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New Wallace and Gromit Episodes Coming Online

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the porridge-today-gromit dept.

chachi5000 noted that CNN is running a story about Aardman releasing Wallace and Gromit Shorts Online. There will be a dozen of the one minute clips featuring the awesome plasticine duo. Also bits about the feature film coming in (sigh) a few years. Anyone who hasn't seen the existing Wallace and Gromit trilogy is missing out.

170 comments

  1. No W&G! by Dancin_Santa · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    More Chicken Run!

    Maybe some claymation Dancing Santas in a cameo?

    Dancin Santa

    1. Re:No W&G! by Danious · · Score: 1

      >>Maybe some claymation Dancing Santas in a cameo?

      Try "Robbie the Reindeer in Hooves of Fire" for the clamation Santa...

    2. Re:No W&G! by doofusclam · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Nick Park (the guy who created and made these characters) is from my home town - Preston, Northern England. He did a talk at our college about 12 years ago. *very* tedious man (monotone as hell) but very clever. He would chat for a bit, rolling some plasticine around his fingers, then five minutes later he's done a little Gromit without even looking and tosses it into the audience. Mine might be worth something one day...

      seany

    3. Re:No W&G! by moominpapa · · Score: 1

      I was born in Fleetwood and lived in the Preston area for a long time. I remember the first time I saw "A Grand Day Out" I was blown away at how brilliantly he captured the ethos of a certain kind of Lancashire time/place/personality. Like many great comic artists, Parks is a rather shy man who seems awkward in the spotlight. Rather than being "on" in public, he expresses that part of his personality through his creations. I agree it can be a little disappointing when we meet someone face to face and they don't seem anything like we would expect them to be from their work - I guess we just have to be grateful that they are so wrapped up in their own worlds. The world would be a poorer place without Wallace and Gromit.

  2. Now I understand... by ShadeEagle · · Score: 1

    ...why people were commenting on Wallace and Gromitt in the Powered Suit thread.

    Yes, I do live under a rock today. Or rather, I live in a cubicle with limited Internet access. Same difference.

    1. Re:Now I understand... by drsquare · · Score: 0

      Exactly. With Linux, you run your computer. With Windows, the computer's running you.

  3. Good old-fashioned animation, eh? by jwlidtnet · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It is nice to know that despite the preponderence of computers in animation today, something that's this "old-school" can still occur (albeit online-only, I guess).

    May clay-mation never die.

    -J

    1. Re:Good old-fashioned animation, eh? by Rashan · · Score: 1
      (albeit online-only, I guess).


      Not so. according to the site, they'll be available on video as well for those w/out internet access.

      --
      Insert witty .sig HERE.
    2. Re:Good old-fashioned animation, eh? by sph · · Score: 2, Informative

      Actually Aardman has been doing claymation all the time for more traditional medium as well, it's not just the net, and it's not dying anytime soon. Chicken Run starring the voice of Mel Gibson was a good example, which did very nicely at the box office a year or two ago, despite not being quite as good as Wallace & Gromit.

      The three Wallace & Gromit shorts are classics, frequently shown on TV in many countries. Two of them won the Oscar for animated short films. There's also a fine DVD with all three stories available, with Nick Park's early animation work as a bonus. R1 DVD even has a commentary tracks by Nick Park himself. Highly recommended stuff!

      Not too long ago I saw Aardman's pretty recent TV-show Rex the Runt. It's only something like 13 10-minute episodes, but it was completely hilarious, very trippy and psychedelic. There should be second series coming as well, and I can hardly wait for it being shown on TV here.

    3. Re:Good old-fashioned animation, eh? by Lewisham · · Score: 1

      Claymation actually demands some pretty high-tech stuff nowadays, at least at Aardman. During an Open Day visit to Bristol University's Computer Science course, they showed off some stuff they had built for Aardman (who are based in Bristol) to use. Instead of still cameras, for Chicken Run they needed cameras which panned across the landscape. Now, when you think about this, it would actually be very hard to do. The camera operator would have to calculate how far and in what direction the camera would need to move for every frame of the shot. So Bristol built a mobile arm holding a camera which runs on tracks, and software which could be used to show when and where the camera had to be in specific positions. The software would then interpolate aall the stuff inbetween.

      Pretty sweet really :)

    4. Re:Good old-fashioned animation, eh? by ayjay29 · · Score: 1

      Ever tried it?
      Just grab a web cam, or a digital camera, and start snapping.
      Once you have a numbered sequence of JPEGs, there are plenty of utilities to produce an MPEG (or whatever you use).
      Can't be too hard can it?

      --
      Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive comments might be moderated up.
    5. Re:Good old-fashioned animation, eh? by UberLame · · Score: 1

      In one of the animation rags I used to subscribe to, they had an article on claymation. The man had played with it as a kid, before he became a professional computer animator. So, his daughter wants to try claymation. He used an old video camera with a broken record mechanism (but it took changable lenses compatible w/ the old film camera he had used for claymation) and hooked it up to a snappy (the parrallel port frame grabber that was able to do an amazing job of up-scaling the resolution) on a 486. He and his daughter then did a short film with this setup and modelling clay.

      One interesting bit about it was that they used Elastic Reality (now from Avid, then a seperate company) to fix most of the dialog shots. Recently I've been playing with doing animation buy just keyframing the puppet, then morphing between the keyframes. I've noticed that you need more keyframes then one might expect or the motion is too linear. It seems to me that if I wrote my own software I might be able to add function curves to the morph to fix that. Some times the quality is really good. Other times the morph has problems with layered objects. I think the approach is worth more research though. But thats getting away from my point.

