Professor Popinjay's Compendium of Perspicacity

A Non-Review by Professor Popinjay

Wallace & Gromit: A Grand Day Out (1989)

Wallace & Gromit: The Wrong Trousers (1993)

Wallace & Gromit: A Close Shave (1995)

Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)

Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death (2008)

Wallace & Gromit: A Vengeance Most Fowl (2024)

They’re all rubbish! Just kidding. Nick Park’s Wallace & Gromit are masterpieces, every one. He’s produced so much too! Aside from the stupendous Wallace & Gromit, there’s the Shaun the Sheep spin-off, and even THAT got a spin-off in the form of Timmy Time. Then there’s Flushed Away, Chicken Run, Early Man, and the Chevron with Techron Commercials.

Even as a kid I knew the Chevron advertisements were connected to Wallace & Gromit somehow. Those anthropomorphic cars had excellent diction. That’s one of his trademarks, really. If a character pronounces a “th” sound, their tongue comes right out between their teeth for all to see. I don’t know if it’s the director’s direction or the actor’s idiosyncrasy but it seems like the characters are always speaking very slowly on purpose.

If you have read my Non-review for The Box Trolls then you might be wondering “Hey, Professor, Nick Park stuff features stop-motion animated humans. Isn’t your uncanny valley reaction triggered by these?”

Again, as with Box Trolls, strangely not. And in re-watching Wallace & Gromit films I had to wonder why. I’m currently conducting an ongoing self-analysis and watching a few more films to try and understand why only certain stop motion productions bother me in that way. I’m going to write Non-reviews for said films and maybe we can get to the bottom of my traumatized psyche.

As for W&G, these films are just perfect. The animation is perfect, the voice acting is perfect, the humor is perfect, the suspense is real.

Humor for humor’s sake is generally not funny. Nick Park clearly recognizes this point and wraps humor around dire situations presented in hilarious ways. It’s brilliant. I dare say, the stakes grow more dire with each successive film though. I was actually quite surprised at the subject matter of Park’s fourth W&G short. Here’s a one sentence rundown of each plot:

A Grand Day Out: Wallace and Gromit go to the moon and find a coin-operated robot that tries to kill them.

The Wrong Trousers: A Thieving penguin uses robotic pants to steal a jewel and frame Gromit.

A Close Shave: A Woman’s oppressive controlling dog is running a sheep rustling operation and will stop at nothing NOTHING to keep it secret and running smoothly.

A Matter of Loaf and Death: A serial killer has  killed 12 bakers and has her eye on Wallace to make it a baker’s dozen.

These are COMEDY shorts, ladies and gentlemen, comedy. Just reading the plots makes them seem quite dark indeed but they’re presented in such a lighthearted way and Wallace is so blissfully unaware of what’s truly going on.

Maybe I was so shocked at the subject matter of “A Matter of Loaf and Death” because I had just finished watching 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026)  and I turned Wallace & Gromit on to soothe my jangled nerves. Greaaaat! More serial killers! But it’s hilarious and put me back in a good mood.

“Curse of the Were-Rabbit” and “A Vengeance Most Fowl” are feature length productions that offer a most welcome heaping helping of standard W&G fare. While Were-Rabbit is a stand-alone W&G story, A Vengeance Most Fowl comes as a sequel to The Wrong Trousers, presenting the revenge of the aforementioned penguin villain, Feathers McGraw. Both are wonderful fun and do not suffer the usual symptoms of other productions that transition from 30 minute short to full-length feature.

Very often when a cartoon series gets a movie, they (gnomes) throw their winning formula out the window and do something that doesn’t really feel like the show anymore much to the audience’s chagrin.  Not so with Wallace & Gromit movies. It’s the winning formula, just more of it, and every extra minute is precious.

If you’ve not experienced this wonderful duo, you are in for a treat. I guarantee, once you’ve seen one, you will insist on seeing them all. Be aware though, these are undeniably British and if you are not yourself British, you may have to look up a joke or two. I had to figure out what was meant by “They pinched my big butt.” It means “They stole my large rain barrel.”

Nick Park had once thought of Americanizing Wallace & Gromit but even Americans who knew of the show expressed heartfelt reservations. The Britishness of Wallace & Gromit is at the heart of their charm. Without it, they just wouldn’t be as great. They are Great Britain’s national treasure and should remain so. The Chevron with Techron commercials were nice enough gift to the U.S. from Mr. Park.

Sadly, the voice of Wallace (Peter Sallie) would pass away on June 2, 2017. In response, Nick Park said this to Radio Times:

“[Sallis] was such a special one-off person with such unique qualities, it would be hard to fill his shoes but I think he’d want us to carry on and I’ve got more Wallace and Gromit ideas.”

Clearly, we’ve not seen the last of the hopelessly optimistic Wallace and his cautiously skeptical dog, Gromit. A fact which makes me very happy.