Wallace (voice of Peter Sallis), a cheese-loving inventor, and his faithful dog Gromit take an eventful trip to the moon, wrangle with a thieving penguin that makes illegal use of Wallace’s latest contraption, find themselves caught up in a devious plot that involves the kidnapping of sheep, and open a bread-baking business that somehow manages to ensnare them in a murder mystery.

CRITIQUE

How can you not love Wallace and Gromit? You could not love them, I suppose, but you’d have to be some sort of crazy person. Just thinking about the sort of person who couldn’t love them makes me want to stock up on ammo, bottled water, and canned soup, and barricade my doors and windows.

But seriously, what creator/writer/director Nick Park and his pals at Aardman Animation have done for the past two decades (sheesh, has it really been that long?) is nothing short of astonishing. Just as it started to look as if the use of stop-motion animation as a storytelling tool had gone the way of the dodo (those bloody California Raisins don’t count), they come along and single-handedly revitalize and reinvigorate the genre.

To make the inevitable comparison, what Pixar has done with computer animation on this side of the pond, Aardman has done with stop-motion on the other side. And much like Pixar, they have yet to stumble.

When Wallace and Gromit made their debuts in 1989’s A Grand Day Out, it was immediately obvious they were something special. I can remember when I first saw this short a couple years later; it was being run on PBS and my college roommate happened to stumble upon while flipping channels. We sat there for twenty-five minutes and were astounded. Not only had Park breathed new life into his chosen medium, he’d also come up with a pair of great characters and a good story, and he’d peppered the whole thing with an endless series of witty, entertaining ideas and gags. And he’s taken stop-motion animation to a level rarely seen. Gromit knits, for cripes’ sake.

Like the best entertainment that’s ostensibly aimed at kids, these shorts are loaded with jokes and references that only older viewers will appreciate. For example, the finale of A Matter of Loaf and Death tosses in nods to both Aliens and the 1966 Batman flick. Better still, they come within three minutes of each other; just as I had stopped laughing at the Batman bit, along came the Aliens one, which had me howling even louder.

The Wrong Trousers contains a very funny homage to Robocop, while A Close Shave (my favorite of the four; Preston’s deadpan expression gets me every time) throws in references to The Terminator, The Black Hole, and Temple of Doom. There are also enough verbal and visual double entendres to make Benny Hill proud. Trousers contains a line so sneakily vulgar I still don’t know how Park managed to get away with it, and Loaf recycles the old train-entering-a-tunnel gag in such a way that it somehow seems fresh. (It also uses a series of shots of rising loaves of bread to similar effect; I hope this gag becomes a comedy staple.) And Gromit’s choice of reading material never fails to amuse. I can’t help but think that had The Republic actually been written by Pluto, being forced to read it wouldn’t have been such a pain.

But all of this would matter little were it not for the main characters. Wallace, who’s unlucky in love (he falls for every woman he meets, even if she happens to look just like him), far too trusting (doesn’t he realize that penguins--especially ones with the manual dexterity required to use a firearm--are no good?), more than a little touched in the head (does he really believe there’s a demand for a porridge gun?), and sports a skewed sense of honor (rather than being concerned over his impending doom at the climax of A Close Shave, he’s more upset that someone’s stolen one of his ideas), is endearingly loopy.

At times Wallace looks to be a suitable case for treatment, but you cannot help but like him; you like him so much you want him to finally succeed in one of his endeavors (technological, business, or romantic), but at the same time you know that would be the end of the road for his and Gromit’s misadventures, and that’s something I hope never comes.

As for Gromit, who’s quite naturally the adult in this relationship, well, he’s everything you’d want your own dog to be. He’s smart, loyal, and unflappable, and he can also fly a plane and drive stick. It really must be nice to have dog that not only fetches the paper but also sits down to read it. And to think I almost named my stupid dog after him. What an insult that would have been.               

THE VIDEO

The 1080p transfers on this 50GB disc have been encoded with AVC. Each short is presented in its original aspect ratio: Grand Day and Trousers are framed at 1.33:1; A Close Shave is 1.66:1; Loaf and Death is 1.78:1.

As you might expect, the transfers improve as you move from Day to Death; Day is a bit soft, and the source elements look to have suffered some damage over the years. Trousers shows marked improvement, coming closing to looking excellent. Shave is on-par with Trousers, but there’s another significant upswing when you get to Loaf.

Shot using digital cameras, Loaf looks just about perfect, revealing all of the tiny details woven into the characters as well as the imperfections caused by the animators’ hands.

THE AUDIO

The short’s original soundtracks have been upgraded to lossless 5.1 PCM mixes. As was the case with the video, the aural presentation improves as you move along.

The mix for Day still sounds largely like a stereo track; Trousers and Shave both boasted Dolby Digital tracks for their theatrical showings, and while the mixes aren’t as lively as that of your average blockbuster, they do make good use of the entire soundstage (particularly where Julian Nott’s terrific music is concerned).

On the other hand, the mix for Load is quite lively; surround effects bounce throughout the soundfield, and the music swells from all corners. Low end activity is uneven for the first three shorts, but it has a nice presence in Loaf. Dialogue generally sounds good, but the minor drop-offs that have been a part of every home-video incarnation (meaning this is quite likely a source problem) do pop up.

English Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 stereo tracks are also included; English SDH subtitles are available.

THE EXTRAS

All of the video-based material here is presented in standard definition.

Each short sports its own audio commentary. Nick Park goes solo on the first three installments, then is joined by editor David McCormick on Loaf. They’re not bad tracks, but Park and McCormick are both very English, if you know what I mean.

Each short also gets a making-of featurette:

The Adventures of Wallace and Gromit (15 minutes) covers Grand Day, while Inside The Wrong Trousers (25 minutes) covers, well, you know. How it Was Done (5 minutes) focuses on Shave, while How They Donut (20 minutes) takes a look at Loaf. These are pretty impressive when taken separately, but their value increases when viewed in sequence, as you get an idea of just how much the series as a whole has evolved. You get to see improvements in animation techniques, how Park’s initial concepts eventually grew and changed, etc. The pieces also provide a nice overview of Park’s career.  

All ten of the Cracking Contraptions shorts (25 minutes total) that were featured on the Curse of the Were-Rabbit DVD are also included here. These mini-shorts, each of which features another of Wallace’s cockamamie inventions, are often just as entertaining as the longer pieces.

A bonus episode of Shaun the Sheep, one of the latest offerings from Aardman, is also included. This particular episode, “Off the Baa!” (which runs about seven minutes), finds Shaun (who made his first appearance in A Close Shave) and his pals discovering the joys of soccer. (Unlike the DVD collections of Shaun that have been released here in the States, the episode included here is presented in its original 1.78:1 aspect ratio.)  

A Wallace & Gromit Scrapbook features a selection of behind-the-scenes/production stills and reproductions of Wallace’s blueprints.

Closing out the extras is a demo for the Wallace and Gromit’s Grand Adventures video game. Unfortunately, this demo is only playable on PCs with Blu-ray drives, meaning the vast majority of people who purchase this disc will be left out in the cold.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Factoring in the Shaun and Contraptions shorts, this release gives you two-and-a-half hours’ worth of stop-motion goodness for about twenty bucks. Not to belabor a point, but you’d have to be some sort of crazy person to pass up a deal like that. Heck, buy two or three copies. Maybe that way we’ll see Curse of the Were-Rabbit hit Blu-ray sooner rather than later.