      Also, I'm not sure about the Ardman stuff, but most stop motion work is built on metal skelatons. There is an article on building such things at http://mag.awn.com/index.php3?ltype=cat&category1= Tutorials&article_no=565 This is a more labour intensive method that probably shouldn't be attempted until after you have done some pure clay work to make sure you really like doing this.

      --
      I'm a loser baby, so why don't you kill me.
  4. Woohoo!! by blkros · · Score: 1

    I can't wait, and neither can the kids.

    --
    Damnit, Jim, I'm an anarchist, not a F@#$!^& doctor!
  5. The Wrong Powered Exoskeleton! by spun · · Score: 5, Funny
    Funny, this being right above the article on powered exoskeletons. I wonder if they will be remote controlled and able to walk up walls?

    Cracking good cheese, Gromit!

    --
    - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
    1. Re:The Wrong Powered Exoskeleton! by dead_penguin · · Score: 2

      Yes, and don't forget to watch out for those penguins!
      (also oddly appropriate for slashdot...)

      --

      It's only software!
    2. Re:The Wrong Powered Exoskeleton! by fobbman · · Score: 4, Funny

      And not a day since measuring the distance from the Earth to the Moon was posted. You KNOW that Wallace is behind this one as well.

      There's some good cheese up there, you know.

  6. A few years? Sooner than that... by bravehamster · · Score: 4, Funny

    Ain't it Cool News had a story on this earlier. Looks like the title will be The Great Vegetable Plot and the director is shooting for a release 2 years from now. Here's to hoping it turns out better than Chicken Run, which just rubbed me the wrong way for some reason. *shrug*. I just can't make myself care about the well-being of chickens, which are so darn tasty. ;)

    --
    ---- El diablo esta en mis pantalones! Mire, mire!
  7. One Minute? by The+Great+Wakka · · Score: 3, Interesting

    How can anyone accomplish anything in one minute? The real episodes were a little squished into their 40 min frame, and one minute is really pushing it.

    But what I really want is Chicken Run 2!

    --
    Everything is mainstream now.
    1. Re:One Minute? by mattdm · · Score: 3, Informative

      Well, obviously they won't be telling whole stories -- they'll be individual gags. To save you the bother of actually reading the story: the idea is that each one is a demonstration (by Gromit) of one of Wallace's inventions.

    2. Re:One Minute? by tonywong · · Score: 1

      ummm...of course it's a little squished! It's made from plasticine!

    3. Re:One Minute? by Alan+Partridge · · Score: 1

      "How can anyone accomplish anything in one minute?" You've never seen a TV commercial then?

      --
      That was classic intercourse!
    4. Re:One Minute? by Zocalo · · Score: 2
      I don't know about "one minute is really pushing it", Aardman did a pretty amusing set of TV animations for one of the UK's electricity companies some years back. They have also just been signed up to do a run of adverts for PG Tips tea bags, which have been very successfully marketed in the past (and for a *long* time) by a family of dressed up chimps, which is very popular in the UK.

      I've not seen any of the new adverts on TV yet, but the press has got hold of it and there are advertising hoardings starting to appear featuring the three bird characters. The general style of the characters is very reminiscent of "Chicken Run", although there are three different kinds of birds, rather than just chickens. No doubt DivX versions will be coming to a web site near you Real Soon Now if they are any good.

      --
      UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
  8. The Real Question is.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    ...will they bring back the penguin (I forgot his name) for the movie?

    Name him Tux and have him fight some big guy named "Bill" while Gromit and his damn owner get caught in the middle of it.

    1. Re:The Real Question is.... by Roto-Rooter+Man · · Score: 0

      That would be incredibly lame. That Wallace and Gromit penguin is the best thing to ever come out of England, and you've just ruined it. Congrats.

      --

      The goatse guy for president. Win one for the gaper!
    2. Re:The Real Question is.... by mccalli · · Score: 3, Informative
      ...will they bring back the penguin (I forgot his name) for the movie?

      Feathers McGraw, as far as I recall.

      Cheers,
      Ian

    3. Re:The Real Question is.... by rebug · · Score: 2

      have you seen this chicken?

      --

      there's more than one way to do me.
  9. details, details, details by mattdm · · Score: 5, Insightful

    One thing I love about the Wallace and Gromit shorts is their attention to detail. Every scene has interesting little bits in the background -- stuff going on that you might catch on the fourth or fifth viewing. I'm afraid that in stretching things to a full-length feature, some of this will be lost. Chicken Run, while fun enough, disappointed me for exactly this reason. It was kinda funny, and had some amusing references to other movies -- and certainly they put a lot of work into it -- but it just doesn't have the *depth* that Wallace and Gromit do. I hope Nick Park will prove my fears unfounded.

  10. This isn't a live action version , is it? by pyrrho · · Score: 1

    If it is, the casting is great!

    --

    -pyrrho

  11. NetNanny and this Article ... by pgrote · · Score: 5, Funny

    Read the article and enjoyed. Will be funnier than anything to see the inventions.

    As I read the last part:

    "Park has now expanded the idea to make them into mini-movies where Gromit demonstrates the innovations, which include a high-powered cricket ball bowling gun and a toaster-cum-TV."

    I had an idea. I ran to my daughter's room where her PC is protected by Net Nanny and put the url in. No go :-) You gotta love the protection it provides. :-)

    1. Re:NetNanny and this Article ... by fobbman · · Score: 2

      Points like this right here are reason enough to get rid of Net Nanny.

    2. Re:NetNanny and this Article ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      tell someone who cares?

    3. Re:NetNanny and this Article ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      I guess it was enough for me to repay their trust by not gunning down my classmates, joining any Satanic cults, or knocking up anyone else's over-sheltered daughter in high school.

