For fans of the movie "Chicken Run"

[jab1]

The animated-clay movie Chicken Run was very popular among Dopers last summer.

You should know that the film's director/producer, Nick Park, of Aardman Animation, got his start with a series of three short films featuring the characters of Wallace and his dog, Gromit. These three shorts will be shown on the Cartoon Network Sunday morning from 10:00 AM to Noon, EDT.

The films are:

"A Grand Day Out" Wallace and Gromit love cheese. The Moon is made of cheese. So, they build a rocketship and fly to the Moon to get cheese.

"The Wrong Trousers" Wallace invents robotic trousers. A penguin uses them and a sleeping Wallace to rob a jewelry exhibition. Highlight of the film is a dizzzying chase throughout W&G's flat on a model train.

"Close Shave" W&G rescue a flock of sheep with a home-made airplane.

All are worth watching and/or recording.

Aardman Animations is also responsible for the talking car commercials for Chevron.

[nashiitashii]

Damn, I can't program my vcr to record on that channel. I love Wallace and Gromit and my mom's making me do the church thing on Sunday. [The only reason I'm waking up to go to a sunrise service is to go out to breakfast afterward.]

[techchick68]

You can also buy the movies at Media Play....I have The Wrong Trousers but not the other two...I believe you can buy them in a set as well.

Well worth the money!

[pluto]

If you get a chance, check out Creature Comforts, also by Ardman Animation. It's older than the others but also won an Academy Award for best short and is the Pluto family's favorite of them all.

I've never seen it all by itself but I've found it in a couple of animation compilations. Check the animation videos in the public library.

[hypergirl]

I love Wallace and Gromit. :)

[Smeghead]

You may also be interested to hear that Chicken Run was the first in a, IIRC, 3 movie deal for these guys. Again, IIRC, the second movie is going to be a Wallace and Grommit movie. (I know I got that right, with the possible exception of the numbers...)

[pluto]

Originally posted by techchick68
I have The Wrong Trousers

<snort>

[silent_rob]

Originally posted by pluto
If you get a chance, check out Creature Comforts, also by Ardman Animation. It's older than the others but also won an Academy Award for best short and is the Pluto family's favorite of them all.

Nick Park is amazing, and I love all of his work (Creature Comforts is also his). I think, however, that the win for Creature Comforts was bitter sweet.
He was in a film school (the N.F.T.S.; hence why it's presented by Aardman & them) when he started making A Grand Day Out; that was in 1982. He needed money so he took a job at Aardman. The school kept funding him and allowed him to work at Aardman. So he finished the first Wallace and Gromit in 1989, the same year he finished Creature Comforts for Aardman. Now, CC is a great film, but it would have been nice for him to have won for what had become his labour of love (though the preceding two Wallace & Gromit films won).

Oh, and the three are available in a set. I bought my set a few years ago for $10 (Canadian). A travesty to be priced so cheap, but I was glad: they really are great films.

Smeghead, you got it all right (from what I've heard). I can't wait for the W&G feature.

[jab1]

How did he come up with the name "Gromit," anyway?

[Crusoe]

It's a word. According to one source, it's a variation on gourmet. From personal experience, it's also a generic term for an unidentifiable technical 'thing' -- grommits, widgets and so on.

[MovieMogul]

Now, CC is a great film, but it would have been nice for him to have won for what had become his labour of love (though the preceding two Wallace & Gromit films won).

Well, I say the Academy is already guilty enough of giving out Oscars for sentimental reasons. Creature Comforts was by far a better film than AGDO (IMHO, the worst of the 3 W&G films), so I'm glad the Academy didn't submit to the idea that longer/more ambitious automatically equals "better". And I assume you mean the subsequent W&G films won, not "preceding."

[DAVEW0071]

I own all three Wallace and Gromit videos, and Creature Comforts and Chicken Run as well.

:D

I can't wait for more Nick Park animation!!

[mouthbreather]

As do I, Dave. I wouldn't have pegged a Mets fan for having any taste! :D

(And no, lets not hijack this thread...you can return with one cheap shot to me which I will let slide)


A question for eveyone. What's your favorite of the 3 W&G's? Mine is "The Wrong Trousers". That Penguin just kills me. "A Close Shave" is very near to TWT. However, I think that those two are heads above "A Grand Day Out". That one doesnt do much for me.

