A Matter of Loaf and Death, 2008 – ★★★

Did I expect a 1:1 ‘Batman: The Movie’ (1966) and ‘Aliens’ rip off in my ‘Wallace & Gromit’ special? No. But after a 3 year absence from our screens (or a 13 year absence if you discount their theatrical outing) the pair are back in 2008’s ‘A Matter of Loaf & Death’. A short im kind of struggling with a bit.

The plot? Wallace & Gromit have decided to become both bakers AND Bakery delivery drivers, when a chance encounter with the ‘Bake O’ Light’ spokesperson Piella Bakewell sends Wallaces heart racing, Gromit begins to suspect that the meeting was less ‘a happy accident’ and more a calculated plan. After further digging its revealed Piella has more going on than first appears to be the case, and it’ll be down to Gromit (who himself is having feelings for Piellas dog ‘Fluffles’) to find out whats happening and save wallace.

Something…seems off…with this one. I cant quite put my finger on it though. A glaring issue is the sheer amount of film and TV references and literal rip offs copy/pasted into this thing…Which was very dissapointing. I enjoy these shorts because they take two quintessentail british eccentrics and put them in surreal situations grounded in reality (well…barring ‘A Grand Day Out’…But even that was grounded in Wallaces day to day realities’…this special wasnt really that.

For the most part it just felt like a special that was maybe originally 15 minutes or so. But had to find 10 minutes to make it up to broadcast runtime…So they just crammed a load of media references and callbacks to the series own past entries to make up the runtime.

The main plot with Wallace and Piella dances a fine line between cringy, ‘done’ and unpleasent. Wallace here is genuinely cruel to Gromit at times and making Piella an animal abuser wasnt exactly the ‘lighthearted’ family fun I come to these specials for.

Contrasting that however, the B-plot with Gromit slowly falling for Fluffles, I thought was handled really well! with a genuine weight and complexity behind it given what we know about Gromits history so far it felt sincere. And it pained me when I realised that this plot was kind of an afterthought to ‘murderous baker woman recreates scene from ‘Ghost’ with much loved british icon.’ As there was still plenty to explore with that. I JUST WANT GROMIT TO BE HAPPY DAMNIT!!!

Not that it matters, Fluffles is almost certainly not coming back for the next special (due out tomorrow) so it kind of only makes this special feel even more hollow now in hindsight…

the pacing is fine, the tones all over the place, it feels like its struggling to hit runtime for most of its runtime and the characters feel a bit off…Whether thats ‘the wererabbit’ effect or not though has yet to be seen.

The animation is clean, cinematic and has some great moments, but nothing that really rivals ‘the wrong trousers’ or ‘A close shave’ I dunno, it feels to me like the more they strive to make something that looks big budget, the more of the shows heart gets stripped away in the process.

This was the last time Peter Sallis would repise the voice of Wallace before his death, and there are moments here that I really wish wernt…I dont need to hear a british cultural touchstone say ‘Oh ‘Eck! i’ve got a bomb in me trousers!’ With sincerity…I didnt need to hear him gushing over a woman he met less than a week prior…I wont go as far as to say its a ‘shame’ he was involved in this…but given the highs he had with the role previously…this is almost certainly a low.

Sally Lindsay as Piella is fine enough (I know her mainly from Coronation Street) Its a shame though that she wasnt able to bring more of her northern accent into the role, by making her play ultra posh, you kind of forget its her behind the voice, and I know shes a very charismatic performer when i’ve seen her on screen up to this point…but some of that kind of gets lost in translation…

the scores fine enough. they messed with the main theme tune and sped it up quite a bit faster than it should have been though, which makes it MASSIVELY lose points in my book.

All in all? eh…I didnt hate it, this had some alright ideas and the bones of a solid entry. its just unfortunate they seemed to prioritise the wrong plot threads and that they continue to strive for ‘moving parts’ over simple and effective ‘show dont tell’ storytelling…

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/a-matter-of-loaf-and-death/

by tytdreviews

A Close Shave, 1995 – ★★★½

The 3rd Outing for ‘Wallace & Gromit’ once again fine tunes the formulae, and fine tunes the world our characters inhabit, but the beginnings of ‘marketability’ are beginning to creep in with this short, and I feel like the series has never quite managed to pull itself away from that since.