      Does this imply that you did knock up their over-sheltered daughter in high school?

    4. Re:NetNanny and this Article ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      toaster-cum-TV

      For those of you whose Latin is a little weak:

      cum is a Latin word meaning "with". This specific example means "toaster that additionally is a TV", or "toaster with TV features added on". It's usually shown in italics to emphasize that it is really a foreign word. The Latin word cum rhymes with "broom" or "doom".

      The common gutter slang word "cum", which rhymes with "come" or "dumb", refers to sexual climax. For details, see your friendly local porn web site; the word will likely be used heavily. Of course, if you have Net Nanny, you won't be able to look this up.

      (If you read a college story about some person who graduates summa cum laude, does Net Nanny block that? Silly censorware.)

      As a teenage lad, when I first encountered this word, I asked my dad what "cum" meant, and no I didn't just happen to guess that it was pronounced "coom". I did helpfully spell it, however. We happened to be in a crowded public place at the time. He instantly went spitting angry and told me to just shut up. I had to look it up for myself later.

    5. Re:NetNanny and this Article ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What evidence do we have that the word "come", meaning orgasm, is anything other than another use of the ordinary word "come"? (You could compare "go", meaning to urinate.) I don't believe there's any reason to spell it in a Latin-looking way.

  12. nausiating by jrs+1 · · Score: 1, Troll

    nick park's animations make me sick just thinking about the amount of tiny movements that he has to make for each second of animation (being in the uk, i guess he's got the advantage that it's 25 rather than 30, but it's still a lot). surely he'd be better off using a 3d modeller, and just animating key frames and then going back and filling in the bits where the key frame interpolation wasn't what he wanted. it's not like there's any advantage of making everything out of plastercine!

    it'd also mean no film grain and these online versions would compress better. oh well, maybe ardman are just technologically impaired ;)

    oh, and the secret to why they're successful is the stories; not the animation technique[1], as pixar have always pointed out.

    [1] see comparisons between shrek and final fantasy

    --
    free (as in mp3s) electronic music
    1. Re:nausiating by SuzanneA · · Score: 3, Funny
      ... And then we move his hands, just a tiny amount, just a tiny amount, click-click, two frames, then his eye, just a tiny amount, just a tiny amount.

      (any Fast Show/Brilliant fan will understand :)

    2. Re:nausiating by stefanlasiewski · · Score: 5, Insightful

      it's not like there's any advantage of making everything out of plastercine!

      Apparently there is some advantage, otherwise Nick Park wouldn't spend so much time working in plastercine.

      I've seen "Wrong Trousers", I've seen "Final Fantasy". Both were created from a different medium (stop animation vs computer graphics). Both movies are great examples of what can be done with the medium.

      But Wrong Trousers had a depth to the animation-- There were things going on in the background... the expression on the characters faces... the Pengiun was evil, and you knew it. My 2 year old Nephew knew it.

      Final Fantasy was a fun and groundbreaking movie, but it lacked detail. Yes, their hair moved realistically, but the characters were cold, their expressions were hard to read, the background scenes were cluttered and hard to make out. The only reason I could tell that there was any attraction between the lead women & lead man was because of the dialogue. If the mute was on, I couldn't tell you *what* was going on. Not so with the Wallace & Gromit movies...

      Comparing those two movies, I would say that there isn't much advantage to using computer animation over plastercine ! (not yet, anyways).

      --
      "Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
    3. Re:nausiating by Ars+Technica · · Score: 1

      It's a matter of style...

      --
      http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=26315&cid=2850 660
    4. Re:nausiating by TACD · · Score: 1
      Yeah, but then why bother at all? Does nostalgia have no value?

      Some people prefer low-tech to high tech; I personally think it would be far more fun to do it frame-by-frame.

      --
      Security through promiscuity is no better than security through obscurity.
    5. Re:nausiating by ashitaka · · Score: 1

      ... the Pengiun was evil, and you knew it.

      This is the proof Aaardman's genius. The penguin has no expression! No mouth! Nothing!

      But when he is standing in front of the window rubbing his flippers together as Grommit leaves...

      Or calmly whipping out the gun in response to Grommit's rolling pin.

      --
      If you don't want to repeat the past, stop living in it.
    6. Re:nausiating by stefanlasiewski · · Score: 1

      Turn head. Stare at Grommit. *blink* *blink*

      ***shudder*** evillllll......

      --
      "Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
    7. Re:nausiating by NaturePhotog · · Score: 2

      Comparing those two movies, I would say that there isn't much advantage to using computer animation over plastercine ! (not yet, anyways).

      I haven't seen Final Fantasy (just short clips in the previews), but I think a more fair comparison would be comparing plastercine in Wallace & Gromit to the computer work in Shrek. They have different looks, being different media, but both "work". Probably because they have good artwork, good animation, and good stories to go with them.

      That said, Nick Park definitely has a gift in story-telling. I think if he were to work with computers, it would be equally compelling as his work in plastercine.

      Which suggests to me the problem lies in Final Fantasy, not the medium...

    8. Re:nausiating by Speare · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Scott McCloud discussed this phenomenon in his book, Understanding Comics.

      Essentially, the more realistic the images, the less likely the viewer can really identify with or feel for the character in precisely the way that the artist wants. Too many distractions, too many subtle cues being converted into too many interpretations.

      Whereas if the characters are rendered more abstractly, using simpler geometry, simpler facial expressions, fewer digressions from the message, then the viewer can empathize or identify with the characters very easily. The less it looks like someone else in particular, the more it could be you.

