It’s Too Late For Another Wallace & Gromit Movie

Wallace & Gromit have appeared in movies and television screens since their debut in 1991’s adventurous A Grand Day Out – however, it may be too late for another Wallace & Gromit movie. Over the past 30 years, the stop-motion animation style of these characters has been refined, by their creator Nick Park, and interwoven with tactical CGI to create greater cinematic experiences, such as in Pirates: Band of Misfits and Early Man. For Wallace & Gromit, their cinematic success was almost 20 years ago with Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. With a recent announcement that Aardman Animation Studios will be returning to these characters and bringing them back for an all-new adventure, many are skeptical that they have waited too long – that it’s simply too late to reanimate these classic characters.

Nick Park created the characters of Wallace & Gromit at university and almost single-handedly animated A Grand Day Out. Using the traditional stop-motion animation rather than the still-developing CGI, Park took over a year to finish this short film with a small team of contributors. This unique animation technique is now strongly associated with Wallace & Gromit’s quintessentially British adventures. When bringing Wallace & Gromit to the big screen with Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, an individual animator achieved 30 frames per day – which is just over one second of footage when played together. This meant the entire film took over 15 months to piece together with a large team on hand, without additional voice acting or CGI animation input to improve larger set-pieces. Any new Wallace & Gromit feature is most likely still working on a similar lengthy timescale as its predecessors in 2024, its scheduled release year.

With such long production times, Wallace & Gromit’s new adventure is likely to suffer its own deal of setbacks and runs the risk of becoming overshadowed by upcoming Disney movies. Another reason for its potential failure could be down to its nostalgic British setting. The quaint and quiet West Wallaby Street, where they live, harkens back to an era of tight-knit communities and friendly neighborhoods. People would talk over their garden fences, walk to the corner shop and rely on local businesses. Now, the country has advanced: parents are more protective, larger supermarkets exist and everything is delivered through online services. Children have access to any form of entertainment at the click of a button and the adventures of Wallace & Gromit may appear to target an older audience with an understanding of what old England was like. Whilst it may be nice to reflect on the nostalgia presented by the old-fashioned quiet village seen within Wallace & Gromit films for many, it appears that the country has moved on. It may be too late for a Wallace & Gromit film, unless it makes modern compromises that could, in turn, compromise the quality, or essential nature, of the film, like the recently updated adventures of Clifford: The Big Red Dog.

Another major setback to the success of a new Wallace & Gromit film is the sad passing of Peter Sallis, the voice of Wallce, in 2017. Many presumed that with his passing the character would be shelved out of respect. Returning the series and the character to the big screen will require a new voice actor. Being such an iconic character within British cinema, this casting will be difficult as the sound and style of Wallace’s new voice must match Peter Sallis’ own voice or again risk compromising the quality of the film.

With its progressively dated, yet nostalgic setting, the absence of key cast members, and Aardman Studios’ recent run of poorly received films, a new Wallace & Gromit movie appears to be reaching audiences too late to find the correct target audience, whilst running the risk of potentially lowering the quality to appeal to younger children.

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