This outing finds Wallace & Gromit working as window cleaners for their local town, when one day a sheep randomly wanders into their house and starts consuming everything in sight. This, is Shaun and after servicing the shop of a woolen wonder by the name of Wendy, Wallace is smitten…theres only one problem, Wendy is being forced to work for Preston, a dangerous dog with more going on than meets the eye…and preston KNOWS that Shaun has escaped a special operation he’s working on…and he wants him back.

I mention ‘Marketability’ because this was the first special that really put Wallace & Gromit on the map and basically set up the next 20 or so years of the pairs outings. Shaun the sheep is introduced here, who, he himself would go on to have a 10 year multi series (and film) run on the CBBC channel, Wallace and Wendy would get multiple merch items from plushies to mugs to teatowels, and retroactively Gromit and Feathers from the last outing would also get heavy merch outputs…and a thing that hangs over this film a bit is the feeling it was planned that way. Its all a bit ‘return of the jedi’ on that front.

Thats not to knock the special itself, which is still fun, interesting and, if anything has a bit more of that ‘Grand Day Out’ warmth about it than ‘The Wrong Trousers’ did…But the big show pieces in this special dont feel quite as grand as ‘Trousers’ and the humour doesnt seem as charming or focussed as previous entries too…theres much more emphasis on visual gags and cute looking animals looking cute while destroying property.

Thinking about it, I think the issue for me is that Wallace & Gromit was pitched before as a soft ‘F’ for family movie, as in it was something aimed at adults, but harmless enough that the kids could happily watch and enjoy it, where as this is more a hard ‘F’ for family production, targeting kids primarily and treating grownups as a bit more of an after thought…

that still not to knock this special which, ultiamtely still has some fantastic voice work from Anne Reid and Peter Sallis, some rock solid set pieces, some really good animation, a phenominal score and solid tone and structuring script wise…I dunno, I used to really like this one, but it just felt a bit ‘softened’ this time around…Still! as far as it being the closing part on the original ‘Wallace & Gromit’ trilogy. I think it sends them off on a high and is still really good fun!

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/a-close-shave-1995/

by tytdreviews

The Wrong Trousers, 1993 – ★★★★

Nearly 4 years after ‘A Grand Day Out’, Wallace & Gromit were back, polished up and ready for a terrifying encounter with a hardend criminal penguin!

And, im in the rather nice position of being a bit conflicted about this one over whether getting rid of some of the nicer elements of ‘A Grand Day Out’ and replacing them with significantly higher production values and a tighter script/direction puts this one ABOVE ‘A Grand Day Out’ or below it.

The plot revolves around our pair of cheese loving companions running into hard financial times. Wallace decides to let out his spare room, and is taken up on the offer by a mysterious Penguin. Who quickly reveals himself to have alterior motives and a jewel heist on the cards. Utilizing a pair of ex-NASA mechanical ‘self walking’ trousers. Feathers McGraw, our Penguin prince of crime is planning a diamond heist…and only Gromit may be able to stop him.

Usually it takes a couple of films in a franchise for the characters to properly bed in, but ‘A Grand Day Out’ did such a great job of building these characters and the world, that ‘The Wrong Trousers’ feels more like fine tuning than establishing at this point.

The plot is pretty light touch, with even more emphasis on ‘showing’ rather than telling the audience whats happening. making it easily accessable to most ages. the humour is gentle, but VERY effective and the pacing is pretty solid, especially at only 30 minutes long.

The direction and animation has a MASSIVE facelift here over the first film, tidying up the character models adding much more detail to the background of sets and really pushing the boundaries of what could be done with claymation at the time. The train robbery finale being cited by serveal major directors as being ‘one of the greatest chase scenes’ not just in animation history, but in film history.