      --
      [ .sig file not found ]
    9. Re:nausiating by Alan+Partridge · · Score: 0, Redundant

      you really are a clueless fuck. You do NOT animate claymation at 25 or 30 fps - usually you do it at 12 and project at 24 (click click, two frames). Yeah, why not use a computer and make the world a duller place. Fucking geeks piss me off.

      --
      That was classic intercourse!
    10. Re:nausiating by akruppa · · Score: 1

      The Wrong Trousers don't just hypothetically work well without dialogue, there hardly *is* any dialogue. The only character that talks is Wallace, and he talks only rubbish. "But.. this is the wrong trousers! Grooooomiiiiiiiiit....!"

      *Everything* is going on with subtle expressions, hints in the scenery, skillful editing.. which makes The Wrong Trousers, compared to Final Fantasy, the more skillfully crafted movie, ihmo.

      The Wrong Trousers is quite simply one of the best pieces of animation I have ever seen.

      Another impressive bit is "Next", from the Aardman Shorts collection, by Barry Purves. Simply incredible.

      Alex

      --
      Heisenberg may have been here
    11. Re:nausiating by squidfood · · Score: 1


      Well, the sudden switch from "happy wallpapering" to "quiet menace" mood music helped...

    12. Re:nausiating by lateral · · Score: 1

      Why use plastecine? For the same reason that people use watercolours when they could use oils or acrylics (or take a photograph... or sketch). Because they prefer it.

    13. Re:nausiating by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Typically, animation is NOT done at full video frame rates.


      No matter where you are in the world and what your final medium is, if you're doing professional animation, you're probably working at 24fps. And for most of your movements you 'shoot on twos' - that is, shoot a frame twice for an effective framerate of 12fps; you only go 'on ones' for very fast motions, or things you want to be silky smooth. Single-step through some features or some classic shorts; you'll be surprised at what you see.


      Mostly this is for economical and historical reasons. Nobody but someone with the tight eye for motion an animator develops can really pick up the extra printings added in to stretch the times out for video formats... and each drawing (or model pose, or 3d rendered frame) costs time, effort, and therefore money.


      Why 12/24? Because that's what film settled upon. Every animator learns to time with that particular time-slice; it's also right around the point where getting slower breaks down the illusion of continuous motion into a slide-show.


      As to why clay modelling? Because that's what Park likes; because that's what he happened to first do W&G in and going to any other media would screw up the franchise; because stop-motion animation in general is very much a hands-on, straight-ahead performance kind of animation... ALL animation is obsessive and time-consuming, and the only way you can spend less time (with very few exceptions) is to make bad animation.

  13. Ever wonder why... by cliffy2000 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Their American following has never been that great? I mean, humour is humour, and it's just a shame that "Gumby" and "Davey and Goliath" are the only true claymation options that they have...

    1. Re:Ever wonder why... by SuzanneA · · Score: 3, Interesting
      I think a lot of it is exposure. In the 6 years I've been over here, I've never yet seen any of the 3 'movies' shown on any channel.

      Americans generally seemed to like/love Chicken Run, I'm sure they'd have loved Wallace and Gromit if they'd have had a chance to see them. As it stands, it seems you have to buy them on VHS/DVD to get to see them, a few maybe took a look after Chicken Run, but probably most didn't.

    2. Re:Ever wonder why... by Enry · · Score: 2

      Cartoon Network shows them every now and then, usually all three movies at once in place of "yet-another-scooby-do-movie" or "Land Before Time XXXIV"

      I first started watching them while working at Learningsmith (similar to Discovery Channel store and whatnot). They played them every day, and the strange thing was, I didn't get bored or want to strangle myself after two weeks.

    3. Re:Ever wonder why... by realdpk · · Score: 5, Funny

      "I mean, humour is humour"

      I think that's the problem right there. In America, humour is humor.

    4. Re:Ever wonder why... by Heironymus+Coward · · Score: 1
      "I mean, humour is humour" I think that's the problem right there. In America, humour is humor.

      so you're saying it loses something in the translation?

      hmmm. as for wallace and grommit, everyone I know in america knows who they are, and most people have seen either the cheese holiday or the wrong trousers. among the kind of americans that like animation, wallace and grommit are well-known.

      I think the problem is that animation is still frowned upon by the american mainstream. has the simpsons ever won an emmy for best comedy, even when it was the funniest show on TV? or do they just keep giving it emmies for "best voice characterization in an animated series"?

    5. Re:Ever wonder why... by alacqua · · Score: 2, Interesting
      In addition to the lack of exposure, I think that the intended audience can be reluctant to give it a chance here in the USA. "Claymation" is associated with children's fare, but I think adults are really the intended audience.

      I was lucky enough to catch "The Wrong Trousers" on PBS (public television) along with a documentary on claymation film-making and the making of the short many years ago (it feels like 10 but it must not have been since it was only released in '93). I loved it and I still think its the best of the three, but it has always been a struggle to convince fellow adults to even watch it. Almost everyone that gave it a chance loved it, however.

      --

      Move on. There's nothing to see here.
    6. Re:Ever wonder why... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wow! Good call copying the post above yours

      Yer a funny guy! +4 Funny for you

      Re:Ever wonder why... (Score:-1, Troll)
      by AngryYellingBastard on Wednesday January 16, @09:40PM (#2852198)
      (User #551588 Info)
      No, you JERK! In America, humour is HUMOR!

    7. Re:Ever wonder why... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To be fair he didn't copy the entire post. His got +4 while the other got -1.

    8. Re:Ever wonder why... by oojah · · Score: 2, Funny

      Well obviously American humour is lacking something then :)

      --
      Do you have any better hostages?
    9. Re:Ever wonder why... by overunderunderdone · · Score: 2

      Considering the limited exposure they get they have a pretty strong following. Few people have seen it over here but those that have love it.

