Short Film Collection Review – “The Incredible Adventures of Wallace and Gromit”

Be sure you put on the right trousers this morning,
Chuck.

Cast, Crew, and Other Info

Peter Sallis provides the voice of Wallace.

Nick Park, Peter Lord, and Bob Baker are the three
creators with the
most input to the title.

Buy from: Amazon.com
or Amazon.ca

Past movie reviews can be found here.

Premise

This includes three adventures of a British inventor
and his dog.

In “A Grand Day Out,” Wallace and Gromit are trying
to decide how to
spend a bank holiday when they realize they’re out of
cheese. Well,
everybody knows the moon’s made of cheese…

In “The Wrong Trousers,” Wallace and Gromit take on a
houseguest to
help pay the bills. The guest doesn’t particularly
like Gromit.

In “A Close Shave,” Wallace and Gromit get hired as
window cleaners by
the only shopkeeper who doesn’t seem affected by the
wool shortage.

High Point

The train pursuit in “The Wrong Trousers.” Very
amusing, and
technically amazing for this type of animation.

Low Point

The vending machine in “A Grand Day Out.” I just
find it unamusing.

The Scores

These are fairly original. In some cases,
they even reuse
some sight gags they’ve already used, but it always
feels fresh. I
give it 4 out of 6.

The animation is excellent, particularly in
the later
stories. The expression Gromit is capable of with
only ears and an
eyebrow ridge is remarkable. (This is the main reason
I rank him among
the top three animated dogs of all time, along with
Disney’s Goofy and
the Grinch’s Max.) Managing to use high speed chases,
bungee cords,
and the collapse of a pyramid of yarn balls under
gravity is
remarkable for this type of animation. Truly
excellent work. I give
it 6 out of 6.

The latter two stories were great. “A Grand
Day Out” is a
series of amusing gags, but without a truly engaging
story. I give it
4 out of 6.

The voice acting is almost all from Peter
Sallis, and he does
a decent job. There’s not a huge emotional range in
the voice work.
The animation completes things nicely, but there
should be more in the
voice acting. I give it 4 out of 6.

The emotional response to “A Grand Day Out”
is boredom with
moments of amusement. The other two are great, with
genuinely
interesting stories, and a whole lot of laughs. I
give the complete
package 5 out of 6.

The production was a bit stiff in the
original, but it was
really well trimmed for the next two. I give it 4
out of 6.

Overall, these shorts are highly amusing,
and well worth your
time, particularly for animation fans. (If you
haven’t heard of them,
know that it’s the same creative team as Chicken
Run
.) I
give it 5 out of 6.

In total, The Incredible Adventures of Wallace
and Gromit

receives 32 out of 42.

3 replies on “Short Film Collection Review – “The Incredible Adventures of Wallace and Gromit””

  1. Which vending machine?
    It’s not a vending machine at all.

    In the middle of the last century, many appliances ran on
    gas supplied, wonder of wonders, by a gas company. And in
    Britain, where W&G happen to live, nobody came round to
    read the gas meter, and you got the bill in the post a
    month later.

    Instead they had what would now be called pay-as-you-go: To
    get the gas flowing, you had to shove a coin into a slot
    and turn a knob, and then someone came round to empty the
    strongboxes.

    Which also meant that shillings were usually in short
    supply for change.

    So, the oven stops because it runs out of gas…

    P.S. And I’m not even British…

    • Re: Which vending machine?

      It’s not a vending machine at all.

      In the middle of the last century, many appliances ran on
      gas supplied, wonder of wonders, by a gas company. And in
      Britain, where W&G happen to live, nobody came round to
      read the gas meter, and you got the bill in the post a
      month later.

      Instead they had what would now be called pay-as-you-go:
      To
      get the gas flowing, you had to shove a coin into a slot
      and turn a knob, and then someone came round to empty the
      strongboxes.

      Which also meant that shillings were usually in short
      supply for change.

      So, the oven stops because it runs out of gas…

      P.S. And I’m not even British…

      Ah. That’s what that was. (I assumed it was a vending
      machine because it was coin operated.) I still don’t know
      what it was doing there. I can enjoy odd stuff, but one
      completely random element in an otherwise normal story
      just doesn’t work for me.

      Unless it’s Monty Python.

Comments are closed.