STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
Wallace and Gromit have decided to set up their own baking business. One day, Wallace nearly has a traffic accident with the woman who used to be the 'bake-o-lite' girl. They warm to each other and romance starts to blossom-but Gromit, wary as ever (what with past experience!) suspects she's trouble, and what with the spate of serial killings involving local bakers that's been going on lately, maybe he's onto something.
After the success of 2005's film version The Curse of the Were Rabbit, Nick Park's plasticine heroes have become popular again and got enough publicity for a timely new episode last Christmas, that for one reason or another I didn't get to see all the way through. But now I have, and while the technical animation never ceases to impress me, it's now becoming quite clear that in my mind, Park'll never make as great an episode as The Wrong Trousers.
The serial killing theme of this new story might have been a bit too dark and adult to feature in a family film, but one of the trademarks of the franchise, the cheesy puns, are in abundance, from vinyl records Gromit owns by artists like Doggy Osmond and McFlea (as well as The Hound of Music!), to other clever (but not very subtle!) touches like advertisements for flights by Cheesy Jet. The stories in most of the short films revolve around Wallace warming to someone (or something) he's just met and Gromit suspecting (and being proved right!) that they're up to no good, and this is no exception but most of it is carried off with such technical expertise it's a minor quibble.
There's nothing really wrong here, it's just that nothing has (and I doubt ever will) live up to the standard of The Wrong Trousers for me. ***
Wallace and Gromit have decided to set up their own baking business. One day, Wallace nearly has a traffic accident with the woman who used to be the 'bake-o-lite' girl. They warm to each other and romance starts to blossom-but Gromit, wary as ever (what with past experience!) suspects she's trouble, and what with the spate of serial killings involving local bakers that's been going on lately, maybe he's onto something.
After the success of 2005's film version The Curse of the Were Rabbit, Nick Park's plasticine heroes have become popular again and got enough publicity for a timely new episode last Christmas, that for one reason or another I didn't get to see all the way through. But now I have, and while the technical animation never ceases to impress me, it's now becoming quite clear that in my mind, Park'll never make as great an episode as The Wrong Trousers.
The serial killing theme of this new story might have been a bit too dark and adult to feature in a family film, but one of the trademarks of the franchise, the cheesy puns, are in abundance, from vinyl records Gromit owns by artists like Doggy Osmond and McFlea (as well as The Hound of Music!), to other clever (but not very subtle!) touches like advertisements for flights by Cheesy Jet. The stories in most of the short films revolve around Wallace warming to someone (or something) he's just met and Gromit suspecting (and being proved right!) that they're up to no good, and this is no exception but most of it is carried off with such technical expertise it's a minor quibble.
There's nothing really wrong here, it's just that nothing has (and I doubt ever will) live up to the standard of The Wrong Trousers for me. ***