      I wonder though if it would have the same appeal if it had wider exposure. Part of the appeal of "cult" movies (& animations, and operating systems) is the feeling of exclusiveness. There is a sense of geeky cultural superiority - to know of and appreciate something of which most people are ignorant.

    10. Re:Ever wonder why... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't know about everyone else...
      but to me humouir sounds funnier....

      Maybe that's because I'm french... that's why I have this outrageous accent

  14. I just hope Feathers McGraw co-stars by vandelais · · Score: 2, Funny

    that's all...award Karma accordingly.

    --
    Game: Player 'Donald J Trump' now has AI skill level 'experimental'.
  15. One Minute? by ImaLamer · · Score: 3, Funny

    One minute... why you can buy a 20 minute phone call for one min... ah shit.

    wrong thingy.

    --
    Get your Unix fortune now!
  16. "Everybody knows that the moon is made of cheese" by haggar · · Score: 1

    According to Wallace, anyway. That ought to be the funniest one-liner from the Wallace and Gromit series. It's from "A grand day out".

    These cartoons are perfect for my family: great for the kids, great for my wife, and able to please the geekish sense of humor in me.

    --
    Sigged!
  17. My 2-year-old and I rejoice by Euphonious+Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful
    The Wallace & Gromit trilogy are the only videos my two-year-old and I can both watch, and both enjoy equally. She'll find new things to like about them year after year.

    How many things made today can you say that about? (Not a rhetorical question: suggestions please!)

    1. Re:My 2-year-old and I rejoice by mccalli · · Score: 2
      Arthur. My girlfriend and I watch Arthur despite it being aimed at kids, because it's just so 'nice'. It's pleasant, funny - just straightforwardly enjoyable to watch.

      Besides, on a good day you get to play "Confuse the Goose"...

      Cheers,
      Ian

    2. Re:My 2-year-old and I rejoice by Angry+Toad · · Score: 1

      Wow. That's so close to my own experience it's almost spooky. My daughter's favourite videos were the W&G trilogy from ages 2-4. She has moved on now, but still flips them in from time to time.

      Ditto on the Arthur comment BTW - this is the only kid's show I find myself deliberately sitting down to watch when my daughter has it on. The story (as always) is the key - the writing is for kids, but it is never childish. Funny, insightfull, and pointed.

      I've been wracking my brains to think of something else that's almost as good, and the one thing I've come up with is Playmobil, which is one of the better (albeit pretty expensive) toy sets around. I honestly enjoy sitting down with my daughter and playing with this stuff. The quality and detail are amazing.

    3. Re:My 2-year-old and I rejoice by quarter · · Score: 1

      i also bought them so i would have something i could watch with my kid (1.5 then, 3 now). we've also got toy story 2, the aristocats, and chicken run.

      today we watched a spider special on "wild discovery" nature shows are always good

    4. Re:My 2-year-old and I rejoice by dglo · · Score: 1

      You might try My Neighbor Totoro. I think my daughter was watching this at around age 2. She's almost 10 now and still loves Totoro (as do I, at 42 :-)

      Don't let yourself be put off by the fact that it's Japanese anime. It's an excellent movie for small kids.

      One of the highlights of our family's vacation in Japan a few years ago was visiting the Studio Ghibli store in an otherwise awful Disneyland ripoff, where my daughter got a stuffed Totoro doll!

  18. Shorts may be nice, but when will we see... by Ignominious+Cow+Herd · · Score: 1

    the Full line of W&G clothing. I mean, people do wear more than just shorts. I think the fashion potential here is fantastic.

    --
    Lump lingered last in line for brains, and the ones she got were sorta rotten and insane.
    1. Re:Shorts may be nice, but when will we see... by captin+nod · · Score: 1

      w&g clothing has been availible in the UK and Australia for years and years already; I have a couple of t-shirts and a w&g beanie :)

      --
      Moo.
  19. Cool! by MathJMendl · · Score: 3, Informative

    They already have lots of other stuff here, at AtomFilms, but this is reallly cool! I love Aardman Animations, they are great! Some of my favorites are Creature Comforts (done by Nick Park) and Pib and Pog (two little kids playing around with sulfuric acid, lol, priceless).

    --


    "I have not failed. I've simply found 10,000 ways that won't work." --Thomas Edison
  20. The Title is a Nationality Test. by ashitaka · · Score: 5, Interesting

    "The Great Vegetable Plot" :-)

    Would Americans get it? They have vegetable patches and Great Schemes.

    --
    If you don't want to repeat the past, stop living in it.
    1. Re:The Title is a Nationality Test. by dhammabum · · Score: 1
      No, they will change the title - eg "Harry and the Philosopher's Stone" vs the American title "Harry and the Sorcerer's Stone" - not so good is it??.

      Now's a good chance to run a naming competition. Let's see, "United We Stand, Divided We're Cooked", if they concentrate on potatoes and carrots they could call it "Tales from the Underground".

      --
      I am not a robot. I am a unicorn.
    2. Re:The Title is a Nationality Test. by mattdm · · Score: 1

      The test on me: I only read it as "scheme", totally missing the pun until you pointed it out. American, or just a tad slow? You decide. :)

    3. Re:The Title is a Nationality Test. by ashitaka · · Score: 1

      I never understood the Sorcerer substitution. Is philosophy too intellectual?

      <flamebait>We ARE talking about Americans here.</flamebait>

      --
      If you don't want to repeat the past, stop living in it.
    4. Re:The Title is a Nationality Test. by dhammabum · · Score: 1
      philosophers' stone, n. A substance that was believed to have the power of transmuting base metal into gold. - from www.dictionary.com



      The Philosopher's Stone is a legend most Americans (amongst others) apparently don't know about. But I think Scholastic (publishers) felt most people don't know about this and would be confused by the title (poor dears) and that would affect sales. I don't think it is an American problem so much as a commercial one - pitch sales to the lowest denominator - though Americans do seem to have invented this approach, certainly they excel at it.