What it gains in the tidying up and focussing however, I do feel it loses in warmth a little. theres sorrow in this short. But this feels less like ‘a warm hug from an old friend’ and more like a traditional adventure film with a quitessential british touch…Theres nothing wrong with that…but its a different vibe and tone to the first outing.

Vocal performances continue to be as solid as ever, but its really the claymation emotions and reactions that fully sell this story. the sequence where Gromit corners Feathers with a rolling pin, only for Feathers to pull a gun is a masterclass in timing and emotional response.

throw in once again an upbeat bouncy orchestral score and we’re left with probably the most consistent ‘Wallace & Gromit’ short to date, and certainly the biggest risk taker of the series so far. It all pays off though with a highly memorable and enjoyable short that I really need to watch again sooner rather than later.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-wrong-trousers/

by tytdreviews

A Grand Day Out, 1989 – ★★★★

With a New ‘Wallace & Gromit’ special due out imminently, I figured it had been long enough to do a quick rewatch ahead of ‘Vengence Most Fowl’ And starting it all was a movie about a sad refridgerator and the hunt for elusive moon cheese.

Im actually amazed at how fully formed ‘A Grand Day Out’ came out given this was their first stab at ‘Wallace & Gromit’ as characters, they basically nailed it on the first outing with what can only really be described as a ‘warm embrace from an old friend’ of a movie thats just…SO charming without even really having to try.

The plots littered with Jokes and UK in references, the characters are likeable, well rounded and satisfying, the direction and animation IS a little rough around the edges in places, but given this was animated in a shed in 1989 on a budget of 30p…this really truely is the ‘Tony Stark built this in a cave using junk’ of animated works.

with a limited voice cast (Basically just Peter Sallis playing a rather abscent minded Wallace here) and a tremendously upbeat orchestral score. I compel anyone not to watch this short and not feel its warmt or smirk at some of the visual gags at least once.

Its simple, but effective and the fact so many of the gags dont rely on witty one liners, but instead on facial expressions and ‘showing’ the audience rather than telling them, creates a level of versitility that I think is hard to beat honestly.

Absolutely worth your time. ‘A grand day out’ really, truely IS a grand day out!

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/a-grand-day-out/

by tytdreviews

The Santa Clause 2, 2002 – ★★½

Almost 10 years after ‘The Santa Clause’ traumatized audiences up and down the globe, someone, somewhere at Disney was short one tax write off to meet their yearly quota, and so…’The Santa Clause 2′. A film that…in some ways *isnt* as creepy as the original…while simultaineously being in some ways creepier.

The plot? Tim Allen IS Scott Calvin IS Santa Claus…and he’s been doing it for about 10 years and things are going about as well as they can do. But theres a snag…for SOME reason, that *isnt* fully explained…Santa HAS to be married…I cant tell you why, because the film sure as shit doesnt bother either. In any case he has until christmas day to find a woman (and the film is clear on this…it HAS to be a MRS Clause…goddamnit Disney) who will upend her entire life to basically move to the north pole, become a bit frumpy, and sit in the background of Santas workshop and tend to her husband…What a deal…

If Santa fails to find a bride in time, he’ll fully revert back to Scott Calvin (he basically spends the majority of the runtime reverting back) and….I dunno what will happen if that happens…Again the film isnt entirely clear…you would THINK that basically it would be down to someone else to wear the santa suit and BECOME Santa…but the film *kinda* implies that, but to raise the stakes, also mentions a few times that Christmas will basically just…not happen, if Tim Allen doesnt get a wife.

You would think this was the ‘A-plot’ for the film, but ‘The Santa Clause 2’ is in fact, just 2 B-plots ducttaped together. Because the other main plot of this film is that, because Santas detransitioning, they need to figure out how christmas day is going to happen…enter, a new elf we havent seen before who works in the workshop testing labs…He’s developed a machine that creates plastic ‘toy’ based duplicates of whatevers put inside. and his plan is to load Santa into the machine, hit ‘copy/paste’ and then while Scotts trying to cajole a lady into servitude, ‘Toy’ santa can run operations at the north pole and maybe even do the christmas run if Scotts running short on time.

