Semi-OT: Wallace And Gromit

[Marty26]

I'm becoming a fan of this British claymation series. I was wondering if anybody would like to discuss it here.

[tristar]

I love W&G! I've seen all three specials, the movie, and the Cracking Contraptions.
I'm eagerly awaiting the special that's supposed to air later this year.
Maybe it'll turn up in North American theatres, just like the first three.

But W&G aside, the original Creature Comforts short (1989) was very amusing, as well as Chicken Run.

[Matt the Y]

I'm a big fan as well. Always have been. The three Wallace & Gromit shorts are brilliantly written, staged, and directed; classic animation cinema at its' best and the 2005 Wallace & Gromit animated feature, "Curse of the Were-Rabbit", is a bonafide classic in my book! Viva Nick Park! Viva Wallace & Gromit!

[J. J. Hunsecker]

I love the Wallace and Gromit shorts, especially the second one, The Wrong Trousers. I like the feature The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, but not as much as the shorts.

I'm also a fan of the original Aarman short Creature Comforts. The "documentary" of zoo animals is a funny idea, executed really well. It was inspired of them to interview real people and use their voices as the characters. (How else could they have gotten something as good as that Brazilian mountain lion? "I needa de space. To swim.")

Chicken Run is alright, but I sense a lot of Dreamworks interference in that film. (That's just my supposition, though.) I can't put my finger on it, but something seems to be missing from that feature.

I haven't seen Flushed Away all the way through, but it looked real ugly. I guess something was lost translating their design sense from clay to CGI. Plus the characters look too much like people with mice heads stuck on them. I'll bet that would have looked bad even in clay.

[Jeffitarian]

I agree with most of what has been said about Wallace and Gromit. Aardman does amazing stuff and I wish more of their shorts were available in the States. Nick Park's stop-motion creations reaffirm my love for animation in all its forms, especially Wallace and Gromit. I've seen more emotion coming from Wallace's silent canine companion than from many other vocal animation characters that are out there. Genius.

Chicken Run was okay, but it was missing something that makes Aardman's stuff so special, I have a hard time putting my finger on it though. I believe the reason they decided to do Flushed Away as CGI was the difficulty in rendering stop-motion water effects, of which there is a great deal in the movie. I was put off seeing it for awhile by a lot of tepid or negative reviews, but it does have a lot going for it. There are some great gags throughout and good voice acting. However, it is missing that special, undefinable "something" that makes Aardman truly unique. Perhaps the quintessential "Britishness" was watered down to suite American studio tastes? I don't know.

Overall, I was very pleased with Curse of the Were-Rabbit. I had heard a rumor prior to the film's release that they were going to do it with CGI. To my great relief, that proved to be unfounded. :D

[Leviathan]

I'm still trying to get the old FOX DVD of the shorts. The one that has the unaltered music on Wrong Trousers.

[Jeffitarian]

I'm still trying to get the old FOX DVD of the shorts. The one that has the unaltered music on Wrong Trousers.

Unaltered music? I have the Dreamworks release and the music for the Wrong Trousers sounds the same to me as the versions I saw on the BBC and PBS back in the states.

[Marty26]

I just bought Three Amazing Adventures on Amazon.com btw. :)

[Jack G.]

Best modern animation series that I've seen.

[Bugsy-Kun]

It's aired here a few years ago. I loved watching this. Nick Park had great ideas with his own characters.

[Studio Toledo]

Unaltered music? I have the Dreamworks release and the music for the Wrong Trousers sounds the same to me as the versions I saw on the BBC and PBS back in the states.
There's also the Warner Home Video release as well which I used to had.

[bj_wanlund]

And count me in as a W&G fan who thoroughly enjoyed Wrong Trousers and Close Shave along with Curse of the Were-Rabbit.

Also, there's an episodic videogame coming from Telltale Games, who are doing a "cracking" job with the Sam & Max episodic videogame.

