Wallace and Gromit is, to anyone who is even vaguely familiar with British culture, something of an institution. It’s a series of short (and one full-length) films about a bumbling Lancashire inventor named Wallace and his hyperintelligent and long-suffering dog Gromit. It’s done entirely in claymation, which means production on even a half-hour film can take years. It is, however, truly hilarious.
The first short film, A Grand Day Out, details Wallace and Gromit’s problems chosing a destination for a bank holiday weekend. There are so many places they just can’t choose. So Wallace puts the kettle on and preapres some cheese and crackers (the pair’s favourite meal it seems) only to discover, to his horror, that they have no cheese. This prompts an idea from Wallace, they’ll go somewhere where there is cheese for their holiday. They eventually decide to go to the Moon (since everyone knows it’s made of cheese). So Wallace goes down to the cellar and draws up plans for a rocket, which they duly built and launch on their perilous cheese-hunting mission. Yes, they build a spaceship and fly to the Moon to get cheese. They discover the Moon is indeed cheesy, but it’s “like no cheese I’ve ever tasted.” They find a discarded coin-operated robot-cooker-thing, which when fed money tries to stow away on their rocket and return to Earth. The success of this film led to two further films.
The second film The Wrong Trousers shows Wallace in dire financial straights, forced to let out the spare room to a lodger, a mute penguin, who is actually an infamous jewel thief (who disguises himself as a rooster by sticking a rubber glove on his head). The penguin manages to drive Gromit out of the house and commandeers Wallace’s new Techno-Trousers (and Wallace) for a diamond heist. The plot is apparently successful, only to be foiled by Gromit and some model trains.
The third film was A Close Shave. there is a chronic wool shortage in town, masterminded by the cyber-dog Preston, whose owner runs the wool shop. Wallace and Gromit stumble onto the scheme whilst employed in their latest venture, window cleaning. Preston steals the designs for Wallace’s automated sheep-shearing and wool-making machine and plans to use it to strip the wool from sheep before turning them into dog food. Preston is thwarted thanks to Gromit and a dangerously intelligent sheep named Shawn (who would later get his own spin-off series).
The films are pillars of British culture, and have, according to one commentator “done more to improve the image of Britain than any appointed Ambassador.” The three short films all hold ratings of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, and the franchise has colelctively earned Nick Park, the creator, three Oscars. Gromit is completely silent throught the films (apart fromt he occasioanl dog noise, like a yelp when sent flying) but is nonetheless and incredibly expressive character. This is remarkable because Gromit only expresses himself with his eyebrows and his ears, yet this conveys pretty much everything imaginable.
Wallace and Gromit Pictures & Wallpapers
Here are some great Wallace and Gromit pictures and Wallace and Gromit desktop wallpapers. You can download any of these images to your computer by right-clicking on the picture you want and choosing "save image as". Once you've downloaded one of these Wallace and Gromit images you can use it as your wallpaper etc.