The only problem is, they train the ‘toy’ Santa on literal guidebooks on how to BE Santa…and that backfires a bit when the demented ‘toy’ version takes things a bit *too* literally and starts basically planning to cancel christmas.

And…having just come out of the first ‘Santa Clause’ this thing is jarring as hell. We’re basically treated a reverse of the last movie in which Santa turns into a normal man, and for some reason now DESPERATELY WANTS to be Santa again…despite the fact that for most of the last movie, and some of THIS movie. he desperately DIDNT want to be Santa… while the last film ended with indisputable proof that Santa Clause exists, this film slowly undoes that…not with any specific plot points, but just by…pretending the last 15 minutes of the first film didnt happen. The only people who know that santa exists now are Scotts kid, his ex-wife and her husband…Everyone else just…pretends he doesnt exist again…

Not to mention the casual mysogyny of objectifying women down to a part of some ‘terms and conditions’…which in and of itself gave me the ‘ick’. This film basically feels like a less smart, lower budgeted, broadest common denominator piece…and thats kind of a shame, because introducing an additional term that means that Scott cant stay as Santa could have had the scope to really open the series up a bit. Give Scott the option to ‘opt out’ if he really wanted to…But instead the film gets so tied up with fart jokes, ‘will they/wont they’ humour and weirdness that all that kind of just gets written off as a ‘given’ that he’d want to be Santa…

The pacing is very Stop/Start, with chunks of the film whizzing by at 3 plot points a minute, while other segments crawl totally unecessarily…at an hour and 43 minutes, this could have easily been 15 minutes shorter and much better for it. The characters all feel like they’ve had their edges sanded off. with only Scotts son getting any kind of development on from the first film, and even thats rubbish because they just make him a bit of a troubled teen…a troubled teen who has a romance element introduced in the first act thats barely built on and (from what I can remember) basically abandoned. All the other characters appear to have been frozen since 1994, with Judge Rhinehold getting the rawest deal by being forced to wear ugly late 80s sweaters for most of the runtime…Even though that makes absolutely no sense.

In fact, on that note…Not only is the continuity with the first film disjointed and ‘off’. Even basic rules the film sets up IN ITS OWN RUNTIME are discarded by the 3rd act. I sincerely dont think a script continuity advisor checked ANY of this film…or if they did they were having a HELL of an off day because I asked my partner so many questions during this runtime she told me to basically ‘not overthink it’ because ‘its just a movie…relax.’ But no! I cant! this film is WEIRD and wont explain itself..IT WONT EXPLAIN ITSEL-

Tonally, its a bit yucky too. the ‘wife’ element I found quite offputting, and even if they try to romanticize it up by making the plot about two characters hating each other, but eventually fully falling in love…its hard not to see through that here. The Cronenbergian elements are a little smoother here…I think its easier psychologically to watch a fictional over the top figure detransition into a normal man, than vice versa. But they replace that horror with ‘Toy’ Santa, a character whos appearence utilizes horrifying prosthetics, his personallity is alien and unpleasent and in the 3rd act, he builds an army of life size tin soldiers that WILL put the fear of god into you…

It leaves the film really rather struggling to muster ANY kind of goodwill because the characters arnt well written enough, the plot points are either terrifying or icky, the pacing is scattershot and makes it hard to settle into and the humour is significantly more ‘Miss’ than ‘Hit’ compared to the first film…I think I stifled a chuckle twice for the whole duration, but otherwise I just sat there in fear and bewilderment.

The direction is a bit less inviting than the first one, this feels like it was shot more in the style of a TV movie with a ‘theatrical’ set budget. What I mean by that is that, it feels more like something that wasnt intended for the big screen, and more a disposable piece of media, meant to look clean, do the job once a year and then get the hell off the TV…I dont *hate* it. But I found it ultimately kind of unremarkable. Direction of the cast is kind of similar, Tim Allen is basically the only thing keeping this film afloat as Scott/Santa and Toy Santa. Of the three, the sheer alien-ness of Toy Santa is probably the most mezmorising element here…or at least, it was the thing that stopped me flicking through my phone. He interacts with characters and the set space like he doesnt understand how reality works, and it creates several bizarre, but entertaining moments which I quite liked.