      --
      I am not a robot. I am a unicorn.
    5. Re:The Title is a Nationality Test. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ok, I dont get it and I bite. What does it mean ?

    6. Re:The Title is a Nationality Test. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      vegetable plot = vegetable patch
      plot = scheme

      Double meaning. Most amusing :)

    7. Re:The Title is a Nationality Test. by Bill_Mische · · Score: 1

      Shusssssh...aw too late.

      btw I passed.

      --
      Boring Old Fart (40, married, 3 kids...er no...make that 49, married, 3 grown up kids...it's been a long time)
    8. Re:The Title is a Nationality Test. by armb · · Score: 2

      > But I think Scholastic (publishers) felt most people don't know about this and would be confused by the title (poor dears) and that would affect sales

      cf. The Madness of King George, originally The Madness of King George III, but changed because of worries Americans would think they hadn't seen the first two movies, and Licence to Kill, originally Licence Revoked, changed because of worries that most Americans wouldn't know what "revoked" means.

      --
      rant
    9. Re:The Title is a Nationality Test. by RatFink100 · · Score: 2

      Somebody told me recently that that License Revoked story is an urban myth - the producers just preferred the other title.

    10. Re:The Title is a Nationality Test. by Smegma4U · · Score: 1

      I'm an American, I'm fairly young (22), and yes, I did pass. However, I'm not quite sure what percentage of Americans would get it. And as for the Harry Potter name/word changes, I think they're crap. But that's probably just me.

      --
      If it's supposed to move and doesn't, use WD-40. If it moves and it shouldn't, use duct tape.
  21. Cracking good news! by Codex+The+Sloth · · Score: 1

    The more CGI films come out, the more I appreciate claymation and Wallace and Gromit is the state of the Art in claymation.

    Maybe this will prod Vinton Studios into putting Mr. Resistor on the web again.

    --
    I am not a number! I am a man! And don't you ... oh wait, I'm #93427. Ha ha! In your face #93428!
  22. So let me get this right.... by Danious · · Score: 1

    The story seems to be saying that the animations will come on a free CD-ROM, which you stick in your PC. You then surf over to a specific web-site where you download a key to allow you to unlock this weeks episode.

    Hmmm, let me guess, get the CD-ROM on the cover of "PC Format", unlock the vac-o-matic episode by visiting dyson.com, bowl-o-matic at nike.com, TV-Toaster at sony.com, well you get the idea. I know they need to pay the bills, but it's a bit much to call them "freely available over the internet".

    And how much you want a bet it's Windows only???

  23. My how they have grown... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    The show has sure come a long way since the days of two kids playing in the garden with a steaming mound of dog feces.

    Keep up the good work.

    AC

  24. What about.. by duren686 · · Score: 1

    The Wrong Trousers?

    --
    Y2K Compliant since the late 1890s
  25. Nick Park is a genius... by kzinti · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I first saw Grand Day Out in 1990 at an animation festival in Boston. (Along with a Rug Rats short and something bizarre called Deadsy "You can no play with Deadsy unless you have them great big sex-o-thingies".) I'd never seen anything as funny as Wallace and Gromit, and that mechanical thing they ran into on the Moon had me in stitches. Electronics For Dogs, "Gromit! We've forgotten the crackers!", the "parking brake" on the rocket... just thinking about these moments makes me laugh.

    That animation festival also ran Creature Comforts, which isn't as funny, but is its own form of genius: interviews with real people, immigrants from other countries about how they compare London to their home country. Nick Park then made up animations of zoo animals speaking the voices instead of real people. Unique. Unusual. Unforgettable.

    For years after that, I looked for Grand Day Out on video tape, but it wasn't until the success of his later shorts that videos became available. Now there's little in my collection I treasure more.

    Rock on, Nick Park, rock on!

    --Jim

  26. What the?!?! by dustpuppy · · Score: 2

    So if we are drawing a picture, you are saying that there is no point in using crayons, pencils, pens, paints, collages etc etc and that we should just the one great medium whatever that may be?!?!?!?!

  27. Pease please please by neurojab · · Score: 1

    A memo to the powers that be..

    Please don't use sorensen codec on these. Give us a good, industry standard, MPEG1 file... Please?

  28. toaster-cum-TV? by glh · · Score: 2, Funny

    Wow, I didn't know a toaster could do all that! I mean, is that the greatest thing since sliced bread or what??

    Sorry, couldn't help it. Seriously, is that some kind of British thing? Can someone translate?

    1. Re:toaster-cum-TV? by readc · · Score: 4, Informative

      For all ye to know cum is latin for "with."

      This could then translate as "toaster with TV," and all the sexually active minds would stop.

      What a notion!

      --
      Da comp cant tell u da emotional story.It can give u da exact mathematical design,but whatz missin is da eyebrows. -FZ
    2. Re:toaster-cum-TV? by Bill_Mische · · Score: 1

      Yes it is, but mostly spoken English not written. Possibly the best translation would be toaster/TV. The bloke who said it comes from the latin for "with" is probably right- but it's usually used where something is dual use.

      --
      Boring Old Fart (40, married, 3 kids...er no...make that 49, married, 3 grown up kids...it's been a long time)
    3. Re:toaster-cum-TV? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      All over northern Missouri and the state of Iowa they have these convenience stores called "Cum N' Go". I never laughed so hard when I saw these for the first time.

