to the moon which is made of cheese, but unbeknownst to the duo, a robot is watching everything they do but has a dream of wanting to ski so while he tries his best to stop Wallace and Gromit from what they are doing he ends up with two make shift skis; the short film is probably the weakest of the four but understandable considering it was very late 80s and a first attempt from the fledgling Aardman studios.
The Wrong Trousers
In this short film it's Gromit's birthday but the bills are racking up and Wallace needs to find something to make up the short fall so he decides to rent a room out. The occupant is a penguin known as the notorious jewel thief, Feathers McGraw who doesn't have a voice but his body language does give a nice impression of how threatening he is; upon seeing the capabilities of Wallace's Techno Trousers, Feathers finds a way to not only drive Gromit away but make use of Wallace in order to steal the Jewel he's after, his plan culvinates in an epic chase scene involving a toy train set which must've taken many years to animate just for the animation quality alone.
This is the strongest of the four short films as you start to understand some of the subtle jokes left in by the writers as well as how impressive the animation really is just by looking at the final chase scene alone, it's a triumph of British animation and still stands the test of time.
A Close Shave
Two years after Wrong Trousers we come to another film featuring the introduction of Shaun the Sheep who would later have his own claymation cartoon series.
In this one, rumors are spreading of a sheep rustler in town but no one quite knows what's going on until Shaun's escape from a large truck starts the events of the film rolling. Wallace & Gromit are working as window cleaners as they get called to wash the windows of the local wool seller Wendolene and her dog Preston, Wendolene can talk but Preston doesn't, neither does Shaun or the other sheep. Upon finding Shaun in their house, Wallace decides to clean him up using the washing function of the Knit-O-Matic only for Shaun to lose some of his wool and gain a sweater; Preston recognises the sheep as Shaun and decides to frame Gromit as the sheep rustler which succeeds but Wallace ends up housing the sheep that Preston has rustled. Upon breaking Gromit out of jail the duo discover that Preston is the rustler along with Wendolene who has been dragged in against her will. After a hilarious chase scene that ends in a dog food factory, they discover that Preston is an evil robot dog so the duo along with Wendolene and the sheep put a stop to Preston.
This is where you discover more about Wallace's character as well as create a lot more emotion as Gromit looks genuinely upset about his predicament, as well as create a new lovable character in Shaun the Sheep, while not nearly as fun as Wrong Trousers it serves as a brilliant follow up film to it.
A Matter of Loaf and Death
It would take 13 years before another short film was produced, by this time we had already had the duo in their first feature film but that's for another review. In this last short film, Wallace & Gromit are baker delivery men but watching their every move is Piella Bakewell a serial killer and former pin up model with a grudge against bakers for making her fat, she hopes to murder Wallace to complete her bakers dozen of bakers she has already cut down so she takes advantage of Wallace's hopeless romantic side, (a trait he's had since a Close Shave) and attempts to trick the dippy Yorkshire man into marrying her so she can finish the job of murdering Wallace easier but stopping her along the way are Gromit and Piella's dog Fluffles which also culvinates into a crazy sequence of events involving a cartoon style bomb. This final film (For now) is not only the funniest but also the darkest of the four films, while the deaths are anti violence it doesn't take a genius to work out that they are still gruesome, it's pleasing to know that the writing is still strong with this franchise and hopes that future films remain just as good but with Peter Sallis aged 95 and the only major voice required for this franchise retired since 2012 it's unlikely we'll get another Wallace & Gromit short film anytime soon unless a suitable replacement is found to voice Wallace.
Conclusion
The franchise is a testament to British culture as a whole and showcases the results of years of hard work in stop motion animation and claymation, no other country can do this as well as the British, and while the jokes are lost on international audiences, it will always be a part of British culture. Merry Christmas everyone, one last review of the 30 reviews run followed by a special announcement, so stay tuned from Boxing Day to New Year.