Other than that though, its generic on all sides…people are clearly there for the paycheque and once it clears…you better believe ANY kind of caring about this film went clean out the window. Hell most of the characters are just flat out abandoned in the final 10 minutes because the film doesnt think its worth closing their story off…I can only assume the writers thought that most of the family would be asleep or wandered off by this point.

The cine is fine, for a TV movie i’d say it was pretty good! but for a theatrical release..its actually kind of poor, the CG isnt great throughout, compositional choices are basic and uninteresting, it looks cheap…especially compared to the first film. The editing too is a bit all over the place…It very much feels like a film that was thrown together from odds and ends rather than competently composed.

Performance wise, as mentioned Tim Allen is basically carrying this film from start to finish…but Judge Rhinhold has a few good moments and some of the supporting elf cast get their physicality and line deliveries just right timing wise to not go without notice…But yeh, outside of that everyone else is just…there out of obligation of the kraft service.

The score was so generic and forgettable, I actually didnt make any notes on it…other than its basically doing what it did in the last film (orchestral christmas sounding music + 50s christmas hits) only the amount of christmas hits is significantly less this time around and the orchestral pieces sound cheaper, thinner and are likely midi.

Overall? I could tolerate ‘The Santa Clause’…but if it wasnt for ‘Toy Santa’ in this film, i’d have been here RAGING that a christmas movie from Disney wasted damn near 2 hours of my time. ‘The Santa Clause 2’ has half a dozen good moments spread thinly out over 104 minutes of weak plotting, below average cine and direction, poor scoring and mediocre performances. My partner loves these films…and i’ve been with her now for 13 years…Most would say its unreasonable to break up with her over this…im stuck watching these now till one of us expires…send help.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-santa-clause-2/

by tytdreviews

The Santa Clause, 1994 – ★★★

It must be coming up to 25 years since I last watched ‘The Santa Clause’ on a murkey VHS over at my cousins place. and honestly, the memories were pretty fuzzy. The irony being the thing I most remember about it, is how little I ACTUALLY remember about it. So sitting down to revisit this one this year I was wondering if this was something I just maybe wasnt in the headspace for back then, or if it was something a bit more remarkable…The answer?…Ehhhhh…

The plot follows somewhat useless, but relatively kind hearted Dad Scott Calvin who, while sharing custody with his son on one christmas eve night, hears a clatter on his roof, goes outside and finds Santa tumbling to the ground. Perplexed the pair make it up to the roof and get into Santas sleigh, completing his rounds, while Scott (who went to check out what the noise was in just his undies and a PJ top) puts Dead Santas clothes on to keep warm, inadvertently triggering a contractual agreement.

See, in this universe, if Santa dies, and you put his suit on. YOU become Santa and set in motion a 12 month Cronenbergian transformation in which your hair turns white and cant be dyed, you grow a permanent beard and mustache which cant be shaved and you gain 200lbs that cant be shed. It also alters your personality, making you more whimsical, jolly and caring. In any other genre this would be the makings of an absurdist body horror piece…but its christmas, so we’re supposed to laugh along as Scott slowly loses his identity, his old life, his job and access to his child for the greater good of…making some kids happy one day a year?…

Honestly? I just found this thing weird. The plot focusses WAY too much on the ‘transformation’ of Scott into Santa, and as I say, in ANY other light this would be horrifying. And is still a bit unsettling here. Because it focusses primarily on that…there isnt really much of an ACTUAL plot to go off…just several b-plot threads they try to mush together into a workable story. Like Scotts kid being fully handed over to his mothers custody, or Santa being arressted and needing to be busted out of jail. Non of these are big enough overall elements to feel satisfying and the film ends quite bluntly and unaturally. Leaving me almost as cold as the snow outside.

