I think I can say for sure that if anything, Wallace & Gromit were the duo that really got Aardman going with Nick Park at the helm. The franchise has been quite successful over the years with 4 short films, a feature length film with DreamWorks Animation and even a few video games and other things too. Now something that I have learned is that when a new short with this duo is made, its often has its premiere at Christmas so it felt appropriate for me to do a review of the things they have done at this time of the year. I'm not entirely sure if there will ever be more short films featuring these guys, but we can only hope. But for now, let's review a few of the things they have done which I haven't reviewed yet:
A Grand Day Out
In their very first outing, Wallace (who was originally voiced by Peter Sallis for most of these things and is more recently voiced by Ben Whitehead) and his silent dog Gromit debate on where to go for a holiday. As Wallace loves his cheese, he personally wants to go somewhere where there is cheese and the one place that he and Gromit look towards, is the moon. And with their destination sorted, they then begin to set off into space to go onto the moon. But some kind of appliance lurks on the planet and will stop at nothing to keep the moon's natural beauty. As the very first short, it has aged a great deal over the years, but its still heavily regarded as one of the best films of the lot. Its a very simple story and with most short films, it kind of has to be, but its funny, runs on some form of cartoon logic and certainly set the standard for the remainder of the franchise. 9/10
The Wrong Trousers
So in their second outing, its Gromit's birthday and Wallace gives him two presents. A dog lead and an invention he created called the Techno-Trousers which would be used to walk Gromit. However being the dog that he is, Gromit does everything he can to try and avoid the trousers, but seemingly fails at every turn. But his bad luck seems to keep coming as a lodger in the form of a penguin comes to stay at the house which makes Wallace almost disown Gromit. But little do they know that this penguin may in fact be a criminal. For what its worth, I think this one can come out as being quite terrifying for younger audiences for the tone and how intimidating the trousers can be. Though despite this, its another good entry with suspense, some creepy and terrifying scenes and just fun all the way. 9/10
A Close Shave
So this one pretty much just had Aardman think of a business that the duo could tackle and kind of stuck to this idea for the rest of the things to come for this duo. But despite this, it still keeps the characters' personalities in check. So Wallace and Gromit start a cleaning business and take on the job of cleaning the windows of a local wool shop, not knowing that a sheep has escaped and has taken refuge in their home. There, Wallace meets and falls in love with the shop keeper Wendy (voiced by Anne Reid) who just so happened to be the daughter of a late inventor and like Wallace, has a dog, but unlike Gromit, this dog called Preston secretly does a sheep scheme to help fund the shop with wool. And before you know it, Gromit gets himself into trouble and Wallace takes in a lot of sheep and its up to the pair to stop Preston and his schemes, but Preston may well be something else other than a dog. I have to say, this one really does tackle a lot of mature things like criminals, prisons, all topped with one scary villain who becomes more scary later on in the film. Its also nice to have some other characters in the show and not just silent ones. 9/10
A Matter of Loaf and Death
So after the feature film, Nick Park then worked on what would be his last Wallace and Gromit short for the foreseeable future due to the declining health of Peter Sallis, but that may change seeing as they have had a newer person to replace him. So as the name implies, the duo this time are doing a bakery business and give people in the neighbourhood bread among other baked goods. During one trip round the block, the duo come across a woman in trouble and they manage to save her. This woman just so happens to be the former mascot of a series of breads and Wallace falls in love with her while Gromit starts to have the hots for her female dog. However little do they know that this woman is killing bakers one by one and Wallace is her next target. So its up to Gromit to put some sense into Wallace and save him from his death. I actually quite enjoyed this one. It is more light hearted compared to some of the other things that have come out from the franchise, but still manages to be dark, somewhat scary, but overall an enjoyable flick. Its just a pity that we may never see another short from these guys again, but at least we have some video games to take its place which we will get to right now. 9/10
Project Zoo
So with a popular franchise like Wallace and Gromit, of course there would be video games that would be made and this was the first one I played. Its kind of a spiritual successor to The Wrong Trousers in that its main antagonist is the penguin of that film so this can be seen as more of a revenge story than anything else with a polar bear thrown into the mix. But I will say the cutscenes for this game look very much like the short films. Its not footage from those films, but they definitely got the likeness and animation right. As for the gameplay, it felt pretty straight forward. You basically just have to free the animals in the zoo from the penguins evil minions and thats really all their is to it. I find that most fans would enjoy this game more than a average gamer would, but its fun and has references to other Wallace & Gromit thing up to this point and Frontier are good developers so you won't be disappointed at all. 7/10
Fright of the Bumblebees
So after 4 short films, one feature film and plenty of other things as well, the duo then got the attention of episodic gaming specialists TellTale who decided to make a series of episodic games based on the duo and their many adventures following the trend that the franchise is known for. So in the first of these games, Wallace starts a buisness all about giving honey to the residents of their home town in the hopes to settle a debt with the local grocers. However one thing leads to another and it isn't long before the duo have to save the town from bees. As with all of TellTale's games, this game follows the point and click formula that the games from TellTale games are known for and its basically a test of your brain to work out what to do to progress forward. In that regard, its actually quite charming and funny and its definitely a worthy entry in the Wallace & Gromit universe. 9/10
The Last Resort
So as I've made my point with the gameplay in the review above, the rest of these games, I will just talk about the story and leave it at that. So its raining in the town which just so happens to flood the cellar inside the duo's house. The duo then take advantage of this and make the house an indoor holiday resort for the townsfolk and everyone seems to come down. However the duo then come across an incident and must try and figure out what happened before all havoc occurs. This one I felt wasn't as good as the first one, but its OK. Its playable, but of all the ideas that the duo have done over the years, this one didn't feel very creative as such, but that's just me. 7/10
Muzzled!
In this one, a fair is taking place and the duo try out an invention of theirs while at the fair. But a plot seems to be taking place where our titular character who is running the fair, secretly attempts to take in strays for manual labour and so its up to the duo to stop him and his ways. This one was quite good. There's more stuff going on and its not all confined to just one place which I like. 8/10
The Bogey Man
So following the events of the last game, Gromit gets Wallace to be part of the local country club and this time, the deed is missing and so the duo have to find it before the owner of the club destroys the place and the town. As the final one, its nice to see Wallace doing more stuff this time than just leaving it all to Gromit so that was a nice touch. Its also good to see them try out other things aside from inventing stuff so in a way, this one feels very original and very creative too. 9/10
So that's pretty much all I have to say about Wallace and Gromit. They are a good bunch of characters and they have had many adventures and whether or not they will have more in the coming years, they will always have a place here in the UK as being among the most iconic of British things alongside the likes of James Bond and Doctor Who. 9/10
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