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I’ve been on a stop motion animation and Wallace and Gromit kick lately, thanks to watching the new movie on Netflix a month or so ago and playing new games and DLC based on the franchise.  So I declared last week to be Wallace and Gromit Week at GamerDad!  We looked at their movies, shorts, and games, so please click on the links and read them, too!  So grab your cheese and crackers and let’s begin!

But first a bit of history.  Wallace and Gromit was made by a studio in the UK called Aardman Animation.  They specialize in stop motion clay animation and every time I look up something they do, I’m fascinated by it.  Some of their work you may have heard of, like the movie Chicken Run.  Or if you’re an old fart like me and remember the music video for the song Sledgehammer, yup, that was Aardman, too.  And you know those talking car Chevron and Certa mattress sheep ads?  Yup, that was them too.  But some of their work is more UK centric, like Morph.  But probably their best known work is Wallace and Gromit.  It’s about an eccentric cheese loving  inventor named Wallace, and his loyal, intelligent, yet silent dog Gromit, and they have lots of charming adventures together.

I’ve always been a fan of stop motion clay animation.  Yes I do have other interests besides video games.  One time when I was college age, I even took a just for fun clay animation class!  It took us all day to make a few seconds of crappy choppy clay animation of a boy building a snowman, and then a snake comes out of the ground and eats the snowman’s carrot nose, and then the snowman frowns.  Guess which character I animated?  The snake!  I came up with that ‘story’ too.  Anyway, doing that gave me a high appreciation and respect for what Aardman and other studios do.

Let’s Rank the Wallace and Gromit Movies and Shorts!

To begin, let’s take a look at my favorite and least favorite Wallace and Gromit films and shorts.  We won’t be looking at the mini episodes, like Cracking Contraptions or World of Invention.  Nor will we be looking at the countless ads and spinoffs, like Shaun the Sheep.  Otherwise this blog would be way too long. So we’ll just focus on the shorts and movies.  We’ll start with my least favorite and end with my top one.

PowerWash Simulator: Wallace and Gromit Special Pack (PS4)

A couple of years ago I reviewed a game called PowerWash Simulator.  It’s a game where you use a power washer to hose down all sorts of things.  Yeah they’ll make a game out of anything nowadays, won’t they?  But since it is a video game, they got pretty imaginative with it, and you could download all sorts of DLC to power wash things like Final Fantasy 7 vehicles, Lara Croft’s mansion from Tomb Raider, Back to the Future vehicles, SpongeBob’s neighborhood, and Shrek’s swamp.  All of those are cool and all, but it wasn’t enough to make me want to get them and play the game again.  That is, until recently when they added a Wallace and Gromit pack.  So I caved in and had to review it.  Wallace’s inventions have made a mess of his house and machines, so he invents the WashLad to clean things up!

Wallace and Gromit’s Grand Games

So we all know that Wallace and Gromit have had lots of stop motion clay adventures on the small and big screen.  But did you know they’ve had quite a lot of video games, too?  They’re both old and recent and cover a wide variety of genres, too!  So to end Wallace and Gromit Week, I thought we’d go over all their video games here.  And if there were/are any mobile games or browser games starring them, I won’t be going over those.  Either I missed out on them or don’t feel like going THAT deep.

And that’s all for now! In the comments section, let me know YOUR favorite Wallace and Gromit movies, shorts, and games!  Later!  --Cary