British animator Nick Park first introduced the world to Wallace and Gromit in the short film A Grand Day Out. In the opening scene, we see them looking through travel brochures, trying to decide where to go for the bank holiday Monday. Since Wallace is a cheese fanatic, after finding out that disaster has struck (”No cheese, Gromit! Not a bit in the house!”),, then inspiration strikes (”Gromit, that's it! Cheese! We'll go somewhere where there's cheese! “) and since “Everybody knows the moon is made of cheese...”, their destination is set. Because he is also an inventor (absent-minded and lacking any semblance of common sense yes, but still an inventor, and quite an ingenious one) what could be more natural than building a rocket to get them to the moon?

Gromit, his loyal dog, keeps his eyebrows almost permanently raised as he dutifully tries to stop his master’s madcap schemes from leading to complete disaster. (Gromit doesn’t speak, btw). The lowest point for him is when he is used as a sawing bench, but even then he bears it all and goes back to reading “Electronics For Dogs” whenever he gets the chance. Between them they make a space rocket, and land on the moon – but is it indeed made of cheese? If so, what creatures lurk there among the craters of cheddar? Will Gromit ever manage to knock some sense into his owner?

So an experimental holiday becomes a grand day out. There are lots of little jokes in amongst the action, which is presented in claymation, or clay animation. The style here is a little rough and ready, but it serves its purpose well and captures the facial expressions superbly. There is little real plot, but as the movie only lasts 23 minutes that’s hardly a problem. It’s funny and cute in several places, and many scenes give you glimpse of what was to come in later animations. Of course, Wallace and Gromit went on to far greater things, but it was this little movie that laid the groundwork for all of that. It was nominated for the Best Animated Short Film Oscar in 1990 – I don’t suppose Nick Park was too upset that it didn’t win, as Creature Comforts, the winner, was also his work! A Grand Day Out did pick up a BAFTA and a Munich International Film Festival award though.

Overall, A Grand Day Out isn’t up to the later Wallace and Gromit films either in terms of quality of animation or complexity of storyline, but that’s hardly surprising. It’s still a very nice short film, one that can be enjoyed by children and adults alike (especially, of course, cheese lovers). It has a certain charm that will never be lost, no matter how much more impressive future claymation films will get. The story is simple but quite ingenious in places, and watching the mice as they survey the building work in the garage is very amusing, especially when they all done eye guards during the blast off! Also look out for the Thunderbirds influence on the launch sequence.

A short film that actually improves on repeated viewing. Very English, but not in a way that stops anyone else from enjoying it. A glimmer of what Nick Park would go on to…

Related Links

Claymation

The Wrong Trousers - the second and my favourite W&G short film
A Close Shave - the third W&G films, featuring sheep!

Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit - the dynamic duo’s first feature-length film!


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