Wallace and Gromit
Wallace and Gromit is a British stop-motion animated comedy franchise created by Nick Park and produced by Aardman Animations. It consists of four short films, two feature-length films and has spawned numerous spin-offs and TV adaptations. The series centres on Wallace, a good-natured, eccentric, cheese-loving inventor, and Gromit, his loyal and intelligent anthropomorphic beagle. The first short film, A Grand Day Out, was finished and released in 1989. Wallace was voiced by actor Peter Sallis until 2010 when he was succeeded by Ben Whitehead. While Wallace speaks very often, Gromit is largely silent and has no dialogue, communicating through facial expressions and body language.[1]
Wallace and Gromit
A Grand Day Out (1989)
1989–present
- A Grand Day Out (1989)
- The Wrong Trousers (1993)
- A Close Shave (1995)
- A Matter of Loaf and Death (2008)
Shaun the Sheep 3D (2012)
- Wallace and Gromit's Cracking Contraptions (2002)
- Shaun the Sheep (2007–present)
- Timmy Time (2009–2012)
- Wallace and Gromit's World of Invention (2010)
- Shaun the Sheep Championsheeps (2012)
- Timmy Time: Timmy's Christmas Surprise (2011)
- Timmy Time: Timmy's Seaside Rescue (2012)
- Shaun the Sheep: The Farmer's Llamas (2015)
- Shaun the Sheep: The Flight Before Christmas (2021)
- Wallace And Gromit Alive on Stage in a Grand Night Out (1997)
- Shaun's Big Show (2011)
Because of their popularity, the characters have been described as positive international cultural icons of both modern British culture and British people in general. BBC News called them "some of the best-known and best-loved stars to come out of the UK".[2] Icons has said they have done "more to improve the image of the English world-wide than any officially appointed ambassadors".[3] Although not overtly set in any particular town, Park has hinted that it was inspired by 1950s Wigan in Northern England. Wallace's accent comes from the Holme Valley of West Yorkshire. Wallace is fond of Wensleydale cheese (from Wensleydale, North Yorkshire).
Their films have been widely praised, with the first three short films, A Grand Day Out (1989), The Wrong Trousers (1993) and A Close Shave (1995) earning 100% on Rotten Tomatoes; the feature film Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005) has also received acclaim. The feature film is the second-highest-grossing stop-motion animated film, outgrossed by Chicken Run (2000), another creation of Park's. A fourth short film, A Matter of Loaf and Death, was released in 2008. A second feature film, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, marking the return of the villainous penguin Feathers McGraw, will be released in 2024.[4] The franchise has received numerous accolades, including five British Academy Film Awards, three Academy Awards and a Peabody Award.[5]
The Wallace and Gromit characters spearhead the fundraising for two children's charities: Wallace & Gromit's Children's Foundation, which supports children's hospices and hospitals in the United Kingdom, and Wallace and Gromit's Grand Appeal, the charity for Bristol Children's Hospital in Bristol. In December 2010, Wallace and Gromit featured on a festive themed series of UK postage stamps issued by the Royal Mail.[6]
Production[edit]
Stop motion technique[edit]
The Wallace and Gromit films are shot using the stop motion animation technique.[74] After detailed storyboarding, set and plasticine model construction, the films are shot one frame at a time, moving the models of the characters slightly to give the impression of movement in the final film. As is common with other animation techniques, the stop motion animation in Wallace and Gromit may duplicate frames if there is little motion, and in action scenes sometimes multiple exposures per frame are used to produce a faux motion blur. Because a second of film constitutes 24 separate frames, even a short half-hour film like A Close Shave takes a great deal of time to animate. General quotes on the speed of animation of a Wallace and Gromit film put the filming rate at typically around 30 frames per day per animator. The feature-length The Curse of the Were-Rabbit took 15 months to make.
Other media[edit]
Video games[edit]
A Wallace and Gromit interactive CD-ROM game from 1996, named Wallace & Gromit Fun Pack, was released for the PC, containing the Crackin' Compendium with three mini-games based on the three original animated shorts as well as brief video clips. The other program in the Fun Pack the Customise-O-Matic contained wallpapers, screen savers and sounds that could be assigned as system sounds.[79] A sequel Fun Pack 2 was released in 2000 featuring enhanced graphics and two new games as well as a remake of the Great Train Game.
The characters were associated with a 144-issue fortnightly digest called Techno Quest, published by Eaglemoss Publications starting in 1997. It was designed to get children interested in science and technology.[80]
In 1997, an animated screensaver themed video game entitled Wallace & Gromit Cracking Animator was released. Screensaver games were made by Dibase.[81] Players could create their own multimedia animations through the collation of things like sound effects, sets, characters and props. Players could manipulate the facial movements of characters in order to synchronise their expressions with dialogue.[82] Players could choose to make their finished creation their screensaver, or choose one of the pre-made screensaver games.[82] The manual can be found at the British Library.[83] The Boston Herald offered a rating of 2.5 stars, noting that creativity is limited.[84]
In September 2003, Wallace & Gromit in Project Zoo was released for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, and Microsoft Windows.[85] This separate story sees the duo take on Feathers McGraw (of The Wrong Trousers) again. Still obsessed with diamonds, he escapes from the penguin enclosure of West Wallaby Zoo, where he was "imprisoned" at the end of The Wrong Trousers, and takes over the entire zoo, kidnapping young animals and forcing their parents to work for him, helping him turn the zoo into a diamond mine.[85] Wallace and Gromit, meanwhile, have adopted one of the zoo's baby polar bears, named Archie. As they go to visit the zoo to celebrate his birthday, they find it closed. A quick spot of inventing back at the house, and they prepare to embark on their latest adventure. Hiding inside a giant wooden penguin, they infiltrate the zoo, and set about rescuing the animals. In 2005, a video game of The Curse of The Were-Rabbit was released for PlayStation 2 and Xbox, following the plot of the film as Wallace and Gromit work as vermin-catchers, protecting customers' vegetable gardens from rabbits, using a "BunGun".[86] Gameplay for the Project Zoo involve players exclusively controlling Gromit, as Wallace functions as a helper non-player character, but in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, gameplay shifts between the two, and includes two-player cooperative play.[87] Both games were developed by Frontier Developments with the assistance of Aardman, with Peter Sallis reprising his role as Wallace. Project Zoo was published by BAM! Entertainment, while The Curse of the Were-Rabbit was published by Konami.[87]
In July 2008, developer Telltale Games announced a new series of episodic video games based on the characters, called Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures.[88] The first episode in Grand Adventures, "Fright of the Bumblebees", was released on 23 March 2009.[89] The second episode, "The Last Resort", was released on 5 May 2009.[90] Two more episodes, "Muzzled!" and "The Bogey Man", were released in later 2009. The four episodes have separately been released on Xbox Live Arcade for the Xbox 360.