The tones all over the place, its trying to be whimsical and goofy while ALSO being thoughtful and a little reflective. but they dont balance it well and it really starts to feel more like a series of vignette pieces than a coherent and intertwining world. The humour is incredibly hit and miss, with a handful of gags raising a chortle…but very little else. The act structurings a bit wonky too, with the first act running for longer than the second, and not really saying or doing much…Honestly if it wasnt for my policy to try my damnedest to see a film from tail to snout, i’d have bailed on this first act for how slow and plodding it is.

Luckily the second act does pick up a bit more of a pace, but at the same time it locks into a repetative one liner gag of ‘HE’S FAT! HE’S FAT BECAUSE HE’S TURNING INTO SANTA!! HA! LOOK! HE HAS MAN BOOBS! LOL!!!’ which wears thin VERY quickly before it eventually dumps us into a third act that feels kind of like it has no place to go really.

The sensible end to this film would have been having Scott as Santa resolving his issues and differences before heading out of the North pole as THE santa. But instead we spend a bit of awkward time following him doing the start of his route, then he gets caught and bust out of jail, then he has to fix things with his ex-wife on the fly, before THEN heading out on his run (again) only to THEN be dragged BACK to the family home because his kid wants to see him.

Theres way too much stopping and starting honestly, and given they’d pretty much already agreed a sequel was a given at this point, to me? it would have made sense to make this film JUST ‘Scott accidentally becomes Santa and has to come to terms with that’ with the sequel actually dealing with the highs and lows of ‘global santa delivery’. Its still a flawed and somewhat nightmarish premise…but at least it would have been consistent.

The direction is pretty solid, its kind of gentle, which I think christmas films should be, but its maybe a little *too* gentle for its own good, to the point that it kind of begins to lose a sense of distinction or identity…it just kind of, exists in the myre of christmas films unique enough to be remembered, but not distinctive enough to be an immediate ‘go to’. the cast directions suffers a same fate, everyones more or less fine, there are some fun deliveries and some decent physical bits…but nothing that really sets it apart from any film made in a 10 year radius of this one coming out…and as such it just kind of blends in with the ‘Jingle all the ways’ and ‘Home Alone 3’s’ of the day.

Also; will just say the decision to 90s-ify the elves and the workshop PAINFULLY backfires. as it dates the film horrendously.

Cine is a little better, its a studio flick so I expect polish and polish this does indeed have. The CG elements are starting to creak a bit in the year of our lord 2024. But its not the worst the era had to offer…Not by a long shot. It does however in places feel a bit more like a tech demo than a movie. with entire scenes seemingly only existing so they can show off how CG ‘warp’ tools work…which is a bit of a shame.

The production also kind of fails to find a colour identity too…with the palette being strangely muted for a christmas film, especially given the aforementioned 90s-esq elves workshop being vivid to the point of garishness…but purposfully muted in post…its weird…

As for casting, Tim Allen is solid as Scott, but it doesnt exactly feel like a stretch for Allen here, who seems to yawn through most of this. Judge Rienhold seemingly was my favourite playing a sickly psychiatrist who slowly loses his marbles over the whole ‘Santa thing’ if nothing else he gets my favourite line delivery in the whole film in the 3rd act…which has got to amount to something.

The soundtracks kind of unmemorable. Christmassy sounding orchestral instrumentals mashed up with 50s christmas classics…and thats about it. I wasnt particularly won over.

I dont think ‘The Santa Clause’ is a BAD production, I just feel like its an inherently FLAWED production. a film that underplays the strengths of its cast, turns a body horror plot into a comedy bit and under directs and doesnt fully deliver on the festive brief.

Its ‘fine.’ As a film, I dont think its unwatchable…far from it. But in many ways thats worse, because it makes it ‘inessential’…and if your christmas movie isnt in the forefront of my mind during the holiday season, then it likely isnt going to be in regular rotation. Its been 25 years since I last watched ‘The Santa Clause’ I fully assume it’ll probably be the same amount of time till the next screening.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-santa-clause/

by tytdreviews