Wallace and Gromit

[kg redhead]

A Grand Day Out


Wallace and Gromit have run out of cheese and this provides an execellent excuse for the animated duo to take their holiday on the moon, where, as everyone knows, there is ample cheese.

The creators made Wallace say "Wensleydale" because it made his face look nice and toothy. What they did not realize was that the cheese factory where Wensleydale cheese is made was on its last legs and was about to declare bankruptcy. Happily, this film's success brought the factory back from the brink.

This film took over six years to make, almost all of it single-handedly done by Nick Park himself. It formed part of his graduation project from the National Film and Television School, hence the co-production credit.

The maker's name on the clock inside the spaceship is "Wulstan". This is Nick Park's middle name.

Continuity error: Wallace paints the same part of the rocket twice.

Continuity error: When rushing to get in the ship the first time, Wallace kicks away the paint-stained ladder, which falls to the ground as they take off. Yet when they land on the moon, they use the same paint-stained ladder to get in and out of the ship.

At the end of the credits, we see the ball which Wallace kicked continuing to float upwards.

[kg redhead]

The Wrong Trousers


Gromit finds himself being pushed out of his room and home by a new lodger who is actually a ruthless criminal. The penguin is planning a robbery and needs to use Wallace and his mechanical remote controlled trousers to pull off the raid. However, Gromit is wise to the penguin and comes to the rescue.

The puma/jaguar from Creature Comforts (1989) is visible in the museum.

In an effort to get Gromit out of the house, the penguin plays very loud music. One tune is "how much is that doggie in the window?" and another is "tie a yellow ribbon round the 'ole oaktree", indicating he's just been released from prison.

In one scene, Gromit is reading "The Republic" by Pluto (the actual author is Plato. Pluto is Mickey Mouse's dog).

When Gromit is reading the newspaper at the café, one of the headlines is "Dog Reads Paper".

Changes:
Music changed on Gromit's birthday card. In the British version it plays "For He's A Jolly Good Fellow". In the American version it plays "Happy Birthday". Julian Nott's incidental music is also missing from the early part of the American version (from the opening until the appearance of the techno-trousers), possibly because it was on the same part of the soundtrack tape as the birthday card music. Music is also changed when the penguin is annoying Gromit by playing the organ music on his radio full blast. Different logo opening on Fox Video version.

[kg redhead]

A Close Shave

When Wallace and Gromit go over to wash windows, Wallace falls in love with a wool store owner named Wendolene. Meanwhile, Gromit is framed for killing sheep and is put in jail. So with help from the sheep and Wendolene, Wallace must get him out of prison.

There is a large billboard with a painting of a baker and the slogan "Buy Bob's Buns." The co-writer of the film is Bob Baker (of Doctor Who fame).

When Gromit is sitting in jail, "Feathers was here" is written on the cell wall behind him. Feathers was the villain of Wallace & Gromit in The Wrong Trousers (1993).

Preston, the evil villain dog, is the name of the town where director Nick Park was born.

In 1995, when this film was first aired on British TV, because of their huge popularity, Wallace and Gromit became BBC2's Christmas mascots and co-starred with a live 2 in a small line of "sting" trailers and idents.

The first Wallace and Gromit film where Wallace's is not the only voice.

The motorcycle used by Wallace and Gromit is a 200cc Triumph Tiger Cub which was not normally used with a sidecar. A large topiary model of the pair in their vehicle was on display in Solihull near Triumph's old factory in Meriden.

In a radio interview, director Nick Park said that Wallace's references to Wensleydale cheese in this film unintentionally saved a small British cheese-maker from bankruptcy. Interest in the cheese was sparked by the film, and one of the few makers of Wensleydale suddenly found itself with numerous requests for it, thereby saving it from financial ruin.

After the credits and the Aardman logo is shown, we hear sheep bleating.

[kg redhead]

Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

It's 'vege-mania' in Wallace and Gromit's neighborhood, and our two enterprising chums are cashing in with their humane pest-control outfit, "Anti-Pesto." With only days to go before the annual Giant Vegetable Competition, business is booming, but Wallace & Gromit are finding out that running a "humane" pest control outfit has its drawbacks as their West Wallaby Street home fills to the brim with captive rabbits. Suddenly, a huge, mysterious, veg-ravaging "beast" begins attacking the town's sacred vegetable plots at night, and the competition hostess, Lady Tottington, commissions Anti-Pesto to catch it and save the day. Lying in wait, however, is Lady Tottington's snobby suitor, Victor Quartermaine, who'd rather shoot the beast and secure the position of local hero-not to mention Lady Tottingon's hand in marriage. With the fate of the competition in the balance, Lady Tottington is eventually forced to allow Victor to hunt down the vegetable chomping marauder. Little does she know that Victor's real intent could have dire consequences for her ...and our two heroes.

To prepare the Aardman animators for animating the Wallace and Gromit characters and world, ten short films were made by the various animating teams. They were released online under the title Wallace & Gromit's Cracking Contraptions (2002) (V); the first, "Soccamatic", was a free download, but the other nine were only available by subscribing or by ordering the DVD.

Hutch only speaks phrases spoken by Wallace previously in the movie and preceding short films.

DreamWorks wanted Aardman to replace Peter Sallis, the voice of Wallace since the first animated short, with a well-known actor that American audiences would recognize. According to Entertainment Weekly, they politely but firmly refused; instead, they got Ralph Fiennes and Helena Bonham Carter to play roles.

