I have issues with this one.
Director: Nick Park
Writers: Bob Baker
Nick Park
Runtime: 30 minutes
Plot: After what you can assume was a devastating rejection/break up with Lady Tottington, Wallace's love interest from Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Wallace moves on to his new job as a baker and finds new love in the Bake O Lite girl. However, it seems as though Wallace has bitten off more than he can chew.
I vividly remember when this came out. It was Christmas day about a million years ago when Christmas day was actually fun rather than a disappointing end to a perfect build-up. I remember seeing that this was a new Wallace & Gromit film and was fairly excited to see it, I think it was on when it was dark so probably anytime after 4 pm but it was after dinner too so it was on after 6. I remember watching it and loving it.
Oh, how the tides have turned.
Christmas day is just a boring end to a fabulous month of love, coming together as a planet, giving without expecting anything in return (unless you're giving money in exchange for goods...that's a different story) and anything Wallace & Gromit related that isn't The Wrong Trousers is just cute as best and just interesting enough at worst. This one falls into the former category, just cute. You know there's no mystery, as soon as Piella (Sally Lindsay) hits the screen you know it was her. There is no mystery at all but it's fun to see Wallace just go along with it.
Aside from it being cute what else is good about it? Well, we have an update on Feathers, he has escaped custody from the zoo. How do I know this? There's a moment where I paused the film to go and make a brew and when I got back I noticed a poster on the wall of the zoo saying something along the lines of "have you seen this penguin". It's nice we're being kept updated on this little guy. Gromit finally has a girlfriend too, a dog named fluffles voiced by Melissa Collier, it's a cute little romance and it's nice to see Gromit get somewhere with a lady for once. I also made a note about something being beautifully psychotic but I don't remember what it was about so...there's that. There was something beautifully psychotic in this film.
The bad things? What the hell happened to Lady Tottington? Wallace gets engaged to a woman without a single mention of the Lady, I mean...they were definitely a thing right? She even said she had feelings for him? Was it a class difference? Because if so then she's way too far up herself for a bird from Yorkshire, royalty and...whatever Lords and Ladies are classed as have married common folk before. Most notably (and recently and what I can think of off the top of my head) Kate Middleton, she was a "commoner" and married into royalty. So whatever it was that Tottington had against Wallace but she missed out, like she was the best thing that happened to him but at the same time he's probably the best thing that happened to her so you know.
Another kinda bad thing was that there weren't many of the little things you usually get with Wallace & Gromit, and that's kinda sad too, don't get me wrong there were some but...just not as many little in-jokes or puns or anything like that.
I also felt like this was just a bland entry, I know everyone's heart and soul goes into making one of these and I really do appreciate it, the dedication, the effort and everything else. I mean the idea was alright, having a woman going on a murderous rampage in the style of a black widow spider...except I'm not sure she ever married them but...basically the same thing, right? Either way, this was just a cute little short with a decent idea and a beautifully psychotic moment mixed in.
And that's it for all my Wallace & Gromit reviews, hope you enjoyed them as much as I did and I hope you enjoyed reading these as much as I did writing them, and let's not forget Peter Salis, without him I don't think this series would have been the same (alongside all the people working on the films but...the reason I did these was to honour Salis' memory). Have a good night/day whatever and whenever you're reading this. Peace out.
This is just my opinion and if you disagree then that's great, I'm open to discussion and I'm always interested to hear how you feel about this short. This is also a critique which is considered "Fair Use" under the Copyright Act 1976. If you like this short then please go and support its creators by buying the DVD or Bluray.
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