BJ

[Tom Stathes]

I'm a huge fan of W&G, always have been. I feel that after The Wrong Trousers and A Grand Day Out, the films slowly became a little "too" polished in some ways, I guess I just liked the natural if not slightly crude feel of the earlier efforts. Putting that aside, I always enjoy the duo in their eccentric adventures.

[trondmm]

I love Wallace & Gromit. I also enjoy their "silent" series "Shaun the Sheep". Shaun originally appeared in A Close Shave, and in an episode of Cracking Contraptions, and now he's got a series of his own. So far there's been made 40 7-minute shorts, and I think they're all very good.

[Marty26]

Also, there's an episodic videogame coming from Telltale Games, who are doing a "cracking" job with the Sam & Max episodic videogame.


I was waiting for somebody to finally mention this. I honestly don't understand why nobody released a Sam & Max-like adventure game starring W&G sooner. If there's ANY genre the duo is tailored for, it's the adventure genre. Hopefully, the first episode of this series will be out before the end of the year.

Speaking of Sam & Max, I just bought the Windows XP version of Sam & Max Hit The Road. Highly recommended.

[bj_wanlund]

Has LucasArts FINALLY made up their minds??

BJ

[Marty26]

Has LucasArts FINALLY made up their minds??

BJ

Lucasarts doesn't make the new Sam & Max games. Telltale Games (which consists of a lot of the same people who worked on Hit The Road) makes them.

Hit The Road I bought used from an Amazon.com seller.

[bj_wanlund]

Ah, thank you.

When you said you'd bought S&MHTR for WinXP, I thought LucasArts had finally caved to all the fans of the old adventure games! I'm sorry.:o

BJ

[tristar]

Sorry to bump an old thread, but has anyone seen the new 2008 special? For our members in the UK, was it any good?

[Mac]

I saw the new Wallace and Gromit at Christmas (twice) and it's excellent. I only wished the special could have been just a little longer to build the tension in some of the scenes even more, but it's a wonderful piece of entertainment. I actually consider "The Wrong Trousers" to be among the very best animated films ever made – right up there with the very best Golden Age Cartoons we discuss here.

Since people have mentioned the series "Shaun the Sheep", I might as well bring up the trailer I saw on the BBC for a spin-off of this. I only caught the end, but this series seems to aimed at very young and stars the baby Timmy the Sheep. Even though it appeared to be aimed at preschoolers, the characters designs are hilariously adorable and it's sure to be a hit. Aardman are masters at creating characters that are really, really cute, but in a very funny way so it's never nauseating.

[cartoonfan4ever]

I saw the new Wallace and Gromit at Christmas (twice) and it's excellent.

I didn't know about this one. Will it be shown in the U.S.? (If not already)

There's also the Warner Home Video release as well which I used to had.

I have the Fox Video (VHS) and the BBC (DVD) release of The Wrong Trousers and the music is different. Specifically, when Gromit was unable to sleep due to Feathers' loud organ music, I noticed the songs were different on VHS than on the DVD. On both formats, the first song was the same but the last two are different. The only song I can name is the last one "Who's That Doggie In the Window?" which is on VHS and not DVD.

[bj_wanlund]

I didn't know about this one. Will it be shown in the U.S.? (If not already)

I hope so, but I have heard exactly jack squat about it.

BJ

[Bob K]

I have the Fox Video (VHS) and the BBC (DVD) release of The Wrong Trousers and the music is different. Specifically, when Gromit was unable to sleep due to Feathers' loud organ music, I noticed the songs were different on VHS than on the DVD. On both formats, the first song was the same but the last two are different. The only song I can name is the last one "Who's That Doggie In the Window?" which is on VHS and not DVD.

I recall reading that when Gromit opens his musical birthday card in "The Wrong Trousers" in a later DVD version, they changed the original music which was "Happy Birthday", because of rights issues. My 1999 Fox/BBC DVD does have the "Happy Birthday" music.