Wallace and Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death - No additional pun required

Nick Park is a man whose work you’ve seen even if you didn’t know it. He’s done stop motion for TV commercials. He has several animated short films, all stop motion. What he’s most famous for is Wallace and Gromit. The pair consists of a lovable if slightly stupid man and his loyal and (thankfully) brilliant dog/sidekick. Each film finds Wallace involved in a new venture and, as is expected, leaves Gromit in charge of the running of said venture. If you’ve never seen a Wallace and Gromit film you should be ashamed of yourself. Go find them now and watch them, there are four short films and one feature length. A close shave, a grand day out, the wrong trousers, a Matter of loaf and death and curse of the were-rabbit respectively.


(LOOK OUT GROMIT! GIANTS! GIANTS!)

We’ll be taking a look at the newest adventure, a case of loaf and death. In this short we find Wallace has started a bakery. While on delivery he happens upon the girl of his dreams, the bake light girl and saves her from a runaway bike situation. They date for a spell and eventually are engaged, Gromit being the smart one sense that there’s something wrong with this situation and looks into it. I don’t want to spoil it for you so I’ll leave it at that. Remember it only has a 29-minute running time.


(after this there's an amazing homage to the original Batman movie, it's hilarious)

A case of loaf and death has everything you’d expect from a Wallace and Gromit film. There are all sorts of Rube Goldberg looking flabtraptions that are animated fluidly. The one thing the film is lacking in that other W & G films have is that sense of playful dread. Usually Nick Park Lingers on the bad guys more after Gromit has figured everything out, but in this case they plug along at a healthy pace and don’t really let the cat and mouse between Gromit and the villain linger before letting Wallace in on the secret. That one complaint aside, this is still a wonderful family film that the entire family will still enjoy.

4.5 Water balloon alarm clocks out of 5

Next Up: Big Fan – How big of a fan are you?

P.S. If you’re going to search out the W & G films, try to watch them in order so you can see Nick Park Hone his skills, it’s an amazing transformation.