  29. W&G Are A Riot... by Lethyos · · Score: 2

    They're even more funny if you watch with your language selection set to French. Try it sometime (particularly on the one with the penguin thief and the robotic trousers).

    --
    Why bother.
  30. Aardman and CGI by edo-01 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Aardman have produced a couple of CG shorts recently; the first I saw on last year's SIGGRAPH reel featured two posers in a nightclub trying to pick up the same girl, the second is three little plasticene-looking monsters explaining to the camera why they don't have their short film ready in time, and ends with them singing a song dressed as flowers in a desperate attempt to fill time. The later one is VERY hard to tell it's not claymation. They've also used it a fair bit in their TVC work as well as for certain effects in Chicken Run.

    I get where people come from when they decry the use of computers in animation these days - sometime I see the quality of 3D kids shows like Beast Wars or Max Steel and I feel like burning my computer in disgust - but the extreme crappiness of a lot of 3D animation is nothing to do with the tools, just a lack of creativity on the part of the production companies. CGI can be used to create stunning imagery and animations, it's just a shame that as yet most of the stuff the general public sees on TV is just so bad...

  31. Best thing I've read all day by nowt · · Score: 2
    This is great news!


    Blummy Days!

    --
    A strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess? - Joshua (Wargames)
  32. For the record by thegrommit · · Score: 1

    It's good to know my alter ego still has hordes of adoring fans ;)

  33. Reindeer movie by zank · · Score: 1

    This christmas I saw a funny animated movie about Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer's lazy son trying to earn a place pulling Santa's sledge. It had the same style as the Wallace & Gromit movies, but I can't find any references to it on the Aardman site.
    Was it made by the same team?

    1. Re:Reindeer movie by Danious · · Score: 2, Interesting

      That would be "Robbie the Reindeer in Hooves of Fire", done by BBC Animation for the Comic Relief charity in the UK. I think the animators were Aardman people donating their time, but using BBC facilities.

      Official web-site at http://www.comicrelief.com/other/robbiereindeer.sh tml

    2. Re:Reindeer movie by Danious · · Score: 1

      A little more searching elicits:

      "It was directed by Richard Goleszowski, known for his Aardman work on the 1987 Barefootin' promo and the Rex the Runt TV series."

    3. Re:Reindeer movie by Enry · · Score: 2

      You're thinking "Robbie the Reindeer in Hooves of Fire". Caught that last holiday season, but was available only as Region 2 DVD (Thank YOU MPAA!). I don't think it was Aardman.

      It's available this year on Region 1. Great movie.

    4. Re:Reindeer movie by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Looks like they've released a region 1 version:

      http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005LC1 K/ ref=pd_bxgy_text_2/102-9398892-4645753

    5. Re:Reindeer movie by cattlegrid · · Score: 1

      Richard Goleszowski was directing the other Aardman film, Tortoise and the Hare which has run into problems and production has been halted. There is meant to be a Robbie the Reindeer 2 in production too, again at the BBC but directed by Peter Peake - another ex Aardman director.

  34. Wallace & Gromit, Computer Game by Alioth · · Score: 2
    Frontier Developments is apparently working on a Wallace and Grommit game. (Frontier Developments is headed by David Braben, one of the duo who wrote the genre-setting game 'Elite').

    Go to Marjacq.com and click on the "Developer" menu and then "Frontier Devlopments" to read about it. Not much information there except that they are working on it.

    --
    Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
  35. Aardman DVD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    There is an Aardman DVD available that has Creature Comforts, the three Wallace and Grommit movies, and a large amount of behind the scenes video footage. I know it exists because I have it in my laptop at the moment. (I commute 2 hours to work, so it pays to have a DVD-ROM in your laptop)

    1. Re:Aardman DVD by SinceEBCDIC · · Score: 1

      For the exceedingly lazy among us :-) the DVD about which you're speaking is called The Incredible Adventures of Wallace and Gromit and may be ordered here.

      --

      I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there. -- Richard Feynman
  36. The Reason the /. crowd is interested in W&G by geekguy · · Score: 1
    Is because they had a Penguin, sure it was evil, but it showed that penguins are acutaly masterminds who should be feared. Slashdoters rejoyce, someone else understands the greatness of penguins


    any oppinions expressed here in are not mine, but the product of me mixed with some booze

    --
    -- Any comments seen here are not mine, but a mixture of alchohol and lack of sleep.
  37. Re:Ever wonder why... Don't forget Mr. Bill by fishlet · · Score: 1

    Don't forget Mr. Bill, he's my favorite claymate.

    --


    Blender And Linux Fan
  38. Chevron commercial? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Let us not forge they were also the ones behind the new claymation Chevron gasoline commercials:
    http://www.rushes.co.uk/flash/rcp/Chevron.html
    I'm only saying this because the chances are higher that John Doe out there may not have seen the W&G animations but would recognize the Chevron commercials. The mouth movement is a dead giveaway.

    1. Re:Chevron commercial? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oops here you go if you want to see the Chevron Commericals:
      http://www.chevroncars.com/theater/commercials/

      Yep.. I'm an AC Karma Whore!

  39. Re:Today's porn count! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's all? Pathetic.

    ZZZOT

  40. more detail by oo7tushar · · Score: 2, Informative

    The amount of detail that the animators put into Wallace and Gromit is incredible. You can watch the video repeatedly and find something new. Like the news papers always fortell what the future may contain.

    A particularly advanced example of this is the news paper in "A Grand Day Out". If you read it you'll find out about Feathers McGraw who is in The Wrong Trousers which was completed a few years later.

    Also, in "A Close Shave" you can see Feathers Was Here written on the Jail cell that Gromit is in. It does seem that Feathers is perhaps one of the most exciting characters that was created.