WILHELM SCREAM: By a villager, as the ware-rabbit begins his rampage after picking up Lady Tottingham

The greenhouse in Lady Campanula Tottington's house is made of real glass. Her gardens feature 100 types of trees and plants and 700 varieties of vegetable.

Nick Park admits that Wallace bears a resemblance to his father.

Each character needed several versions to cover a range of emotions and poses. There were 43 versions of Gromit, 35 Wallaces, 16 Victor Quartermaines and 15 Lady Tottingtons, as well as 20 differently shaped mouths. A single line of dialog of only a few words could take a whole day to animate.

The film required 2.8 tons of Plasticine in 42 colors and 1000 baby-wipes per week to wipe it off animators' fingers.

There were 30 miniature sets.

The hairdressers' shop in the town is called Close Shave, in honor of the Oscar winning Nick Park short which marked Wallace & Gromit's third adventure Wallace & Gromit in A Close Shave (1995).

The tax disk on the full size version of the van shows the color of the van as being "Preston Green." This name was decided upon by the Art Director and one of the founders of the International Austin A30/A35 Register in honor of Nick Park's home town of Preston, Lancashire, England. It is also a reference to the ferocious dog in Wallace & Gromit in A Close Shave (1995).

When the film was released in Portland, Dorset, UK, the posters had to be altered to remove the word "rabbit". There is a local superstition that prohibits the use of this word (they use terms such as "underground mutton" or "furry things" instead) because burrowing can cause dangerous landslips in the local stone quarrying industry. The film posters in Portland use the alternative slogan "Something bunny is going on."

The movie contains a considerable amount of CGI of all kinds, from drifting fog through to the bunny rabbits in the Bun-Vac. In all, there are over 700 shots that contain some kind of digital effects work.

The Victor Quartermaine character was once known as Tristrum, and was originally written into the script as Lady Tottington's son.

Lady Campanula Tottington is named after Nick Park's favorite flowers (campanula).

The Latin motto of the Tottington family inscribed on the manor house translates roughly as "Manure Liberates Us All". (It was originally meant to be "Free Manure for Everyone").

All the wallpaper created for the sets are entirely hand-painted.

Special software had to be created in order to photo-realistically recreate the texture of genuine Aardman plasticine in the computer. The software had to create the possibility for slight imperfections, e.g., fingerprints to appear on the fake plasticine bunnies and ripple effects of the characters moving their plasticine arms and legs.

The entire feature production crew consisted of 250 people.

The crew used 44 pounds of glue every month to assist in sticking down the sets.

Took five years to make.

In Wallace's bookcase there are several titles which refer to cheese, for instance "Fromage To Eternity" and "East of Edam."

The van that Wallace drives in the movie is an Austin A35, made by the Austin Motor company from the late-50's to 1968.

Aardman collaborated with the UK based International Austin A30/A35 Register (aka Flying-A.net) to produce a road version of the model van for promotional purposes. Based on a 1964 Austin A35 van, the full size vehicle was fully restored then subjected to a painstakingly careful battering, rusting and discolouring to faithfully reproduce the dents and scrapes as seen in the movie. The work was completed in six weeks.

During filming, Aardman managed an average of 3 seconds of usable footage per day.

During the character design phase, the look of Lady Tottington changed as many as 40 times.

Even before the release of the film, the only producer of Stinking Bishop cheese in the world had their orders increase over 500%. The producer only makes 22 tons of the cheese annually and has no intention to grow in size.

The author's name on the front of the monster encyclopedia that Reverend Hedges shows to Quartermaine is "Claude Savagely".

At one point, Wallace is reading a magazine called "Ay-Up!", a spoof of celebrity-spotting magazine Hello! Ay-up is regional greeting, mainly in the north of England.

The code for Gromit's High-Security greenhouse is 4258 which spells "HALT" on a telephone.

The pet name "Totty" is also English slang for a desirable woman.

When Gromit is sitting in the van and turns on the radio, the song playing is "Bright Eyes", the theme song from Watership Down (1978), a movie about rabbits.

The rune stones shown in the vicar's cupboard when retrieving the golden bullets represent harvest and defense.

One of the shops in town is named "Rare Bit". A famous British dish is named "Welsh Rare Bit", also known as "Welsh Rabbit".

The number to gain access is 8425, but later in the movie, he forgets to punch in the '8'.

Other entries in the Vicar's Monster Book are the Loch Ness monster, Bigfoot and the Were-Cow.

Stage lights were used for filming rather than film lights because they are smaller and easier to control. During the course of the production over 900 lamps were used.

Torch bulbs and other small lamps were used as "practical" lights on the sets and over 15,000 were used on the fairground.

Sounds of real Austin A35 van were recorded, including the sound of its doors and windscreen wipers.

The grass is made from fun fur imported from the USA.

On average, each character got a new pair of eyes every two months.

Rabbits float up the screen during the closing credits. On the Sci-fi music, they flash in different colors. On the romantic music, two rabbits act romantic and sometimes fly in other directions. The final line in the credits is "We would like to stress that no animals were harmed during the making of this film", and a rabbit hits its head on the text and falls.

In the American version, Wallace's dialogue "How's your prize marrow?" is changed to "How's your prize... melon?"