[jab1]

TWT. As I said in the OP, I love that chase on the model train at the end.

[Speaker for the Dead]

Isn't a grommit one of those small plastic things you hammer into the wall to make it easier to screw in a screw?

[jab1]

That's a "grommet," according to Webster's. It's also the name for the hard ring inside a shoelace hole.

Aardman has a website. (http://www.aardman.com/) (Doesn't everybody?)

[Brynda]

mouthbreather, I agree about The Wrong Trousers and A Close Shave being better than A Grand Day Out. In fact, I prefer Creature Comforts to AGDO, too.

The penguin and the wallpaper in TWT just crack me up. Genuis.

[RealityChuck]

"The Wrong Trousers" is my favorite W&G. When I lost my job, I was desperate to see it so I could get through things.

Still, I think "Chicken Run" tops W&G. I don't think I've enjoyed any movie as much.

[silent_rob]

To each their own, ArchiveGuy. I didn't say that the Academy Awards should have picked A Grand Day Out, I simply said it would have been nice for Nick Park.
Since you brought it up, though, I like Creature Comforts but prefer A Grand Day Out. Again, to each their own (maybe it's the seemingly countless times I've seen CC on television; many, many more times than any of the Wallace & Gromit's have been aired, here).
But yeah, AGDO is the weakest of the three films, but that doesn't make it bad. Still a great flick (that won the British Academy Awards for animation that year, which maybe meant more to Park).
And yep, I did mean subsequent.

Favourite has to go to The Wrong Trousers. The train scene is just amazing and I just really like the whole film.

[ITR champion]

Thanks for the alert, Jab1. If you'll go to http://www.rottentomatoes.com , you can see that Chicken Run was the only movie released in 2000 to get 100% positive reviews.

[GuanoLad]

Aardman's next feature will be based around the Tortoise and the Hare and the third feature will be (hopefully) a Wallace and Gromit movie.

I hope the voice of Wallace (Peter Sallis) will still be around for it. A different voice would not be cool.

[DAVEW0071]

mouthbreather said:As do I, Dave. I wouldn't have pegged a Mets fan for having any taste!

(And no, lets not hijack this thread...you can return with one cheap shot to me which I will let slide)

Hey, you're the admitted mouthbreather. How can I even take you seriously? ;)

That was actually a funny comment, mb. At least we can find common ground in our mutual respect, admiration and love for Nick Park's work.

And, GuanoLad, I agree that Wallace absolutely must have Peter Sallis's voice. Still, if (God FORBID!) Sallis is not around anymore to make the movie, voice-over artists are extremely versatile. Just look at how well the classic WB characters have been done post-Blanc. Yes, they're not the same, but they're pretty damn close.

[honkytonkwillie]

I've got all three Wallace and Grommits. Close Shave is my absolute favorite, with the sheep riding the motorcycle.

The biggest crack up in TWT is a toss up between the penguin shaped doggie-door, and the part where the penguin, disguised as a rooster, snaps the rubber golve off of his head, and Wallace recognizes him: "It's YOU!!!"

[CalMeacham]

As I have remarked in the "underappreciated movies" thread, I love good animation, and I've been following Nick Park since I saw Creature Comforts and A Grand Day Out when they first came out. But if you like this sort of thing you should have a look at the scandalously underappreciated Will Vinton, whose "The Adventures of Mark Twain" is WONDERFUL, but didn't get a bit of the critical acclaim it deserves. You might also be able to find his other works on video -- "Rip Van Winkle", "The Little Prince", "The California Raisins" (yep, he did those commercials), and "The Best of the Festival of Claymation". He also did a lot of the special effects work for "Return to Oz".

[jab1]

Will Vinton is also responsible for the TV series The PJs and Gary and Mike.

[RealityChuck]

Second your appreciation for "The Adventures of Mark Twain", Cal. He also did good work in another criminally underappreciated film, "Return to Oz" and in "The Neverending Story." I didn't like his California Raisins, though. Much too sinister.