    Consider that it's a bowling ball but from the two blank little eyes you can tell it's evil and it doesn't even have eyebrows but when it rubs the flippers together you can sense it like the evil from Sauron.

    Just a small other point, the hole in the eyes of the characters are so that the animators can put a needle in and move the direction that the eyes look.

    Hope this has been interesting, informative, insightful and funny ;)

    --
    internet like monkeys'
  41. Ahh, so it isn't ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... dancing in the TV station

  42. Catch these Hidden Gems? by BTWR · · Score: 1, Informative

    The hidden gems in W&G are also wonderful. - Grommit reads a newspaper entitled "Dog Reads Paper" - Check out the name of W&G's wash service in "A Close Shave" for a cute pun (too clever to post here!) - Penguin replaces Grommit's framed picture of a bone with a framed picture of a sardine! So many more... if you haven't seen these before, you simply must purchase them!

  43. Re:Ever wonder why... Don't forget Mr. Bill by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "I'd rather have a bottle in front of me, than a frontal lobotamy."

    Have you had a dextrohemispherotomy?

  44. I have the title of the Wallace and Grommit Movie! by BTWR · · Score: 0

    According to AICN, the title of the Wallace and Gromit is THE GREAT VEGETABLE PLOT.
    Will this rule or what??? :-)

  45. Chicken Run by frankie_guasch · · Score: 1

    For those who don't know them , Chicken Run is
    their most known feature. W&G are short movies, and are funnier IMHO.

  46. W&G digital by GdoL · · Score: 1

    It's ironic that a traditional style comics appear online. Is there any possible way of getting the same effect of the W&G films with digital tools?

    I love W&G and all the work from Aardman, almost bought is animal interviews, what's is name, yesterday.

    --

    ------I can please only one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't looking good either.------
  47. one of the best things I ever saw... by hummer357 · · Score: 1, Informative

    A few years ago, I saw a screening of W&G's 'The Wrong Trousers' at a small arts festival over here in Belgium...

    The big thing there was that the movie was being 'scored' by a not-very-well-known post-rock-kinda band called de.portables...

    You should have seen it! It rocked like hell, timing was perfect for every scene, for every move... it was very emotional in the scene where Gromit was leaving, suspenseful when Wallace was stealing the diamond, and the train chase scene had to be seen and heard to be believed...

    aardman should get in touch with these guys and let them score the vegetable plot movie!!!


    But in the mean time, download some of their music (legally) from here and from the site mentioned above...

  48. Aardman Portfolio by cattlegrid · · Score: 2, Informative

    subtly hidded on the Aardman site under the banner 'Trade' are about 20 commercials plus some clips from movies. Its got some of their recent CG material too. http://www.aardman.com/trade nice flash intro...ahem

    1. Re:Aardman Portfolio by cattlegrid · · Score: 1

      plus you can see all of Aardmans shorts at Atomfilms. check out angry kid - its a killer. www.atomfilms.com

  49. HMMMmmmmm by Richard_at_work · · Score: 1

    I seems to remember a car race starring the wallace and gromit characters which came out before the 3 famous films. its never mentioned, but it was definatly them. Can anyone point me in any direction for this?

  50. Re:The Reason the /. crowd is interested in W& by Mr.+Fusion · · Score: 1
    Right. And the only reason we're interested in Monty Python is because of the Spam Sketch. Or the similarly named programming language.

    No, no, no, we love Wallace and Gromit alongside Monty Python because it hits a certain geeky funnybone in all of us. Encorperating everything from a dog rewiring remote control trousers to those infamous minute details of mice wearing sunglasses, it really cannot go unnoticed.

    Plus if you think about it, "A Close Shave" could indirectly depict some of the dotcom wars around here (think of Wendy as Microsoft's PR and her robot dog as the rest of the company).

  51. Here is why. by overunderunderdone · · Score: 2

    Here is why they change the names of British books and films for Americans. From a few posts down:

    toaster-cum-TV? (Score:2, Funny)

    Wow, I didn't know a toaster could do all that! I mean, is that the greatest thing since sliced bread or what??

    Sorry, couldn't help it. Seriously, is that some kind of British thing? Can someone translate?

    1. Re:Here is why. by ashitaka · · Score: 1

      cum prep. Latin: Combined, together with, plus.

      Something-cum-somethingelse = Something plus somethingelse

      --
      If you don't want to repeat the past, stop living in it.
    2. Re:Here is why. by overunderunderdone · · Score: 2

      *I* know tbat. My point was that even a presumably well educated geek on slashdot didn't

  52. Busy in the commerical industry by penguin_dance · · Score: 1

    They certainly haven't been lax in the commercial industry either. They did some animations for Burger King a few years ago. And I think some of the Shaun's friends from A Close Shave are starring in a mattress commercial (the counting sheep).

    As much effort as goes into making one of these animations, they can really put out quite a bit. Glad to see the dynamic duo is coming back.

    --
    If you've never been modded as "flamebait" or "troll," you've never tried to argue a minority viewpoint here!
  53. Department of Redundancy Department by virg_mattes · · Score: 2

    Correct my British if needed, but doesn't "cracking" mean "good"?

    Just wondering.

    Virg

  54. A whole festival by Felipe+Hoffa · · Score: 1

    There is a whole festival of one minute films!

    You can browse their site in Portuguese, Spanish or English, and even watch some films.

    Fh

  55. Re:A few years? Sooner than that... by Snover · · Score: 1

    And hey! Everything tastes like them. Originals are always better than clones, right? So why are we stuck eating imitation chicken when we can eat the real thing?

    --

    [insert witty comment here]